Apple farming in Himachal Pradesh: Fighting fungal disease

DW (English)

Himachal Pradesh is known as India's apple state. This year, many trees have been devastated by fungal disease. Efforts to control the outbreak include improving soil health and ecosystem resilience, and switching to regenerative farming.

Transcript

00:00An apple tree doesn't stand a chance against Alternaria fungi.

00:05The leaves wither and fall, and the apples are ruined.

00:09A disaster for apple farmers like Adarsh Kumar.

00:13The 64-year-old lost almost 75% of his harvest to the parasite this year.

00:26It's never happened before.

00:28This is the first year I have faced this.

00:32All the leaves turned brown and spotted from one day to the next.

00:39Himachal Pradesh is known as the apple state.

00:43Orchards are protected against the force of the sun with white tarps.

00:48With its cool climate and fertile soil, conditions here in the north of India are ideal.

00:54And some 500,000 farmers work in apple cultivation.

01:00But this year, nothing helped against the Alternaria fungi.

01:04And 60% of harvests were lost.

01:11Scientist Usha Sharma from the Krishi Vigyan Kendra Farm Science Centre says, the winter

01:17was simply too warm and dry.

01:20There was far too little snow.

01:27Along with warmer temperatures, we are also seeing more pests and disease.

01:33Right now, you're seeing an increased occurrence of Alternaria in high-altitude areas.

01:41The main reasons are the drought conditions that we had in winter that stressed the plants.

01:50After a winter with little snow, spring brought heavy rain showers, hailstorms and flooding.

01:57Perfect conditions for fungi.

02:01Many farmers tried to protect their harvests with chemical pesticides, including Adarsh Kumar.

02:08Ever since his trees were hit with apple scab in the 1980s, he has been treating his fruit

02:13with more and more fungicides.

02:19We have been using fungicides and pesticide sprays ever since.

02:23Initially, we sprayed the crops six to seven times per season.

02:26But now, we spray up to 15 to 20 times per season.

02:31He is not alone.

02:33These days, fewer farmers use organic fertilizer on their plantations, such as agricultural

02:38waste and cattle manure than in the past.

02:41As a result, the use of chemical fertilizers has almost doubled over the past 40 years.

02:48And that has consequences.

02:53The microbial population in the soil is decreasing because the more fertilizers are used, the

02:58more it's destroyed.

03:00This in turn reduces the nutrient uptake for the plants.

03:05At the Krishi Vigyan Kendra Farm Science Centre, Usha Sharma is retraining farmers in traditional

03:11regenerative agriculture.

03:13The scientists are convinced that this is the only way to increase yields in the long

03:18term.

03:19Last year alone, natural farming methods were introduced on around 600,000 acres of land

03:25in Himachal Pradesh.

03:30Pranav Rawat now does many things differently.

03:34The third-generation fruit farmer has an apple and pear plantation spanning almost 20 acres.

03:40His trees have managed to fight off fungal disease.

03:43His trick is to plant mustard between the apple trees.

03:47Mustard belongs to the brassica family.

03:55In winter, I plant brassica around the trees because it destroys the fungi at its roots.

04:05It doesn't like fungi.

04:09He also relies on different crop rotations and companion planting.

04:14In other words, he makes sure there aren't too many trees of one variety close together.

04:20That helps prevent pest infestation.

04:24A problem that we face is in monocropping.

04:30As with apple orchards, is that if one tree becomes diseased, this will soon spread to

04:35other trees.

04:38But in natural systems, pine trees might be close to oaks and the grass below is of

04:43different species, so pine will not transfer the diseases to oak.

04:50Pranav Rawat is convinced that diseases in agriculture cannot be combated with chemicals.

04:57He says that due to increasing resistance, more and more aggressive pesticides are needed

05:02for the crops over time.

05:06This is how the industry is growing and natural systems are ignored because they are less

05:11profitable.

05:12And the scientists aren't able to convince farmers to adapt.

05:16But we are forming communities to practice regenerative farming and learn how to control

05:21these problems naturally.

05:25Four years ago, Pranav Rawat launched a YouTube channel and now has close to 6,000 followers.

05:33These days, I post videos of what I am doing online, so other farmers can learn from my

05:42experience and try things out themselves.

05:47Adarsh Kumar knows that things can't go on like this.

05:50He'll soon be handing over his farm to his children.

05:54He now believes that they will only be able to live from apple farming if they switch

05:59to more sustainable practices.

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