Falling temperatures and increasing snowfall and rains in Himachal Pradesh have brought relief to growers of apples and other fruits in the state.
Only two weeks ago, growers in the north Indian state, one of the country's two largest production regions for apples, were sounding concerns about the upcoming crop due to a lack of chilling hours and soil moisture levels caused by a warm winter and a four-month drought.
But their pleas for cooler weather and rainfall look to have been answered in the past few days. 'Snow and rain in the past 10 days, though delayed, will be beneficial for the apple, peach, plum, pear, apricot, almond and cherry crops,' SP Bhardwaj, joint director at Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry told the Economic Times. 'Now the moisture `content in the soil` is sufficient to help the apple crop bloom flowers in the next 10 days.'
According to local reports, the apple crop requires 1,000-1,600 hours of 'chilling hours' - classified as temperatures of 7oC or below - during dormancy before flowering begins. Gudev Singh, state horticulture director for Himachal Pradesh, told the Economic Times that the state had already received 1,250 of chill hours, and that the recent rains were very timely.
Apples represent the core fruit crop for Himachal Pradesh, and, together with Jammu and Kashmir, the state contributes 90 per cent of national apple production. In the 2008/09 season, Indian apple production declined by 3.5 per cent to 1.93m tonnes due to inclement weather in both states. The apple crop in Himachal Pradesh was affected by late snowfall and excess rainfall in some growing regions. The region's apple industry has recently benefited from investments by large corporates, which have been setting up collection centres and controlled atmosphere storage facilities for apples.
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