Apple orchard strengthening program launched in Bajura

Bajura: The Agricultural Knowledge Center in Bajura has launched an apple orchard strengthening and management program to support local farmers. The program is being implemented under the annual plan of the fiscal year 2082/083 with the aim of facilitating farmers engaged in the cultivation of apples, oranges and walnuts by improving fruit farming practices, production and growth.

According to the Agricultural Knowledge Center in Bajura, the program has been introduced to help control diseases affecting apples, oranges and walnuts planted by farmers and to improve overall production. Farmers have long faced problems where apple trees bear fruit one year and fail to do so the next.

Local apple farmer Man Bahadur Rawat of Budhinanda Municipality-9 said the program has been launched to address such issues. He said the Agricultural Knowledge Center has been providing essential materials, including board pasters, secateurs and ladders, to support orchard strengthening and management.

Rawat added that month-long training on fruit cultivation, pruning techniques and disease control will make fruit farming much easier for farmers. The Agricultural Knowledge Center in Bajura has conducted a one-month training program on pruning and pasting methods for apple, orange and walnut farmers across all nine local levels in the district.

Previously, due to a lack of experience in orchard strengthening and management, farmers often faced irregular fruit production and disease-related problems, causing apple, orange and walnut plants to wither. The ongoing program aims to resolve these challenges.

Head of the Agricultural Knowledge Center Bajura, Jasiram Sahni, said the initiative is expected to help ensure that apple, orange and walnut crops do not suffer from diseases every year. He noted that farmers in areas including Himali, Swamikartik Khapar, Jagannath, Budhinanda, Badimalika, Gaumul, Budhiganga, Triveni and Khaptad Chhededah have increasingly taken up apple, orange and walnut farming in recent years.

The campaign is expected to make fruit production easier for apple and orange farmers. In recent times, climate change has caused apple tree leaves to fall soon after harvest, making orchards appear barren like autumn landscapes. Orchard management is considered more effective when carried out during leaf fall, generally in the months of Pus and Magh.

In Bajura, apples are cultivated on 410 hectares of land, but only 200 hectares are productive, yielding 1,600 metric tons. Similarly, oranges are cultivated on 170 hectares, with 100 hectares producing apples, resulting in 775 metric tons of mangoes. Walnuts are cultivated on 330 hectares, but only 27 hectares are productive, producing 70 metric tons of walnuts. Edited excerpt from Gorkhapatra