कि‍न्‍नू फल उत्पादन का अर्थशास्त्र

Kinnow Fruit

Fruits play an important role in the agricultural economy of India. Fruits are rich source of vitamins and have very high nutritional value. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended that a balance diet should contain 85 gm of fruits per capita per day, but the availability of fruits per capita in India is only 48 gm per day as compared to 276 gm in U.K., 180 gm in Australia and 131 gm in Philippines.

Citrus occupies a place of importance in the fruit wealth and economy of the country. Demand for citrus fruits and their products have increased and it is likely to go up further because of increased nutritional awareness. Kinnow was introduced in North India during 1947. It is hybrid of king and willow leaf mandarin (Citrus nobilis Lour X Citrus deliciosa Tan.).

The fruits are medium sized with thin, tight and orange coloured skin. It is more convenient to grow kinnow in frost prone, dry and arid areas, with the help of less irrigation, as compared to sweet orange. It is very rich in vitamin 'C', sugars and in addition to this it is also contain vitamin 'A', vitamin 'B' and vitamin 'K'.

India earns sizeable amount of foreign exchange by exporting kinnow to other countries of the world like Iran, Bahrain, Singapore, Nepal, Switzerland, Kuwait, Srilanka and Qatar etc. Among citrus kinnow is famous crop in northen part of India.

Citrus cultivation in Punjab:

In Punjab, agricultural growth based on wheat and rice has been stagnated leading to stagnation in incomes from agriculture. Environmental concerns have been escalating, particularly relating to high levels and imbalance among fertilizers, decline in the water table, and loss of land to salinity and water .Many government committee had recommended to diversification. So the intensive effort of government Punjab farmer adopts the kinnow cultivation.

Citrus is mainly grown in arid irrigated and sub-mountain zone of Punjab. The Citrus varieties commonly grown are Kinnow, Sweet Orange, Lime & Lemon etc. At present total area under Citrus is 46290 ha with the estimated production of 9.43 lac ton.

Out of this area Kinnow alone occupies 90% area i.e. 42795 ha with estimated production 9.15 lac ton.  The average yield of Kinnow is 21 mt./ha. and have potential for double yield. The life span of Kinnow Orchard  is 15-35 years. Due to higher juice content and better price it has becomes very popular among the farmers.

Citrus is successfully grown in Arid irrigated and sub mountain zone of Punjab. The area under kinnow cultivation has been drastically increase from 19360 ha (2004-05) to 48182 ha in 2014-15 mainly in Fazilka, Mukatsar, Hoshiarpur and bathinda districts.

The kinnow are mostly grown in fazilka, Bathinda, Hoshiyarpur which accound more then 80 percent area of total kinnow cultivation in Punjab. Kinnow account 64 percent of total fruit production in Punjab. fazilka district is leading grower of citrus in the Punjab state.

This shows that kinnow cultivation is popular among farmers which sustain their income and livelihood. The climate conditions are suitable for kinnow cultivation in Punjab.

 Kinnow orchard establishment cost

The kinnow orchardists have to invest considerable amount of money during the initial year to establish the orchards. The major cost components of initial investment on kinnow orchards include land preparation, digging and filling of pits, manuring and fertilizer application, planting cost, irrigation, plant

Protection, transportation of inputs and fencing. The total cost of kinnow orchard establishment was near 38802 rupees per ha. Among which the major component of cost was planting materials, digging and filling the pit and fencing around the kinnow orchard.

Table: Kinnow Orchard establishment Cost (Rupees per hectare)

Source ( Kaur et al, 2016)

Economics of production for fruit crops

The kinnow grower has to invest on the maintenance of the orchards every year from the first year to the last year of the life of kinnow orchard. The maintenance cost or operational cost of the kinnow tree per annum varies due to factors like age of the tree, insect and pest intensity, source of irrigation, distance from the market etc.

Operational cost components include manuring and fertilizers, plant protection, irrigations, prunning, hoeing and watch and ward. Replanting of diseased/damaged plants during initial Years of planting had also been considered in the operational cost. Further, as most of the operations in kinnow cultivation were done by contractual labour on per plant basis, cost of labor component of operation was taken jointly along with cost of inputs involved.

On account of significant increase in costs during initial years, the item-wise operational costs for first seven years of kinnow plantation has been taken separately for each year. The operational cost of kinnow orchard is quite high which account nearly 30 to 40 thousand rupees per acre. The operational cost also depends on farmer’s condition.

Table: Operational Cost of kinnow orchard over the Year(Rupees/ acre)

Source ( Kaur et al, 2016)

 Major problem of kinnow farmers

Problems faced by the kinnow growers are the inefficient marketing system of kinnow. farmers reported that there are too many fluctuations in the price of kinnow. Price of kinnow is not fixed and it mainly depends upon demand and supply conditions. During glut in the market, prices of kinnow go down at a rapid rate for which farmers has to penalize.

Due to the lack of storage facilities, kinnow cannot be stored for a long time and has to sell at the existing price in the market. Lack of processing plants and good quality of pesticides as well as proper availability of fertilizers, highly sensitive to bad weather and affected by diseases, higher input and establishment cost and lack of modern techniques of cultivation were the other problems faced by the farmers in the study area.

kinnow, price volatility, low price, lack of storage facilities of kinnow were the major problems regarding the marketing of kinnow reported by the farmers. As per the conclusions following policies may be suggested:

1. Major problem was found to be the marketing of the crop. Due to risk of marketing, farmers have to lease out their orchards to PHCs or to incur large amount of transportation cost to sell their produce in distant markets as there is no big fruit market in the study area. Hence, to address the problem of marketing, government should establish the regulated markets with better marketing facilities.
2. There are so many fluctuations in the price of kinnow and there is a sharp decline in the price of kinnow in the bumper harvest as the price of kinnow is determined by the demand-supply conditions. So, there is a need to fix the price of kinnow at a certain reasonable level that can yield a certain profit margin to farmers after covering all the costs of cultivation.
3. There should be the establishment of more processing plants in the study area and these plants should purchase the produce from farmers directly.
4. Due to the perishable nature of kinnow, it cannot be stored for a long time. Hence, there should be the better market infrastructure for the timely sale of the product.
5. Farmers should be provided the improved production technologies to increase the production and hence,income.
6. Government should minimize the cost of grading, waxing and packaging facilities for the favourable returns of the farmers.

Referances

• Government of Punjab. 2002. Report of the Expert Committee on diversification of agriculture in Punjab,
• Government of Punjab, Chandigarh.
• Kaur,M., Singh, J. and  Kumar, S. (2016) “Economic Viability of Kinnow Orchards in South-Western Punjab” Indian Journal of Economics and Development Volume 12 No. 4: 703-710 
• Kaur,M., and SIngla, N. (2016) “An Economic Analysis of Kinnow Cultivation and Marketing in Fazilka District of Punjab” Indian Journal of Economics and Development Volume 12 No. 4: 711-718

Authors

Vikram Yogi*, Pramod Kumar¹, Mukesh Kumar²

¹Assistant Professor, SKRAU, Bikaner,  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,

¹Principal Scientist, Div. of Agril. Econ, IARI, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,

² Ph.D Schoolar, SKRAU Bikaner