Date palm growers in Sindh are worried about premature dropping of fruit from trees owing to what they suspect is a pest attack.

Earlier the market dealers and growers expected a good crop in view of healthy flowering between February and March. But in April they saw fruits fall due to some insect that blackens and dries dates. “Current reports indicate that considerable damage has been done to the crop due to what may perhaps be a virus. Agriculture officials visited farms but we don’t know how they are going to fix this problem”, says Bashir Arain, president of Ajuman Tajiran Khajoor Anaj Mandi, Khairpur. But he is confident that market price of dates will go up because of likely lower production and short supply of fruit.

Mujeebullah Memon, another dealer, says losses to crop are reported from across the Khairpur district. Growers are trying to avoid major losses by spraying trees as recommended. He points out that disease has been mostly reported from Thehri, Faiz Wah, Palh, Pir Goth and Pir Manyo.

Sindh produces up to 300,000 metric tonnes of dates per annum. About 85pc of the crop is sold as chuhara (dried hard dates) which is also exported to India while fresh dates are generally consumed locally. The crop’s harvesting starts somewhere in July and August –when monsoon season also begins. This puts growers in a difficult position: how to handle the crop that lies in open sky after being plucked.

Under conventional fruit processing, the crop is put in a big heated cauldron for around 30 minutes to turn freshly plucked dates into chuhara. The rest of the crop, sold as fresh dates, are dried on raw mats and exposed to sun for around five to six days before being marketed.

According to Memon, some driers were given to local growers that reduce processing period of fresh dates by half. “The growers were briefed how to put dates on some structure above soil surface to avoid damages caused by rains but it is largely conventional processing”, he says. He adds that fruit’s grading is necessary to get better price for quality.

Sindh produces ‘Aseel’ variety that is exportable. Markets of Khairpur and Sukkur receive almost the entire output from the provincial date palm farms, both for domestic consumption and exports.

Date growers like Noor Khan Chandio are worried that pace of fruit’s pre-mature fall from tree remains fast while he and other farmers spray fruit to make trees hold as many bunches of fruit as possible. “But this seems to be not working the way we expect. Fruits continue to fall while we are still far away from harvesting of our crop”, says Chandio.

Chandio says that seasonal climate variations have left a major impact on fruit size this year. Growth of dates is affected. “Usually, mercury starts rising soon after winter ends here in February but this did not happen his season. Then rains are also reported in different date growing areas which is unusual during this part of the season. If fruit remains under-size, we will not get adequate returns. This is otherwise the ideal time of growth of the fruit size because of sizzling heat”, he says.

Research officials including plant pathologist and entomologist visited Khairpur district to conduct a survey of the affected farms in the backdrop of farmer’s complaints.

Entomologist, Dr Usman Shar of Agriculture Research Institute, Tandojam, says ‘fruit borer’ has caused premature dropping of fruit because of extended winter. Samples of soil, roots and tree were collected. Their pathological analysis revealed that a fungus — ‘Fusarium Solani’ — is causing shrinking of date trees. The shrinking has occurred owing to excessive use of water by growers for inter-cropping as he had witnessed sugarcane, banana and even mango nursery in their orchards.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, June 2nd, 2014