Life’s a peach for Himachal fruit-growers

The future looks peachy for the nectarine farmers of Himachal Pradesh, if the response to their fruits is anything to go by. The early-beari...

The future looks peachy for the nectarine farmers of Himachal Pradesh, if the response to their fruits is anything to go by. The early-bearing, disease-resistant variety released in the market early last month has won repeat orders from the metros and received an warm response from consumers.

For planters battling the viral disease phatoplasma, low prices and the headaches of monsoon transportation, the news about the Snow Queen — as the new nectarine is called — couldn’t have come at a better time.

LAB REPORT

Potato chips and banana chips have serious competition. Under the aegis of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasaragod (Kerala), has developed a process that uses osmotic dehydration and hot-air drying to produce sweet coconut chips.

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Working with the fresh kernel of mature coconuts, scientists discovered that if they dipped the sliced kernel in sugar solution and then used hot air for the drying process, the process conserved flavours better — and more cheaply — than freeze-drying. The coconuts need to be dehusked, shelled, relieved of the testa, sliced, blanched, sulphited, dehydrated osmotically and dried under a hot dryer. Small-scale units can skip agitating sugar syrup during the one-hour-long osmotic dehydration process. Large-scale production units, however, need to agitate the syrup, in which case the dehydration process should be only 40 minutes long. In either case, the chips need to spend around six hours under the hot air dryer.

While each coconut producing between 120-150 gm of chips — about 50 per cent of the weight of the fresh kernel — the crunch, though, lies in the packaging, literally. Being very hygroscopic in nature, the sweet coconut chips will absorb moisture if the relative humidity is above 75 per cent. Hence, to preserve flavour and crispness, the chips need to be packed in aluminium foil.

‘‘The new variety tastes better than the ordinary peach,’’ says Amar Singh, chairman of the Solan Vegetable and Fruit Market Merchants Association. ‘‘I purchased five-six quintals on a trial basis, and sent them to Mumbai and Delhi markets. But the soft, red-skinned fruit found major consumer acceptance, triggering repeat orders.’’

Not only that, the prices too show an upward trend. ‘‘The new varieties command a price between Rs 15-25, whereas peaches usually sell for between Rs 8 and Rs 12,” says Singh.

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For the scientists at Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, the success of the nectarine is yet another feather in their cap. They experimented with the fruit for five years, before finally releasing the Snow Queen variety for commercial cultivation; this summer saw the first crop.

First cultivated in the US in the mid-19th century, the nectarine is grown in Spain, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and Argentina. But the Parmar University imported its first plants only about five years ago. The trials for three new varieties were conducted at Kotkhai in Shimla and Kandaghat in Solan district; the Red Gold and Mayfair varieties are still under trial.

With 8,000 hectares in Solan, Mandi, Shimla, Sirmour and Kullu districts growing around 7,000 MT of peaches annually, ‘‘the introduction of the nectarine was a step towards high-returns diversification,’’ says J M Singh, director of extension education at Parmar University. ‘‘The smooth-skinned, sweet, aromatic fruit will certainly capture the markets.’’

Genetically very similar to the peach, the nectarine is distinguished by its non-fuzzy skin and stronger taste and aroma. The Snow Queen variety ripens in early June. A six-year-old tree produces about 15 kg of fruit.