Citrus gone sour: Councils to be disbanded,merged

The poor report card on the performance of Council for Citrus and Agri-Juicing in Punjab,which is also hounded by charges of ‘misuse’ of funds; Council for Value-added Horticulture; Viticulture Council and Organic Farming Council has finally prompted the state agriculture ministry to recommend dissolution of the latter three bodies by merging them into the Citrus Council,which needs to survive for the sake of farmers who have bit the diversification bait.

“Earlier it was proposed that two councils – Organic and Citrus – be retained. But the department will now propose merging all the four councils into one. However,since they were formed after a Cabinet decision,the final call on the matter of their dissolution too will be taken by the state Cabinet,” Punjab Financial Commissioner (Development) N S Kang said.

The final nail in the coffin seems to have come from the recently submitted report by the committee appointed two years ago by the government to review the performance of imported varieties of multinational Pepsico used by the Citrus Council for planting orchards across the state.

In a scathing report,the four-member committee comprising experts from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and the state Horticulture department has pointed out the non-compatibility of various root-stock and scion combinations,poor fruit retention and yield,poor growth of plants and ‘strikingly’ high usage of pesticides against that recommended by agricultural universities.

So even while the salaries,travel and entertainment bills of council officials ran into crores,the Rs 1.5 lakh demanded by the committee was not released in the last two years.

The report of the committee,headed by PAU horticulture expert Dr Satish Narula,has also lambasted the Council for not releasing funds required to support these field observations with laboratory analysis.

“It was clearly conveyed by the committee and head,Department of Horticulture,that funds were required for carrying out leaf analysis and other lab tests. However,no funds were released by the Council,” says the report.

“The committee visited all trial sites and in almost all varieties planted by the Council,fruit retention was drastically reduced compared to initial fruit set and fruit yield in all combinations except three — that too at just one location — was very low. Also,the Council’s recommendations on plant protection and fertilisers were not uniform and at striking variance with the package of practices recommended by the PAU. Against the recommended eight sprays annually,the Council had recommended 33 and yet there was high incidence of pests and disease in the plants,” it adds.

Why the hurry?

Questioning why notes of caution on ‘hasty diversification’ were ignored,the committee has attached these letters to its report:

* Report of National Horticulture Mission’s joint inspection team after their visit to Punjab in December 2006. “The team visited a hi-tech garden established by the Council for Citrus and Agro-Juicing with Tropicana in Jallowal. But one thing which is not convincing is that they are multiplying the plants of imported varieties and supplying to farmers for orchard establishment. Out of the germ plasm,one or two varieties may prove to be good but the rest of varieties in farmers’ field will become a liability. In my opinion,they should wait for the results of multi-locational trails and from this,if one or two varieties are proved to be superior they can make use of this very well-established infrastructure for plant propagation and distribution of plants to farmers.”

* Letter of Radha Singh,Secretary,Ministry of Agriculture,Government of India to then Punjab Chief Secretary (Sept 2006). “The number of new varieties of sweet oranges procured by Tropicana and planted for assessment should be carefully and critically evaluated for their suitability and adaptability to different agro-climatic regions of the state before these are commercially popularised.”

* Letter of Dr M L Chaudhary,Director,National Horticulture Mission,India,July 19,2007. “I would request you to consider the letter (of Radha Singh) before taking commercial plantation of any imported varieties and also take into confidence the state agriculture university/ICAR in the best interest of the farmers and the nation.”

Meanwhile,after suspension of council chief executive officer (CEO) V S Chimni and two others,Sanjay Rudraraj,a deputy CEO of the council has been appointed as the officiating CEO. The probe into the financial irregularities has been handed over to Ludhiana Police Commissioner Ishwar Singh.

Of the nearly 4,200 acres of farmers’ land under imported varieties,most of it is being maintained by farmers at their own expense and many have uprooted failed varieties with Tangerine and Murcott,the two varieties being offered to farmers from the nursery of the Council at Jallowal in Jalandhar. However,these too are over a year old and Pepsico has in the last two years destroyed over 20 lakh plants developed from imported varieties at the nursery.

Loopholes exposed

In August 2007,The Indian Express,in its three-part series ‘The great gamble: Trials iffy,experts unhappy but Punjab roots for citrus’,‘Men from tea plantation to engineer citrus revolution’ and ‘Watchdogs clueless,Council releases list of approved varieties’,had highlighted the hasty implementation of the diversification programme despite notes of caution from experts,Central government and field trials.

It had also exposed the appointment of men from tea plantations with huge pay and perks — their five-year-contract came with a pre-fixed five per cent annual increment in salary,one-month salary for dislocation,reimbursement for air travel of their family and expenses incurred on transportation of their household items — to engineer the citrus revolution in the state.

The third story in the series had highlighted that of the 13 ‘approved’ varieties released by the council,none had been subjected to the mandatory scrutiny of the approving authority of the state.