“To bear robust fruit, Japanese pears need at least 400 to 600 chilling hours a year,” says Dhan Bahadur Thapa, a fruit development officer at the Horticulture Development Program in Kirtipur. “But the protracted drought and the soaring temperatures caused by global warming reduced their chilling period this season.” Japanese pears need to be chilled at temperatures of seven degree Celsius or below.
Thapa says that the increasing heat in the environment had actually begun taking its toll on pear production about two years ago. But this year´s combination of torrid days and brutal drought proved to be the backbreaker. “Most of the pear trees have not borne flowers so far. And even the flowers that have already blossomed will not ripen into fruits because that maturing period is going to be shortened this year,” Thapa adds. Furthermore, because the pear trees are grown on steep tracts of land, it is not feasible to provide them with irrigated water.
The bad harvest this year of Japanese pears, such as Hosui, Chojuro and Shinko, will certainly dampen the spirits of the fruit´s aficionados in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Kavre and adjoining districts, where the pears are popular. But for the farmers, it also means a massive loss of time, money and land spent on a venture that might have been put to better ventures. Due to the high market value of Japanese pears, many farmers have turned their farms into pear farms. And it´s not just the area bordering Kathmandu Valley that has become Japanese Pear country. According to Thapa, Japanese pear farms have been set up in districts like Taplejung in the East and Dadeldhura in the Far Western region.
Many of these farms came up because the government nurseries in Daman, Godawari and Kirtipur, as well as private nurseries, began distributing about 10,000 seedlings of Japanese pears every year; and many of these pear farms were perched at the ideal height--1,300 meters to 1,500 above sea level--that scientists say is the optimal elevation for Japanese pears farms. The market looked excellent.
But with the awful season, the farmers are getting desperate--so desperate that some farmers are thinking of pulling up stakes at their present farms altogether and seeking higher ground for their Japanese pear trees, says Thapa.
prabhakar@myrepublica.com
Related story
Paddy production expected to increase by 4.4 percent
