A new short duration apple variety cheers farmers in Nainital

Ramgarh (Nainital), June 27 : Apple growers in Nainital are delighted as the agriculture scientists develop a new breed of the fruit that starts bearing fruit in a short span of a little more than a year.

Agriculture scientists from Holland and Uttarakhand have developed a new variety of apple plant that can bear fruit in 13 months only.

The research spanning three years has fructified in the development of M-9 and-111 varietirs of apple plants.

According to apple experts, these varieties can bear six to seven kilos of fruits in a short span of time and the production would increase manifold in the coming years.

The experts and the apple growers in the area hope to reap a bumper apple crop in the coming years.

"We expect that from one plant there would be at least five to seven kilo of production of apples. Next year, we expect that the production will increase. Five years from hence one plant would bear 40-50 kilograms of fruit. Earlier, only 100 plants could be planted, but now we can grow 700 plants in the same area. So, not only the number of plants has increased, but the production will also increase to 40-50 kilos from 25-30 kilograms. It is expected that 30,000 apples would be grown from one acre of land," said Sudhir Chaddha, an agriculture expert.

Cultivators who planted the saplings in the hills of Ramgarh on experimental basis are now extremely happy to see the desired results. They claim that the plant have started bearing fruits in only 13 months.

It has brought cheer on the faces of apple growers who were of late not satisfied with the variety of apples they have been growing so far. "We were not getting good rates from the old variety of apples. We planted around 200 plants hoping that it will yield good results. Now, we are happy with the output that the company has also given us loan to grow apples on ten acre of land," said Vinod Tyagi, an apple grower.

Apple industry is a major agro-economic player and source of employment for the hill state of Uttarakhand.

Apple orchards are found mainly in Ramgarh Mukteshwar belt of Nainital.

Other temperate fruits grown in Nainital are peach, pears, apricot, Kafal,trawberry, which make Nainital, a main fruit growing district of Uttarakhand.

ANI