Apples in Hoshiarpur? These farmers have made it possible

Varinder Singh

Tribune News Service

3Chohal (Hoshiarpur), May 22

What the Punjab Government has failed to achieve on the much-desired crop diversification front has been done by a group of progressive farmer friends who have successfully grown apples in their small farms in Hoshiarpur district — a first in the state.

Punjab has never been known for apple cultivation as wheat and paddy have remained the two major crops of the state. It has always been perceived to be an uphill task to achieve an incredible diversification feat like growing apples in a state where kinnows, jamuns, mangoes and litchis have been ruling the roost.

But farmer-turned-horticulturist Gurinder Singh Bajwa and his two friends have accomplished the difficult task of successfully growing apples at the commercial level in their orchards at this village situated on the Hoshiarpur-Chintpurni road.

Bajwa, who took a huge risk by planting 400 apple saplings on his two acres in 2012, has started reaping the fruits as his lush plants have started bearing full-sized apples.

Similarly, fresh green apples turning red can be seen flourishing in the fields of his friend Harman Singh Randhawa. Encouraged by their success, a number of farmers of Shivalik foothills have started taking tips from the two progressive farmers.

Buoyed by his success, Bajwa, a Horticulture Development Officer, said it was the peculiar microclimate (relatively low temperature ranging between 5°C and 37-38°C) of Shivalik foothills which had encouraged him to do this experiment with the hitherto untouched apple crop.

“During routine night visits to my farm at the height of summer, I used to observe that most of the time, the mercury hovered between 5 and 10°C which could be close to the ideal temperature required for the growth of apple trees. The temperature was more suitable for the low-chilling apple varieties suitable for tropical climates like ‘dorset’ (golden apples) and ‘anna’. So, I did some homework and managed to fetch 20-15 saplings in 2012 from a company specialising in apple farming. Now, you can see the results,” said a visibly elated Bajwa while showing his full-grown fruit-bearing apple plants in his field.

Bajwa said as an experiment, he had sent two boxes of apples (20 kg each) to the local fruit market last year and it had fetched a wholesale price of Rs 50 per kg.

“We have observed that apple crop alone could fetch at least Rs 1 lakh per annum from an acre wherein farmers could also grow some other crops for the first few years. So, it is for the first time in Punjab that apples have been grown successfully at the commercial level. Which other crop can give this much money? Apple cultivation can change the fortunes of farmers of the Kandi belt of Punjab,” Bajwa added.