'Greening' hurting citrus export prospects

A citrus disease called 'greening' is threatening to decrease the fruit's demand in foreign markets, experts said on Wednesday.

They were speaking at a two-day 'Citrus Growers Conference' organised by the Institute of Horticulture Sciences of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad in collaboration with Australia-Pakistan Agriculture Linkages Programme II.

The inaugural session was presided over by UAF Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan.

Project Leader Dr Tahir Khurshid was the guest on the occasion.

The vice-chancellor said that although Pakistan was among top 10 citrus producing countries, but the disease was a serious threat to domestic citrus production that needed immediate steps to cope with the situation.

He said that citrus' yield in Pakistan was lower than other countries because of traditional farming and harvesting methods and poor handling.

He said that the output would further decrease if steps were not taken to fight the disease using micro-management tools.

He told the audience that out of total citrus production, 10 percent was being exported, only two percent was processed, 40 percent suffered from post-harvest practices, adding that 95 percent of kinnow was being produced in Punjab.

He said that although citrus trees had a 40-year life, but the disease destroyed several trees every year in almost all orchards.

Stressing the need for raising growers' awareness in this regard, he said that the conference had been organised to raise the issue and provide growers solutions.

He praised steps being taken by Australia, especially ASLP for the uplift of the agricultural sector in Pakistan Tahir Khurshid said that under ASLP 2, germplasm would be introduced besides help developing capacity for extending the marketing season and assist farmers in improving nursery production practices.

He said that they were also working on improving basic crop management practices and examining current irrigation practices.

He said that Australia had only 2,800 citrus growers and it was easy to provide them information about latest development and reasearch.

Pakistan had more than 3.5 million growers and making them aware was a huge task.

IHS Director Professor Dr Amjad Ali Aulak and Dr Munawar Kazmi also addressed the inaugural session.