Bengal conditions apt for growing kinnow orange, finds researcher

Kolkata, Nov 4 (IANS)  West Bengal has the potential to grow and produce kinnow oranges, a researcher proposed here on Saturday.

"We can easily grow in Bengal. Soil condition is alright... We can go for addition of organic manure in the soil, so the water retention capacity increases and some manipulations in soil... That won't be a problem. We can go for high-density planting," Pinaki Acharya of Calcutta University's Institute of Agricultural Science said here.

Kinnow, a King-Willow leaf mandarin hybrid, was developed at the University of California Research Center, Riverside by H. B. Frost in 1915 and released in 1935. It is the most widely-planted mandarin in Pakistan.

"It was introduced in Punjab in 1963 and subsequently it spread out in the Punjab-Haryana-Rajasthan belt. We are getting kinnow from these states but we (Bengal) have the environment conducive for it as well," Acharya told IANS on the sidelines of the seminar on horticulture developments in West Bengal with special reference to Pashimanchal organised by Agri-Horticultural Society of India.

"In Bankura, humidity is low. It is around 55-65 per cent. We can easily go for it because incidences of diseases and pests are less. The higher the humidity, more the pests and more diseases," he said.

Acharya said the tree fruit crop could also act as a green cover.

"It grows very well in arid tracts. One has to study the market feasibility," he added.