Colour spraying causing premature apple-drop apples

State Horticulture Minister Narinder Bragta himself admits that prices of the fruit are down because of the reports from Delhi’s Azadpur market confirming the apprehensions on price fall.

However, what is currently worrying the growers is dropping of apples before maturity.“Dropping is to an extent of 40 per cent and starts within six days after colour spraying,” says Parkash Tajta, an apple orchardist from Kotkhai. He fears occurrence of the problem in other areas too.

The scientists at Yaswant Singh Parmar University are of the view that this dropping is an adverse affect of the colour spray. “Some growers use a high concentration of the spray, much in excess than that recommended by the scientists, which advances the ripening process and leads to problem of premature dropping,” R. P. Awasthi, a senior horticulture scientist says.

Ethrel (colour spray) is normally done six or seven days before natural aging of the fruit but growers, in order to get an early start, do the spraying 15 or 20 days in advance. Unless they follow the recommended schedule, the dropping will continue, experts say.

Inquiries from Delhi market reveal that nearly 50 to 70 trucks are reaching daily from Himachal Pradesh of which 30 to 35 alone are from Kotkhai. In fact, the growers in Kotkhai normally start advance transportation of the apple boxes in order to get a good price for the fruit before the movement of the trucks start from all over the state. In the process, the growers pack even unripe or undersize fruit, using colour sprays. Though growers get prices up to Rs 700 to Rs 800 per box for early arrivals, they admit that this harms their own prospects in the long run.

“About 60 to 75 per cent of the apples reaching the market these days are premature, unripe and under-size. The colour too is not natural but comes from use of artificial sprays like ethrel and ethuphone,” a commission agent told ENS over phone on promise of anonymity. He advised the farmers to wait for at least 15 days and market only fully ripe fruit, if they wanted market stability. Reports say there has already been a fall in price from Rs 700 per box to Rs 275 per box in the past one week.

The bumper crop is giving growers fears of a glut in the wholesale market. The fruit is also unlikely to gain its natural size and would remain undersize in a majority of cases. This would also contribute to the crash in prices.

The horticulture minister did not rule out the possibility of state procurement agencies burdened with excess demand. Lekh Ram, president of the fruit growers body says the shortage of the apple boxes and trucks would remain despite tall claims of the government of having made all arrangements for the needed supply.