Coorg mandarin oranges hit by disease

bangalore: even as karnataka grapples with the coconut mite menace, yet another disease pertaining to `coorg mandarins' or kodagu oranges is causing concern. coorg mandarins have been afflicted by citrus greening disease (cgd) which has affected its yield and quality. the disease is caused by an insect named `psylla', which is suspected to have spread from wynad in kerala.the central horticultural experimentation station (ches) based at chettalli inkodagu has urged the government to convince the farmers to uproot the cgd-afflicted plants and plant disease-free ones to save the crop from further decline. however, the farmers are reluctant. horticulture director p.b. ramamurthy told the times of india that plans to come out with a multi-dimensional action plan to save mandarins are on. ``we propose to arrange small meetings of the growers and scientists to convince them of the need to uproot the disease-afflicted plants. it is an arduous task but we are hopeful,'' he added. the ches study has emphasised that planting disease-free plants without uprooting the disease-afflicted ones will be a futile exercise. nutrition and adoption of timely plant protection measures and improved orchard management are other recommendations of the ches. kodagu oranges are largely grown in kerala, karnataka and tamil nadu and cover 33 per cent of the area under citrus fruit cultivation. it forms the third largest component of the fruit industry in the country and accounts for 27.58 lakh tonnes of production, in an area of over 3.49 lakh hectares. in karnataka, oranges were grown on about 45,000 hectares in 1972 and in two decades, the area increased to 52,000 hectares. the yield from each hectare used to be around eight to ten tonnes. ``however, due to cgd, the area has come down drastically to less than 5,000 hectares,'' horticulture joint director s.v. hittalamani said. the presence of the disease was first confirmed by delhi-based indian agricultural research institute scientists after a two-year study in 1991.