No canal water for irrigation since April, farmers start uprooting kinnow orchards
BATHINDA : Farmers in Fazilka and Muktsar districts, the kinnow hub of Punjab, have started uprooting orchards due to inadequate canal water supply for irrigation since April.
Farmers and officials of the state horticulture department say after an unusually high temperature touching 41 degrees Celsius in March, two breaches in the Sirhind feeder canal since April 1 have played havoc with citrus plantations.
Orchardists say it is economically not viable for them to invest ₹40,000-50,000 an acre till the next harvest in November next year for the upkeep of kinnow plants when they are expecting more than an 80% drop in the yield this season.
Kinnow is grown on more than 92,000 acres in the Aboharmuktsar belt that annually produces 7-10 lakh metric tonnes of the fruit.
Groundwater in most parts of the two south Malwa districts, which have the largest cultivation of citrus fruit, is saline, thus is not suitable to irrigate kinnows.
The semi-arid region depends upon canal water to irrigate all crops and the Sirhind feeder canal is a crucial economic lifeline for farmers.
Gurpreet Sandhu of Panjawa village in Fazilka district started uprooting a 17-acre orchard on Sunday. The orchard was nineyear-old and was bearing good fruits till 2020.
“Orchards in the entire region got the last canal water supply in February. Trees witnessed a drastic fruit shedding in the initial stage of growth in March due to exceptionally high temperatures. When plants started bearing fruits, water scarcity drastically hit the crop,” said Sandhu.
State award-winning kinnow grower from Abohar Arvind Setia, who has been successfully cultivating the citrus fruit since 1983, said a farmer has to spend about ₹50,000 per acre annually on fungicides, insecticides, fertilisers, pruning and weed removal, even if an orchard with no fruits. Hardly any farmer has insured his cash horticulture crop, he added.
After uprooting mature kinnow plants at his 6-acre farm at Sheranwala village near Abohar this month, Rohit Bhadu is thinking of sowing cotton or guar but the erratic availability of irrigation facility has made him worried about the next alternative crop. Another leading farmer Balwinder Singh Tikka from Abul Khurana in Muktsar said after the devastating season of 2021, orchards had a bumper flowering phase this time. “But all hopes for a good season were dashed as canal water was not made available to orchards,” said Tikka.
Deputy director, horticulture, Fazilka, Jagtar Singh said uprooting of orchards is being reported from different villages. Kinnow orchards require irrigation after every 15-21 days and this season, water was hardly available to fruit growers in the region, he said.
“Less water availability means drastic fall of plants’ health and dip in fruit production. Orchards are drying up and even if they are irrigated in another 10-15 days, plants would not be able to bear fruits and will see further shedding,” he said.