June 19, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 03, 1428

TOBA TEK SINGH, June 18: The ongoing heat wave has resulted in a great loss to citrus orchard owners in the district as the rate of immature fruit dropping from plants has increased.

Toba Tek Singh is known for its good quality kinnoo that is exported to various European and Gulf countries.

Farmers told Dawn that last year, the citrus yield had remained below their expectations and this season the fruit droppings had again increased the chances of low production of the fruit.

An official of the Agriculture Department’s fruit and vegetable development project said farmers should save their plants from heat wave by covering them with dry grass, rice straw or wheat husk.

Project Deputy Director Mian Shafiq Muhammad said orchards must be irrigated after every seven to 10 days but water pumped out through tube well should not be used.

He said 55 training schools had been set up in the district to train farmers about modern techniques for orchard farming. He said 1,375 growers had been registered in these schools.

He said fruit fly pest often attacked the citrus fruit and caused loss to its production. His department had grown 300 orchards which would be free of attack of fruit fly pest, he said.