Nurpur oranges face bad weather

NURPUR - Orange production has been hit due to the bad weather conditions in Himachal Pradesh’s Nurpur District.

Farmers are not expecting a good crop and they are closing down orange orchards.

Many farmers are not recovering their annual investment from the harvest.

“Due to the change in weather, we are facing a lot of problems from the last eight to ten years. It’s not raining on time because of which the plants are getting dried. The orange cultivation in this area is almost finished,” said Ramesh Pathania, an orange grower.

The State authorities acknowledged that the change in climate is a problem and said that new technologies should be taken up to improve production.

“It has come to my notice that farmers have stopped taking interest in orange cultivation. So, I would suggest farmers should not feel discouraged with the changing climatic conditions, and should take up the new technologies for increasing the production of the crop”, said N. K. Sharma, Deputy Director of the State’s Horticulture Department.

The orange is grown in over 25,000 hectares of land in the State. Out of this, 80 percent cultivation is done in Kangra valley. By Akhilesh Bharati (ANI)