KINNOW - AGRICULTURE
News: Kinnow
farmers in distress as prices plunge on higher output, poor demand
What's in the news?
● This
winter has left growers of kinnow, a citrus mandarin fruit in Punjab, grappling
for a fair price for their season’s harvest.
Reasons:
● Poor
demand
● Abundant
production
● Early
plucking
Punjab Variety of Kinnow:
● This
brand of kinnow, which is considered the
‘king fruit’ of Punjab, is also said to be “pesticide-free”.
●
It’s a cross between two citrus cultivars: Willow
Leaf (Citrus x deliciosa) and King (Citrus nobilis).
●
Kinnow
contains approximately 2.5 times more calcium than any other citrus fruit.
●
This has been done
along the lines of the region-specific branding of several other fruits like
the ‘Nagpur orange’ (which even has a GI tag) and ‘Australian kiwi’.
●
Punjab
being the largest producer of kinnow in the country,
such branding will attract more consumers.
● The
plant starts flowering in February-end, grows till July-August, turning from
green to yellowish in September-October till the pre-harvesting stage in November.
Kinnow crop harvesting starts in the first week of December in Punjab and
continues till mid-March.