Indian market
The Apples of Kashmir
It’s known as ‘the fruit bowl of India’ for good reason. Here in Jammu and Kashmir, in the northernmost region of the Indian subcontinent, horticulture contributes nearly 10 per cent to the state’s GDP.
Fertile soils combine with a variety of climate conditions to favour a diverse crop of fruits, vegetables, spices and flowers. Citrus, pomegranates, lychees, almonds, tulips, walnuts and even high-value saffron are the bounty of the region’s farmers.
But it’s apples that are the undisputed leader, for it’s here that more than 75% of India’s apples are grown. Yet despite the crop’s value, farmers are not without their challenges – disease, climate change and various economic hurdles among them.
It’s for this reason that FertiGlobal has chosen Kashmir for the launch of our Apple Crop Management Program (ACMP). We’ve talked in previous articles about how our ‘boots on the ground’ philosophy pays dividends: being out in the field regularly, seeing those end-user challenges first-hand, gives us our own reality check. And it’s from these regular visits conducted by our Global Business Development Manager, Claus Brakemeier, that we’ve come to appreciate the real appetite amongst Indian farmers for new technologies that can deliver better crop quality and production.
“Farmers want to understand how they can deploy new methods and techniques, particularly with regard to nutrition, to help them upscale productivity,” says Dr Rajesh Kumar Sharma, FertiGlobal’s Technical Manager in India.
“They’re looking for safer ways to manage their crop. The currently accepted crop management schedule is pesticide intensive, which not only poses environmental hazards but can also lower product quality,” Dr Sharma points out.
Farmers’ reliance on crop inputs has been highlighted by the region’s politicians, with one recently expressing concerns over the sale of unapproved or even fake fertilisers and pesticides. Farmers using these have suffered crop losses and soil degradation.
“The fact remains that India holds the world’s second-largest area of apple production, yet is ranked fifth globally in productivity: 7.5Mt/ha versus a world average of 15.5Mt/ha,” says Claus Brakemeier.
“India has fair scope to improve its apple productivity, given that the world’s best figures are at 44Mt/ha and 40.1Mt/ha, for France and Italy respectively.
“The secret lies in stress mitigation and stage-specific apple nutrition, with a focus on calcium and magnesium,” he continues, “and it’s this that forms the basis of the Apple Crop Management Program.”
At the heart of ACMP lies EnNuVi Technology-based products such as Mantus and Cautha. These products embody EnNuVi’s bioactivating Technology, with its unique ability to trigger and control crops’ defence and resistance mechanisms.
By turning on and off certain plant genes, EnNuVi Technlogy offers a robust stress mitigation strategy. Prevention being better than cure, crops treated in this manner are strong enough to defend themselves against pathogenic attack, removing or reducing the need for chemical intervention.
The launch of the Apple Crop Management Plan follows earlier visits to the region by Mr Brakemeier, and the completion of a FertiGlobal-sponsored study, “Biotic Stress Management under Agro Climatic conditions of North-Western Himalayas of Kashmir (India)”, conducted by Sher-e Kashmir University of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Shalimar (Srinagar) (SKAUST-K).
It builds directly on insights shared by Kashmir’s apple growers as well as SCL Commercial India, which represents FertiGlobal in India. ACMP links FertiGlobal’s research-based Technologies to the support that farmers need, as more than 300 progressive farmers and agri-input traders were told at an invitation-only event to mark the launch of ACMP.
Delivering his inaugural speech, the Chief Guest Dr Nazir Ahmad Ganai (Honourable Vice Chancellor, SKAUST-K), welcomed the presence of FertiGlobal and Mr Brakemeier in the region. In particular, he called out the ‘overwhelming impacts’ of abiotic stresses on the growth and productivity of crops, noting that they in turn posed a threat of the biotic stresses of fungi, bacteria and viruses. Together, this combination could ‘develop constraints to food security worldwide’.
Continuing, Dr Ganai expressed his delight at the partnership between SKAUST-K and FertiGlobal, hailing the exchange of ideas, discussions among experts, and the import of ‘world-class technologies’ that would help address the challenges and identify the opportunities in sustainable, quality apple production.
Dr Rifat Bhat, SKAUST-K’s Project Leader for the FertiGlobal partnership, shared her own experiences and observations of FertiGlobal Technologies in the research project. She explained how the concept of stress mitigation is holding up favourably in the field, producing consistent results. She also shared her opinion on how FertiGlobal products were influencing key metrics, including crop vigour and apple quality, notably colour, shape and size.
“This was a unique event bringing together the scientific community, distribution partners, progressive farmers and, importantly, the local media that’s key to knowledge transfer and mobilisation,” concludes Dr Sharma.
“The event emphasised the need for advanced nutrition technologies and how FertiGlobal, through combining scientific endeavour and commercial wisdom, is becoming a valued partner to Kashmir apple growers in their pursuit of improved apple crop productivity.”
