The Lalbagh Botanical Gardens will host an Orange Mela from January 4 to 6.
The exhibition is being organied to provide a platform for farmers producing oranges to directly interact with their potential buyers.

While farmers will have a better profit for their yield, the orange produced will be cheaply available to the customers, M Jagadeesh, Joint Director of Horticulture (Parks and Gardens), said.

About 20 tonnes of oranges from different parts of the country such as Rajasthan, Maharastra, Punjab, North East, Nagpur, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and several districts of Karnataka, including Kodagu, Chikmaglur, Hassan will be exhibited at the Mela.

The event will be hosted by the National Horticulture Board, along with the State department.

The regional variety of oranges vary in their production technique, climate, type of irrigation and so on, Dr S V Hittalmani, Additional Director of Horticulture (Fruits) said.

For example, Coorg mandarins are grown like an intercrop in Kodagu. The irrigation is not regular and as a result they are tight-jacketed (peel), whereas the Nagpur oranges, due to proper irrigation have loose jackets,” he added.

Apart from oranges, the exhibition will also have 40 stalls of processed and dehydrated orange products, saffron, capsicum, exotic vegetables, spices and dry fruits, grapes, raisins, flowers, biofertilizers and vegetation tools. The exhibition will not carry any additional fee for the visitor.

Karnataka, with over 5,000 hectares of production area, has a huge potential from such exposition and ultimately the farmers will benefits from such wider network, Jagadeesh said.

source: http://www.DeccanHerald.com / Home> City / Bangalore, DHNS / January 04th, 2013