4.1 Location mapping

4.1 LOCATION MAPPING

4.1.1 Orange growing belt

Nagpur has been known as the orange city for quite some time now. The orange producing belt in the district is concentrated in a specific part of the district- the northwestern part near the Satpura hill range which runs adjoining the northwest- north part of the entire district. The concentration in this region is due to soil type and some slight climatic factors that occur due to the proximity to the hill ranges- as told by one of the farm owners. However, now orange orchards can be observed even in the Hingna tehsil which lies more towards the southwest region of the district. The different tehsils in the district with area under orange cultivation are 1. Katol 2. Narkhed 3. Kalmeshwar 4. Saoner 5. Nagpur(rural) 6. Hingna 7. Ramtek These are areas under a 100km radius from the centre of the city. Other adjoining districts with major orange production are Amravati and some districts of Madhya Pradesh which are ahead of Nagpur in terms of the production and area under cultivation. In the entire Nagpur region the Mandarin variety classified as the Nagpur santra is grown. Imported varieties like Clementine, Valencia are used only for study and research and not in the market on a commercial scale.

Figure 18: Orange growing region in the district( Source: Author)

4.1.2 Production in the district

The overall orange production including yield of all seasons was around 146570 tonnes for the year 2018-19. In spite of the orange variety being named after Nagpur and its identity, the city does not top the list in the production sector. Districts like Amravati and Akola have a higher productivity as compared to Nagpur. These conclusions are derived from the data of the year 2018-19 from Central Citrus Research Institute(CCRI), Nagpur. According to the report the area under mandarin cultivation in Nagpur is 24,869 hectares. There is a need to understand and identify the shortcomings faced in the agricultural sector involving oranges in the city by direct interaction with the primary producers for the betterment and development of the industry, benefitting the farmers.

Table 1: District wise area and production of citrus fruits( Source: CCRI)

Figure 19: Key plan showing adjoing districts (Source: Author)

Area under cultivation in Nagpur is less than that of Amravati.

The production is also more than Nagpur. The productivity per hectare is thus less in Nagpur.

Area under cultivation in Nagpur is more than that of Akola.

The production is more, however the productivity per hectare is less due to the lesser difference in area and production.

Figure 20: Comaprison of productivity with Amravati( Source: Author)

Figure 21: Comaprison of productivity with Akola( Source: Author)

4.1.3 Other crops

Apart from oranges, principal agricultural crops which are commercially popular and grown abundantly across the different tehsils in the district are wheat, gram, soyabean, cotton, groundnut. Crops like soybeans and other leguminous plants are grown as intercropping between the orange plants in the initial 2-3 years before the spreading of canopy of the orange tree.

Figure 22: Location mapping of other crops( Source: Author)

Table 2: Taluka wise adopted cropping pattern( Source: agricoop)