AONLA
1.
INTRODUCTION
Aonla (Emblica officinalis) or Indian gooseberry is indigenous to Indian
sub-continent. India ranks first in the world in area and production of this
crop. Apart from India naturally growing trees are found in different parts of
the world like Sri Lanka, Cuba, Puerto Rico, USA (Hawai & Florida), Iran,
Iraq, Pakistan, China, Malaysia, Bhutan, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines,
Trinidad, Panama and Japan.
2. OBJECTIVE
The main objective of this report is to present a one acre bankable model for high quality commercial cultivation of the crop. 3. BACKGROUND
3.1
Area & Production
Aonla is
mostly cultivated in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat,
Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh etc. (Vide
Table-1)
Table 1 : State-wise Area,
Production & Productivity of
Aonla during 1999-2000
|
State |
Area (‘000 Ha.) |
Production (‘000 MT) |
Productivity (MT/Ha.) |
|
Uttar Pradesh |
15.75 |
63.00 |
4.0 |
|
Gujarat |
10.05 |
12.00 |
1.5 |
|
Rajasthan |
5.00 |
6.00 |
1.2 |
|
Maharashtra |
4.00 |
5.60 |
1.4 |
|
Haryana |
0.60 |
3.10 |
5.2 |
|
Mizoram |
0.07 |
0.20 |
2.9 |
|
Tamil Nadu |
5.50 |
8.25 |
1.5 |
|
Andhra Pradesh |
3.00 |
4.50 |
1.5 |
|
Karnataka |
1.80 |
2.70 |
1.5 |
|
Bihar |
1.35 |
2.00 |
1.5 |
|
Others |
2.50 |
3.75 |
1.5 |
|
TOTAL |
49.62 |
111.10 |
- |
Source : Market Study of aonla (UPLDC-Nov.,2002).
3.2 Economic Importance
The fruit is a good source of vitamin C. The fruit is having medicinal value. It has acrid, cooling, diuretic and laxative properties. Dried fruits are useful in haemorrhages, diarrhea, dysentery, anaemia, jaundice, dyspepsia and cough. Aonla is used in the indigenous medicines (Aurvedic system) viz. trifla and chavanprash. Fruits are commonly used for preserve (murabbas), pickles, candy, jelly and jam. Besides fruits, leaves, bark and even seeds are being used for various purposes.
4. MARKET ANALYSIS AND STRATEGY
4.1 Demand and Supply patterns
Domestic consumers provide major market to aonla. Increasing health consciousness among people as well as growing popularity of alternate medicine and herbal products is enhancing the requirement of aonla both in domestic and international markets.
4.2
Analysis and Future Strategy
The following measures need to be
considered in order to boost production and marketing of aonla.
§
A
three-tier system involving growers, processors and exporters may be formed
along with export processing zones and marketing boards.
§
Storage,
pre-cooling and transport facilities to help the growers realize better price.
5.
PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
5.1
Agro-climatic requirements
Aonla being a sub-tropical crop
prefers dry sub-tropical climate. Heavy frost during the winter season is not
suitable for its cultivation.
Slightly acidic to saline/sodic soil
having pH between 6.5 to 9.5 is suitable for cultivation.
5.2 Growing and Potential Belts
The state-wise important growing
belts are given in the following :
|
State |
Growing belts |
|
Haryana |
Bewal, Gurgaon |
|
Himachal Pradesh |
Palampur, Bilaspur, Hamirpur |
|
Karnataka |
Bilgiri Rangan hills in Mysore |
|
Madhya Pradesh |
Dewas, Hoshangabad, Shivani,
Tikamgarh, Betul, Chindwara, Shivapurkala, Panna, Rewa, Satna |
|
Tamil Nadu |
Tirunelveli,
Thoothukudi, Sivagangai, Coimbatore, Salem, Dindugal |
|
Uttar Pradesh |
Pratagarh,
Rai Bareli, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Sultanpur, Kanpur, Fatehpur, Agra, Mathura |
5.3
Varieties Cultivated
5.4
Land Preparation
Land is prepared by ploughing,
harrowing, leveling and removing weeds.
5.5
Planting
5.5.1
Planting Material
Aonla is propagated by budding or
softwood grafting.
5.5.2
Planting season
Planting of aonla is mainly done in
July-August.
5.5.3
Spacing
Grafted or budded plants are planted 4-5 meter apart under
square system of layout during July-August or February.
5.5.4
Planting Method
Pits of 1-1.25 m. size are dug two
months prior to planting. In each pit 3-4 baskets of well rotten farmyard
manure and 1 kg. neem cake or 500 g. bone-meal are mixed with soil and filled
in the pits. In sodic soil, 5-8 kg. gypsum along with 20 kg. sand is filled in
the pit Irrigation is provided immediately after this. Ber,guava and lemon are
usually planted in the centre of each square of aonla plants. Hedge-row
planting is also being tried keeping line-to-line distance of 8 m., while plant
to plant distance is reduced to 4-5 m.
5.6
Nutrition
A dose of 10 kg. farmyard manure,
100 g. N, 50 g. P and 100 g. K should be given to one year old plants. This
dose is increased on yearly basis upto tenth year and thereafter a constant
dose is given. Full dose of farmyard manure and P and half of N and K is given
in tree basin during January-February. The remaining half should be applied in
August. In sodic soils, 100-500 g. of B and zinc sulphate should also be
incorporated along with fertilizers as per age of the tree.
5.7
Irrigation
Irrigation is provided at an
interval of 15-20 days in dry summer. No irrigation is required during rainy
and winter season. First irrigation is provided just after manure &
fertilizer application (January/February). Irrigation is not provided during
the flowering period i.e. mid-March and April.
5.7.1
Drip Irrigation
Plant height, canopy spread and
stock girth have been found significantly better under alternate day drip
irrigation over the conventional method.
With the use of drip irrigation yield of 30 kg/tree is achieved in third
year itself in gravelly soil against 20 kg./ tree in 4-5 years in rainfed aonla
orchards.
5.8
Taining & Pruning
The plants are trained to modified
central leader system. Two to four branches with wide crotch angle, appearing
in the opposite directions should be encouraged in early years. The unwanted
branches are pinched off during March-April. In the subsequent years, 4-6
branches should be allowed to develop. Regular pruning of a bearing aonla tree
is not required. As per growth habit, shedding of all determinate shoots
encourages new growth in coming season. However, dead, infested, broken, weak
or overlapping branches should be removed regularly.
5.9
Mulching
Paddy straw, sugarcane trash and
farmyard manure are used for mulching.
5.10
Inter-cropping
Vegetables, flowers and a few
medicinal /aromatic plants are well suited for intercropping in aonla orchards.
The average cost of inter cropping would be Rs.10,000/- per acre.
5.11 Plant Protection Measures
5.11.1 Insect Pests
Leaf rolling caterpillar, shoot gall maker, mealy bug and pomegranate butterfly are major constraints in aonla production. The pests can be managed through clean cultivation, avoiding the over crowing of branches, spraying with malathion or monocrotophos or endosulphon depending on the type of pest infestation. 5.11.2 Diseases
The Crop is suspect to diseases like ring rust, fruit rot, leaf rot etc.Timely treatment and control measures are needed. 5.11.3 Disorders
Necrosis, a physiological disorder has been observed in aonla fruits. This particular disorder has been observed mostly in case of Banarasi and Francis varieties.
5.12
Harvesting and Yield
Fully developed brown coloured
fruits are harvested. Delay in harvesting results in heavy dropping of fruits
in case of some varieties. Harvesting is usually done during the early or in
the late hours of the day.
A budded/grafted tree starts bearing
third year onwards after planting, whereas a seedling tree may take 6-8 years.
Vegetatively propagated plants attain full bearing within 10-12 years and may
continue to bear for 60-75 years of age under well managed conditions.
An aonla tree may bear 1-3 q./tree ,
giving 15-20 tonnes/ha.
6. POST HARVEST MANAGEMENT
6.1
Grading
The fruits are harvested manually
and sorted according to their size. Fruits are graded into three types on the
basis of their size. The large sized fruits are mostly used for preserve and
candy; small sized for preparing chavanprash and trifla and the blemished
fruits for powder and shampoo making.
6.2
Storage
Fruits can be stored for a period of
6-9 days under ordinary conditions.
6.3
Packing
Bamboo baskets are mostly used for
carrying the produce from farm to local market.
Most of the growers sell their
produce either through trade agents at village level or commission agents at
the market.
7.
TECHNOLOGY SOURCES
Major sources for technology are:
i)
Horticulture
Deptt. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Lawley Road, Coimbatore-641003.
ii)
State
Horticultural Farm, Periakulam, Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu.
iii)
State
Horticultural Farm, Reddiyarchatram, Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu.
iv)
Progressive
growers of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu.
8.
ECONOMICS OF A ONE ACRE MODEL
8.1
High
quality commercial cultivation of crop by using improved planting material and
drip irrigation leads to multiple benefits viz.
·
Synchronized growth, flowering and harvesting;
·
Reduction
in variation of off-type and non-fruit plants;
·
Improved
fruit quality;
·
Early
maturity;
·
Considerable
increase in productivity.
Costs & Returns:
8.2
A
one acre plantation of the crop is a highly viable proposition. The cost components of such a model along
with the basis for costing and means of financing are exhibited in Annexures
I. A summary is given in the
figure below. The project cost works
out to around Rs.1.25 lakhs.
Figure-I : COST OF PROJECT
Project Cost:
(Amount in Rs.)
|
Sl. No. |
Component |
Proposed Expenditure |
|
|
1. |
Cultivation Expenses |
|
|
|
|
(i) |
Cost of planting material |
3,200 |
|
|
(ii) |
Input Cost |
8,800 |
|
|
(iii) |
Cost of Labour (Land preparation) |
2,800 |
|
|
(iv) |
Others, if any, (Power) |
3,600 |
|
|
|
|
18,400 |
|
2. |
Irrigation |
|
|
|
|
(i) |
Tube-well/submersible pump |
50,000 |
|
|
(ii) |
Cost of Pipeline |
- |
|
|
(iii) |
Others, if any, please specify |
- |
|
|
|
|
50,000 |
|
3. |
Cost of Drip/Sprinkler |
20,000 |
|
|
4. |
Infrastructure |
|
|
|
|
(i) |
Labour room & Pump house |
7,600 |
|
|
(ii) |
Agriculture Equipments |
5,000 |
|
|
|
|
12,600 |
|
5. |
Land Development |
|
|
|
|
(i) |
Soil Leveling |
4,000 |
|
|
(ii) |
Digging |
- |
|
|
(iii) |
Fencing |
20,000 |
|
|
(iv) |
Others, if any, please specify |
- |
|
|
|
|
24,000 |
|
6. |
Land, if newly purchased (Please indicate the year)* |
|
|
|
|
Grand Total |
1,25,000 |
|
*Cost of newly purchased land will be limited
to 10% of the total project cost.
8.3
The
major components of the model are:
·
Irrigation
Infra-structure (Rs.50 thousand): For effective working with drip irrigation
system, it is necessary to install a bore well with diesel/electric pumpset and
motor. This is part cost of tube well.
·
Drip
Irrigation & Fertigation System (Rs.20 thousand): This is average cost of one acre drip system for the crop
inclusive of the cost of fertigation equipment. The actual cost will vary depending on location, plant population
and plot geometry.
·
Farm
Equipment/Implements (Rs.5 thousand): For investment on improved manually
operated essential implements a provision of another Rs.5 thousand is included.
·
Building
and Storage (Rs.7.6 thousand): A one
acre orchard would require minimally a labour shed and a store-cum
grading/packing room.
·
Cost
of cultivation (Rs.18.40 thousand): This is to cover costs of land preparation
and sowing operations, planting material, inputs and power.
8.4
Labour
cost has been put at an average of Rs.70 per man-day. The actual cost will vary from location to location depending
upon minimum wage levels or prevailing wage levels for skilled and unskilled
labour.
8.5
Recurring Production Cost: Recurring
costs in the pre & post-operative
period are exhibited in Annexure III & III-A respectively. The main components are planting material,
land preparation, inputs .application (FYM, fertilizers, micro-nutrients, plant
protection chemicals etc.), labour cost on application of inputs and other farm
operations, power, harvesting, packing and transportation.
8.6
Returns from the Project:
In the initial years of development inter-crops will fetch a return of
around Rs.24 thousand annually from year 2 to year 5. The yield of the main crop will go up from 4 tonnes in year 1 of
commercial production to 8 tonnes in year 5 and will stabilize thereafter. The produce has been valued at Rs.700 per
quintal in the first year increasing to Rs.1000 per quintal in fourth year and
stabilizing thereafter.
Project Financing
8.7
Balance Sheet:
The projected balance sheet of the model is given at Annexure
IV. There would be three
sources of financing the project as below:
Source Rs.Thousand
Farmer’s share 62.50 Capital subsidy 25.00
Term
loan
37.50
Total 125.00
8.8
Profit & Loss Account:
The cash flow statement may be seen in Annexure V. The profit and loss account of the model is
projected in Annexure VI. Gross
profit increases from Rs.6.20 thousand in year 1 to Rs.51.40 thousand in year
5.
8.9
Repayment of Term Loan:
The term loan will be repaid in 11 equated 6 monthly installments with a
moratorium of 72 months. The rate of
interest would have to be negotiated with the financing bank. It has been put at 12% in the model (vide
Annexure VII and VII A).
8.10
Depreciation calculations are given in Annexure
VIII.
Project Viability:
8.11
IRR/BCR:
The viability of the project is assessed in Annexure IX over a period
of 15 years. The IRR works out to 27.78
and the BCR to 2.2.
8.12
The
DSCR calculations are presented in Annexure
X. The average DSCR works out
to 4.12.
8.13
Payback Period:
On the basis of costs and returns of the model, the pay back period is
estimated at 6.63 years (vide Annexure XI).
8.14
Break-even Point:
The break even point will be reached in the 3rd year. At this point fixed cost would work out to 66.3%
of gross sales - vide Annexure XII.