Concluding session of Two-Day Citrus Growers Conference

Two-day citrus growers’ conference concluded at New Senate Hall of University of Agriculture Faisalabad. The conference was jointly organized by Institute of Horticultural Sciences UAF, Australian Agri. Linkages Program Phase-II and AusAid aiming to enable the growers get maximum yield of their crop. On second day, speakers including Dr. Tahir Khurshid, Dr. Rashid, Mr. Steven Falvine, Mr. Altaf-ur-Rehman, Dr. M. J. Jaskani, Dr. Munawar Raza Kazmi, Dr. Ghulam Nabi, Dr. Muhammad Yasin, and Dr. Aman Ullah Malik urged the growers to not stress their citrus orchards during flowering and apply appropriate irrigation. Dr. Tahir Khurshid delivered a technical lecture on fruit thinning. He presented clear analysis of thinning and non-thinning citrus plant. He urged the growers to make appropriate thinning as it improves the fruit quality and help in regular bearing in citrus. He presented data of thinning and un-thinning plants experiments in Australia from 2009 to 2012 and showed his willingness to start the same in Pakistan through FFS funded by ASLP project. Australian citrus expert Mr. Steven Falivine gave practical demonstration on fruit thinning. He also shared his research on fruit thinning and tree clearing and pruning. Mr. Steven Falivine discussed the scheduling of fertilizer in Australia guided in FFS and vowed to develop fertilizer calendar in Pakistan. He urged the growers for efficient fertilizer application coupled with high efficiency irrigation methods. Mr. Steven asked the growers to transform themselves from conventional flood irrigation to drip or sprinkler irrigation system. Dr. Muhammad Yasin of Inst. of Soil & Environmental Science brought forth the issues relating to soil and plant health along with nutritional vitality in human life. He enlightened the growers about fertilizer application methods, time of application of fertilizers, soil & plant nutritional analysis and discussed soil improvements methods. Prof. Dr. Aman Ullah Malik gave details about postharvest techniques and urged the growers to carefully make necessary arrangement of crop handling as a sizeable volume of fruit used to be destroyed during handling, transportation and storage. Dr. M. Jafar Jaskani spoke on the importance of nursery development, propagation, improvement, nursery management and certified nursery. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Amjad Aulakh Director Institute of Horticultural Sciences thanked the participants for attending the conference of significant importance.