The yellow colour of lemon, one of the major horticulture crops of the district, is expected to get brighter; so also the life of lemon growers following the Agriculture Business Export Knowledge Centre at the Agriculture Research Station here deciding to give a fillip to this citrus fruit.
The centre, whose primary objective is to encourage Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) for higher yield, is consulting lemon growers of the district to adopt a scientific approach to lemon farming.
N.R. Mamaledesai, the head of the centre here, told The Hindu that despite Vijayapura being the largest lemon growing district in the State, majority of the farmers are cultivating it unscientifically. “This is the primary reason for the lemon not getting its due revenue in the national and international market. Since the farmers adopt age-old and unscientific methods, the lemon is not fetching them a good price.”
Mr. Mamaledesai said that in order to export it to the international market such as Europe and other Western countries, the commodity should meet international standards. “Here, the centre is playing the critical role of educating the lemon growers to adopt GAP to meet such standards.”
According to the Department of Horticulture, lemon in cultivated on over 14,000 hectares in the State. Vijayapura alone cultivates it on over 8,000 hectares, making the district the largest producer of lemon in the State. While the State’s annual lemon production is nearly 3 lakh tonnes, the district’s share is over 2 lakh tonnes.
Elaborating the method of popularising GAP, Mr. Mamaledesai said that they have identified around 100 major lemon growers of the district and selected some 500 acres of land where this fruit is cultivated for demonstration on pilot basis.
“The farmers have already constituted the Lemon Growers’ Association for registration. The centre would act as catalyst with banks such as NABARD for financial assistance for setting up of a packing house.”
He said that the centre would help the association to get a certificate from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) for the commodity. Without this certification, no farmer can export the lemon to the international market.
He hoped that within a year, the farmers would get the certificate if they start GAP now. “And if everything goes fine, then, in the next three years, we can have at least a 1000-tonne capacity packing house.”
