Fruitful results of fruits cultivation

ALLAHABAD: The pilot project of the district horticulture department to cultivate L-49 and Allahabadi Safeda varieties of guava and Narendra-5 and Narendra-7 varieties of Indian gooseberry (amla) through organic farming has yielded positive results in seven blocks of the district.
In fact, farmers are enlightened after they were successful to cultivate good quantity of guava and Indian gooseberry in Dhanupur, Saidabad, Bahria, Jasra, Kaurihar-II, Bahadurpur and Shankargarh after investing comparatively less amount in fertilisers.
The 'organic farming promotion programme' for cultivation of guava and amla was launched by officials on February last in seven blocks of the district. For this, the department had imparted training to over 600 farmers under its mission programme with an aim to promote organic farming.
"The blocks where organic farming for L-49 and Allahabadi Safeda of guava was undertaken include Kaurihar-II, Jasra, Saidabad, Dhanupur and Bahria," said PK Shukla, district horticulture officer adding that Narendra 5 and 7 species of amla was cultivated at Bahadurpur, Jasra and Shankargarh.
Farmers residing in these nine blocks opted for organic farming. For that, the minimum land requirement was one acre and maximum four hectares. Officials also assured them all sorts of assistance to the farmers growing organic crops.
Currently, farmers in Dhanupur, Kaurihar-II, Saidabad, Bahria and Jasra have preferred to cultivate guava. The farmers have assured that they would be bringing other crops like tomato, cabbage, peas, ladyfinger, carrot, litchi under organic farming in next phase informed Shukla.
"We have selected these blocks for organic farming of guava and amla after carrying out a complete study and found parameters like soil, its nature, productivity chances are suitable for organic farming," Shukla told TOI.
He further added that under the mission programme, the department is currently apprising farmers about the methods useful for organic farming and they were also told about producing natural fertilisers and insecticides/pesticides.
Experts are of the view that customers are generally attracted towards organic products especially in metro cities. Though organic products are not available in small towns, farmers are being encouraged to adopt organic farming due to its advantages.
In other states, the organic crops are available in market for domestic buyers and for catering industry which includes hotels, flights, etc. "We also plan to export the fruits and help the farmers," said Shukla.