Exportability of pomegranate on a threshold in north Karnataka
R.M. Hosamani, H. Virupaksha Prabhu, S.B. Hosamani, N.R. Mamle Desai, R.A. Yaledahalli, G.M. Hiremath and B.S. Kulkarni
ISHS Acta Horticulturae 890:629-636.2011.
2011
บทคัดย่อ
Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.), an important fruit crop in north Karnataka is commercially grown mainly in the districts of Koppal, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Raichur, Bellary, Belgaum, etc. A survey was done on pomegranate cultivation and marketing. Farmers have benefited economically with its profitable cultivation. The dry weather has greatly facilitated its cultivation with the ingenuity of local innovative farmers and technical support of the research institutions. The fruits are harvested to be marketed in international, national and local domestic markets due to their superior quality. Competitive purchasing through contract farming in some cases and others through the open negotiations with the buyers has ensured increased incomes as there exists a growing demand creating a larger market for the good quality fruits. The cultivars grown are ‘Arakta’, ‘Bhagwa’, ‘Ganesh’, ‘Jyoti’, etc. A package of practices and quality standards are standardized for different markets. Farmers are mainly facing threat to their orchards by the bacterial blight disease which is nearly wiping out orchards on a devastating scale of late. Earlier the problem of shot hole borer was a big menace. Farmers are striving to stay afloat with these killer problems threatening their livelihood on individual basis. The exportability could be enhanced with the precision management of this disease to ensure quality marketable fruits that are eagerly accepted by the conscious consumers abroad and domestically. The planned setting up of the Agri-Business and Export Knowledge Centre at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad with local farmer cooperative bodies aims to establish precooling, packaging and cold storage units at Kushtagi, Bagalkot would greatly give boost and strengthen export of pomegranate with greater returns to producers through reduced middlemen involvement, decreased post-harvest losses, better transportability of fruits in acceptable fresh form to the consumers.