The beginning of the kinnow season in Punjab also brings with it fallen fruits, which farmers completely ruin. But this fallen fruit can prove to be a boon for improving soil, water, air, depleting ground water, water pollution and overall ecology. Not only can plant health be improved, it also helps prevent indiscriminate use of chemical sprays of fungicides and bacterial diseases on crops, especially tuber crops like vegetables, potatoes and cereals. Farmers can collect these dropped fruits from their kinnow fields and prepare Bio-enzymes (BE) at low cost.
About 100 farmers of Punjab, especially in the kinnow region, have started making bee from this useless fruit – the rind and ‘D’ grade, very small kinnows.
What are Bio Enzymes?
Bio-enzymes are organic solutions produced by mixing sugar, molasses/molasses and water through the fermentation of organic wastes including peels and flowers of various fruits, vegetables. It takes 60-100 days to ferment organic waste. To speed up fermentation, yeast can be used as a culture ready to be taken in 45-50 days. BE is also used a lot in our daily life.
Area under fruit crop in Punjab
In Punjab, there are various fruit crops in about 94,000 hectares including about 40,000 hectares (one lakh acres) under kinnow orchards in Hoshiarpur, Abohar, Fazilka, Muktsar, Bathinda regions. On an average 25-30 tonnes of kinnow is produced per hectare and the total production of the state is around 10-11 lakh tonnes.
Kinnow is a year-round crop and the main harvesting period is from November-end to March, but some varieties of the citrus fruit begin to hit the markets in October. Experts in the Horticulture Department say that about 15-20 percent (1.5 lakh to 2 lakh tonnes) of the total kinnow production falls from the tree before and during the harvest. Experts say that the fallen fruits are a big challenge for the kinnow farmers in the state as they have to dig small pits for burial, otherwise the fallen fruits rot and the plants are attacked by fly on healthy fruits. goes.
But now, some farmers are using this useless kinnow to make bee from this useless fruit to improve the pH level of their land and soil fertility.
what do farmers say
Farmer Paramjit Singh Jhajaria of Maujgarh village on Abohar Ganganagar road in Fazilka district has 17 acres of kinnow orchard. They have prepared 20,000 liters of bio-enzymes from kinnows that have fallen from the previous and ongoing season. “I am getting an average of 1,700 quintals of kinnow production from my orchard. About 20 percent of the crop has fallen because it is a natural phenomenon. Since I am an organic farmer, I collect all the dropped fruits from my garden that were otherwise clean but not suitable for consumption. After washing them I put them in clean drums and used the formula given by the experts of Horticulture department to make bee,” he said, adding that he is now using them to improve soil health and keep pests away. To spray kinnow plants.
“The pH level of soil in Abohar, Fazilka belt is around 8.5 to 9 per cent, while the normal requirement is around 7 per cent,” said Vikram Verma, Horticulture Development Officer (HDO), Citrus Estate Hoshiarpur.
“Even the pH level of canal water is up to 9 per cent, affecting productivity badly. But after using BE, which I mix with irrigation water at the rate of 100 liters of BE per acre, the soil health of my land has improved significantly,” said Paramjeet, adding that it is used on cotton, kinnow and vegetable plants. Works wonders as it is an insect repellent.
He said, “Every crop has its own aroma and color which attracts particular types of insects and damages the crop but when we spray these bees on them the insects do not come on the plant.”
Gursewak Singh, a vegetable grower of Mal Singhwala village in Mansa district, does not own a kinnow orchard, but takes care of the one-acre field of the kinnow grower only to collect the fallen fruit and prepare the bee.
“I do not use any fungicide on my four acres of vegetable fields but only spray one liter of bee mixed with 50 liters of water which acts as an insect repellent on my plants and improves the quality of my crop. Improves the photosynthesis process, which prevents chemical use. On my plants and soil. I save Rs 3,500-4,000 per acre of chemical fungicide on my vegetables, with the added benefit of improving soil health by not spraying many chemicals on it,” he said.
BE Preparation Formula
Paramjit Singh said that he bought (one-time investment) 40 plastic drums of 500 liters capacity in which he mixed 99 kg kinnow, 33 kg jaggery and 330 liters of water each and tightened the lid, which needed to be loosened for one. A few seconds every day for 30 days to release gas due to the fermentation process. After 30 days, the lid is opened at intervals of two days in the same way at intervals of two weeks and then the drum is kept closed to air and opened occasionally. The bio-enzymes are finally ready in three and a half months. “We can use it throughout the year by mixing it with vegetable spray and field irrigation,” he said.
Officials, Experts Speak
Horticulture Development Officer, Punjab Horticulture Department, Vipesh Garg is motivating the farmers to use the fallen kinnow fruits for making bee. “It is a huge industry available to farmers in Punjab,” he said.
He further said that he conducted a laboratory study on the effect of Citrus BE on crop disease at the National Botanical Research Institute (NRBI) Lucknow, and the results are very promising. “It showed good results against bacterial diseases like black rot, bacterial canker on crops like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, turnip, tomato, radish and oilseeds etc. and fungal diseases like collar rot, root rot, dumping off rice. Wire stems on crops like cereals, potato, tomato, beet, cabbage, soybean, cucumber etc. and it acted moderately against wilting, crown rot like fungal diseases on cotton, melon, onion, banana, soybean etc. Added Gaya.
Preeti Rao, Bangalore-based BE specialist, BE Entrepreneur Academy, said: “BE contains a lot of good microbes and is one of the key ways it helps in the overall improvement of our ecology and helps reduce imbalances, which That is caused by overuse. Chemicals in our soil, air and water. In a state like Punjab where water level is rapidly depleting and water pollution is also a major issue, BEs can bring soil back to life which is better water. Helps in recharging and also prevents water pollution by improving soil health.
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