9. LYCHEE PRODUCTION IN NEPAL

Kedar Budathoki ^[10]

1. INTRODUCTION

Lychee is one of the important sub-tropical fruit crops of Nepal after mango, banana and guava. It was introduced by the Rana who ruled the country for 104 years. It is reported that the Rana were very fond of fruit farming and gardening and introduced lychee from India and Burma and planted them in the Terai (Plain), low hills and mid-hills at altitudes ranging from 61 m in the Terai to 950 m in the mid-hills. Although lychee plants were planted and tried at Kathmandu (1,344) by the Rana in their palaces, the plants died due to cold weather and frost.

2. PRESENT SITUATION OF LYCHEE CULTIVATION

Geographically, Nepal is divided into three physical parts. These are the Terai, Hills and Mountains, the altitude of which ranges from 60 m above mean sea level in the Terai to 8,845 m in the Mountains. Because of these variations in the, Nepal enjoys a sub-tropical climate in the Terai and a cool temperate climate in the Mountains, which are suitable for farming various kinds of fruits. Farming is limited within 3,000 m altitude. Nepal has 75 districts and it has been recorded that lychee is cultivated in 62 out of these and they are distributed as follows:

Major lychee growing areas

Lychee is a sub-tropical crop and needs sub-tropical frost free areas during winter and favours well-drained moist soil rather than dry soil. It is, therefore, the Terai districts of the Central Developmental Region that have the highest areas under lychee followed by Terai districts of the Eastern Development Region. The lowest areas under lychee are in the Western, Mid-Western and Far Western regions of the country (Table 1 and 2).

• The Terai districts under the Central Development region where the area under lychee is highest are: Sharlahi, Bara, Parsa, Chitwan, Dharusa, Mahotari and Rautahat with a total area of 817 hectares.

• The Terai districts of the Eastern Development Region where lychee is commercially grown are: Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari and Siraha with a total area of 309.7 hectares.

• The Terai districts under the Western Development Region where lychee is slowly reaching commercial scale are: Nawalparasi, Rupendehi and Kapilbastu with a total area of 206.7 hectares.

• Banke, Bardia and Dang are the Terai districts of the Mid-Western Region.

• Kailali and Kanchapur districts of the Far Western Development Region are also emerging as the commercial lychee growing areas in recent years.

The following hill districts are commercially utilized for lychee production:

• Western Development Region - Gorkha, Lanjung, Tanahu, Kaski, Parbat, Syanja, Palpa, Myagdi, Baglung, Gulmi and Aoghakhachi districts

• Central Development Region - Ramechhap, Sindhuli, Kavre, Nuwakot, Dhading and Makawanpur districts.

• Eastern Development Region - Panchthar, Illam, Terahathum, Dhankuta, Bhojpur, Khotang, Okhaldhunga, and Udaipur districts.

• Mid-Western Development Region - Surkhet, Puthan and Dailekh hill districts.

• Far-Western Development Region - Dadeldhura and Doti districts.

Area and production

The total area under lychee in Nepal is about 2,830 hectares (Table 1) and most of the commercial areas lie in the Terai (Plain), which falls in the Southern part of the country and runs from east to west. Out of 2,830 hectares, there are 214,800 bearing trees grown on 1,791 hectares, which produced about 13,875 MT of fruit during 1998/99 (Table 2). It is believed that production will increase year by year due to the increased number of new bearing trees and also the increase in the age of bearing trees up to 20 years of age. Similarly, the area under the lychee is also increasing every year as it is found to be a more profitable crop than mango and banana in the Terai.

Table 1. Total area (hectares) under Lychee in Nepal

Table 2. Productive area (hectares) and production (MT) of lychee in Nepal

Source: Agriculture Statistics of Nepal. Ministry of Agriculture, His Majesty's Government of Nepal (1998/1999).

Cultivars

Broadly, there are two types of lychee cultivar in Nepal, namely the Terai and the Hill cultivars

Terai cultivars

These are introduced cultivars mostly from India. They are being grown in the Terai and low hills. Fruits mature from mid-May to mid-June. The common varieties grown under commercial scale are as follows:

• Mujafpuri
• Raja Saheb
• Deharaduni
• China
• Calcuttia

Hill cultivars

The hill cultivars are late in maturity and fruits are harvested from the end of May to the end of June. The fruits are larger than the Terai cultivars and seeds are also a little bit larger. Some of the important cultivars are as follows:

• Pokhara local
• Udaipur local
• Tanahu local
• Chitwan local
• Kalika local
• Gorkha local

Farmers at Pokhara, Palpa and Gorkha reported that those trees which are as old as 40-50 years and are still productive might had been introduced from the Terai area by some amateur fruit growers in past and are now adapted to the hill environment and are multiplied and distributed among the farmers and between the villages.

3. PRODUCTION OF PLANTING MATERIAL

In Nepal lychee plants are propagated by the following methods:

Seed

In the past 15-20 years lychee plants were produced from seed in the hills. This practice was common among the farmers who had no lychee plants for using other methods of propagation. It was also common that those seedlings were also sold for cash or exchanged between the farmers for other material. It is, therefore, in the hills where there is big variation in height, canopy, leaf size, fruit size, seed size and fruit shape. It was also observed that some plants were found superior in bearing capacity, fruit size, colour and shape.

Farmers reported that they know that lychee seed loses viability very soon after harvest. Hence, they sow the seed as quick as possible. Usually, farmers sow the seeds directly in situ rather than raising seedlings separately in a bed or in polypots. They reported that plants raised from this system have low mortality and establish well compared to the plants raised and transplanted from air-layering. With the available of plants raised from vegetative propagation, the raising and production of plants from seed has been gradually decreasing.

Air-layering

In the Terai from the very beginning of lychee cultivation and in recent years in the hills, the lychee plants are propagated commercially by air-layering. The air-layering is done from spring to early summer (mid-March to mid-May. Success rate is as high as 90 percent in spring to summer and decreases gradually when the air-layering practice is carried out too late.

Planting material producing agencies

In the early days from 1960 to 1980, the lychee plants used to be produced by the Government horticulture farms/stations located in different parts of the country. The method of propagation applied was air-layering. After one year of propagation, these plants would be distributed direct to the farmers and also to the farmers through district based agriculture extension offices. The following horticulture farms were responsible for the production of fruit plants including lychee:

• Horticulture unit, Agriculture Station, Tarahara, Biratnagar
• Horticulture unit, Agriculture Station, Parwanipur, Birgunj
• Horticulture farm, Nawalpur, Sharlahi
• Horticulture farm, Yagyapuri farm, Chitwan
• Horticulture farm, Malepatan, Pokhara
• Horticulture unit, Agriculture Station, Khajura, Nepalgunj
• Horticulture farm, Dhunbesi, Dhading
• Horticulture farm Trisuli, Nuwakot
• Horticulture farm, Panchakhal, Kavre.

The total numbers of plants produced annually by these station ranges from 20,000 to 40,000 plants. Today, only the horticulture farm at Nawalpur, Sharlahi produces lychee plants as other farms ceased to produce the plants due to the establishment of private nurseries which commercially produce planting material of all the fruit plants.

There are 81 registered private fruit nurseries, which produce various kinds of fruit plants and flowering plant saplings. However, only 7 private nurseries are involved in lychee sapling production.

In borders villages, lychee and other fruit plants are sometimes imported either by Indian nurserymen or middlemen during the season (June to August) and sold to Nepalese farmers.

4. ESTABLISHMENT OF ORCHARD

Land preparation

Lychee plants are planted on uplands. The selected piece of land for the lychee orchard is ploughed and made weed-free. These operations are done from March to April.

Pit digging

With the help of district based horticulturists/agriculturists, all the technical assistance needed for establishment of the orchard is provided. The layout of the orchard is made at least one month before planting by marking and pegging planting points at appropriate spacing.

The pits measuring 1 x 1 x 1 m are dug and following manure and fertilizers are applied:

These materials are well mixed with topsoil in the pits and kept at least one month for settlement of these inputs in the pits before planting the saplings.

Planting season

Wherever watering is possible after planting, lychee plants are planted from April to May. Where there are no irrigation facilities and lychee is cultivated under rainfed condition, the saplings are transplanted from 15 June to August. However, early planting (April-May) has given good results in terms of plant growth.

Planting system and spacing

In the Terai flat land, a square system is widely used and in the hills, depending upon the land position, a contour, rectangular or sometimes even a square system of planting is practiced. In the early days of planting neither planting systems nor recommended spacing were followed. However, in recent years the recommended spacing between the plants or rows is maintained at 10-12 m. In the hills, this distance is reduced to 8-10 m due to the terraced type of land.

Inter cropping

In Nepal none of the orchard field is initially kept free from crops. When the trees are large and producing fruits, usually after 5-6 years of planting in the Terai and 7-8 years after planting in the hills, the intercropping of arable crops is avoided.

5. CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF ORCHARD

Training and pruning of plants

Usually, training and pruning are not done in lychee due to its evergreen nature. However, some farmers remove the branches or twigs from the soil surface to 45 cm height of the plants while others remove up to 60 to 75 cm height of the plant. These days nurserymen do these operations at the nursery. In some areas like in East and Central Terai districts the central parts of the lychee plants are removed so that side branches are encouraged to develop and central parts are open. Removing the central branches/parts of the plants, which do not receive sunlight and produce very little fruit, is also common even with large trees. These operations are done during December-January both in the Terai and the hills.

Unlike temperate fruit crops, annual pruning practices are not common in lychee orchards. Many farmers believe that removing long twigs along with fruit at harvest is a useful pruning method, but other commercial growers reported that removing fruit clusters, i.e. panicles only, at harvest without removing the twigs or branches and leaves produce more fruit than removing fruit with twigs in the coming season.

Manure and fertilizer

Annual application of the following manure and fertilizers after a year of planting are recommend for young trees before fruiting up to 5-6 years after planting

Lychee starts producing fruits from 5-6 years after planting in the Terai and 6-8 years after planting in the hills. The manure and fertilizer recommendations for bearing trees are as follows. These recommendations are followed or even exceeded by commercial lychee growers.

• Organic Manure = 50 kg per plant

• DAP = 150 g per plant at 6 years of age and increased by 100 g each year up to 15 years and as a constant dose from 15 years onwards.

• Urea = 100 g per plant at 6 years of age and increased by 100 g each year up to 15 years and as a constant dose from 15 years onwards.

• Muriate of Potash = 100 g per plant per at 6 years of age and increased by 100 g each year up to 15 years and as a constant dose from 15 years onwards.

The manure and fertilizers are applied in the winter months of December and January.

Weeding

Weeds in well developed trees are not a problem. They are a problem in the early stages of plant growth. Farmers keep the young plants and the orchard clean by hand weeding and use mulches of dry grass like rice-straw to keep down the growth of weeds around the young lychee plants and conserve moisture.

Mulching

Mulching of young plants around the root and stem zone by using local materials like dry grass, dry weeds, dry straw etc., immediately after planting is a common practice followed by lychee growers due to the advantages of weed control, soil moisture conservation and addition of organic matter to the soil.

This mulching practice is commonly done from the end of the monsoon to conserve residual soil moisture. In rainfed conditions, farmers reported that mulched plants growth is faster and fruit production better than those of non-mulched plants.

Supplementary irrigation

Lychee is cultivated under non-irrigated/rainfed conditions in both the hills and Terai except in a few isolated cases. However, growers who were able to provide water just before blooming to the fruit maturing stage (mid-February to early-May) reported that fruit quality and production increased significantly. Hence, in recent years the introduction of drip irrigation has become very popular among the resource rich farmers where water is scarce. However, in all cases, regular watering is applied to the seedlings after planting until the plants are well established so that root zones are kept moist.

Diseases

In Nepal, no serious diseases limiting production and productivity of lychee have been observed or recorded.

Pests

Lychee mite (Eriophyes litchi)

Lychee mite is one of the biggest problems in both the Terai and hills. The pest attacks new shoots at the beginning of spring and if the attacks continue, the terminal growth is checked and tree vigour reduced due to reduction in photosynthesis. Fruit produced from affected plants are poor in quality and marketability and yield is also drastically reduced. Use of wettable sulphur at the rate of 2 g per litre of water before bud break is found to be very effective. Spraying two times at 10 days intervals further improved crop vigour and fruit yield.

Lychee bug

This pest attacks the young leaves by sucking the sap from the leaves and tender twigs and branches. In uncontrolled conditions leaves curl, wrinkle and die. In heavy infection new stem twigs also died. In Nepal, this pest is controlled by the application of chloropyriphos + Cypermethion at the rate of 2 ml per litre of water before flowering and two times after the fruits are set.

Fruit worm

The fruit worm is not a serious problem and growers reported that damage caused by this pest is small. However, this pest is also kept under control by above operation.

Fruit cracking

This problem is more serious in Terai orchards and is most common in dry than in relatively moist orchard soils. Cracked fruits are commonly seen in the mid-western Terai districts because the soils of this area are drier than those of central and eastern parts of the country.

Farmers in Sarlahi district reported that thick mulching of lychee plants with local materials while there is a rain in mid-September reduces the cracking.

6. HARVESTING FRUITS AND YIELDS

Harvesting time

Fruits in the Terai are harvested from the third week of May to mid-June, though this varies from cultivar to cultivar. In the hills, the fruits are ready to harvest from the end of May to the end of June.

Since lychee fruits are non-climatic, the fruits should be harvested when the fruit skins change to bright red, orange red, pink red etc., depending upon the variety, but before they are fully red and soft. For fruit transported over long distances 80-90 percent of the fruit skin should have the original colour so that its quality becomes marketable.

Generally, all fruits in the lychee trees do not mature at the same time and hence, multiple pickings are necessary. It is necessary that regular inspection of the tree is carried out and the fruit clusters that are well mature should be harvested. When picking the fruits, fruit clusters along with twigs, branches and leaves are removed. This is the common practice followed by lychee farmers in Nepal. However, removing fruit clusters with only the panicle is more beneficial than removing fruit clusters with twigs and leaves. A few farmers in the hills have been doing this practice and reported that it has increased fruit yield in the following year.

Fruit yield

The yield per plant depends on the age of the plant, tree or orchard management, variety and location. In both the hills and Terai even 60 years old but healthy and productive trees were observed and the number of fruit from such a plant was recorded as high as 10,000 and total yield per plant obtained was 380 kg and income from the tree was more than Rs.10,000.

The fruit yield of a well-managed orchard in the Sarlahi district is as follows:

Causes of high and poor yields

Causes of poor yields

• Use of poor yielding cultivar
• Poor nutrient application
• Lychee mite problems
• Lack of mulching
• Poor fruit set
• Small fruit size

Cause of high yields

• Use of good high yielding cultivar

• Winter, pre-blooming and fruiting stage application of organic manure, nitrogen, phosphorous and potash as per recommendation.

• Spray of micronutrient (Multiplex), 3 times from pre-blooming to fruiting stage.

• Liming every year at the rate 100 g lime per plant.

• Use of growth regulator (Miraculan, Atonic and Pencibao) before blooming and after blooming.

• Mulching and small water application over mulching 3 times during blooming to fruit set.

• Use of drip irrigation

• Well managed spray schedule for controlling pests and diseases.

• Use of Mycorrhiza in soil from an old orchard at the time of planting.

• Excellent harvest method i.e. removing only the fruit cluster with panicle.

• All central and thick unproductive branches are removed annually during winter months and hence all the branches easily receive the sunlight.

7. MARKETING

At present domestic production of lychee is inadequate and 60 percent of the consumed fruits are imported from India. It is also reported that some quantities are also exported to India from the Eastern Terai districts of Nepal.

In some cases, contractors go to the orchards, negotiate with owners and buy the fruits when they are still on the trees. The owners know roughly how many lychee fruits there are in each tree. Once agreement is reached farmers receive an advance ranging from 10-25 percent of the total cost of the fruits from the orchard. Thereafter the contractors hire watchmen to look after the fruits, which means that the whole responsibility for the orchard is shifted from the farmers to the contractors. Once the fruits are harvested, they are graded, packed and sold to the fruit wholesaler who sells them to retailers and finally retailers sell them to the consumers.

In some cases groups of lychee farmers harvest their fruit individually and bring them to a collection center. After grading, packing, and weighing the fruit is brought directly to the wholesalers and sold at wholesale price. Some percentage of the income of each farmer goes to the group. The total cost of transport etc. is shared by all the members based on the quantity of lychee sold and income received.

Sometimes some individual farmers also sell their fruit directly to the wholesalers or retailers or even to the consumers.

8. POTENTIAL FOR LYCHEE PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT

In view of the availability of suitable climate and soils, adequate land area for further expansion, road accessibility, and farmer's interest and enthusiasm in lychee farming, the area under lychee can be increased significantly.

Looking into the huge domestic and even export markets, the markets for fresh lychee are unlimited, especially as lychee produced in Nepal are superior in quality due to absence of sunburn in the fruits. Also, as hill lychee fruits are harvested after the Terai fruits are finished the continued supply of fruit over a longer period for various markets is ensured.

Income from lychee farming is higher and more regular than that of mango where alternate and shy bearing is common. Consequently, many farmers in the Terai are now shifting from mango to lychee farming.

9. CONSTRAINTS OF LYCHEE PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT

Lack of a research programme

Although lychee is one of the very important cash generating fruit crops for both small and large farmers, the research on this crop is absolutely lacking. As a result, the generation of technologies leading to increasing productivity, quality and marketability have not been developed.

Large seed varieties

Most of the varieties used in Nepal contain large seeds and hence, these fruits are not attractive in the markets and also among the consumers. The introduction or selection of small seeded varieties from existing cultivars is therefore urgently needed.

Shortage of high quality planting materials

Today lychee is propagated by air-layering from any available mother plant variety without considering fruit quality, plant vigour and maturity. Propagation from a well identified variety by nurserymen and the Government farm is necessary. Production of large numbers of healthy plants from top quality mother plants through tissue culture or micro-propagation is urgently needed. It has been observed that those plants produced by Government farms or private nurseries are weak, lean and thin, while roots and minimum height and twigs and branches are not well developed. They usually sell small one-year-old plants. When such seedlings are planted by the farmers, many plants die and those that survive also have poor growth and poor establishment.

Lack of skill in extension agencies

In Nepal extension agents transfer the technologies and these agents have very poor know-how and skills on lychee farming. Also there is no training programme for either farmers or extension agents.

Inappropriate pruning/harvesting methods

Wrong harvesting methods of fruits is also one of the reasons for declining yields in succeeding years. Similarly, retaining central unproductive branches in the tree is another reason for low productivity and low quality.

Post-harvest technologies

Lack of cultivars suitable for long distance travel and long storability without losing quality are problems faced during transportation to markets.

Tall and large trees

The fruit produced by tall and large trees are very difficult to harvest and the harvested fruits have poor quality and increased labour cost for picking. Dwarf trees producing high quality fruits are necessary for increasing the area, production, and productivity of this crop.

10. GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PLANS FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Although lychee is an important fruit crop suitable for cash income generation for small, poor, rich and large farmers of the hills and Terai, research activities addressing the problems faced by lychee growers are lacking. This is due to fact that the Government in the 9th five-year plan has given high priority to orange and apple and low priority for sub-tropical fruit crops like lychee. At the same time, trained, skilled, experienced and qualified manpower for research is lacking.

Similarly, development programmes like the pocket development programme, quality plant production, distribution, extension, training etc. are also almost lacking. However, it is felt by the Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Khumaltar that research activities addressing major problems limiting the production, productivity and quality of lychee fruit should be initiated in a well identified research station and farmers fields from the beginning of the 10th five year plan (2001 to 2006). Once the technologies are available the mechanism to involve private nurseries for the production of healthy sapling, lychee growers, NGOs, INGOs and Government extension agencies will be developed for launching a lychee programme in selected villages and districts during the 10th five year plan.

11. CONCLUSIONS

It is very encouraging that in the absence of Government priority on a lychee development programme, the area under lychee has been increasing and farmers were found to be very enthusiastic over lychee farming. The lychee crop is becoming attractive among the farmers due to its regular and stable income generating capabilities compared to mango and banana in the Terai.

To enhance a lychee development programme in Nepal, research in following areas should be launched immediately.

• Small seeded but large red fruit producing productive variety selection. There are large numbers of such genotypes available in farmer’s fields and the areas should be surveyed and potential genotypes collected, vegetatively propagated, and evaluated at the NARC station or in farmers fields.

• Productive dwarf tree selection. Large trees are a problem for harvesting. However, small or dwarf trees were also observed both in hill and Terai farmers fields. Collection and evaluation of such material is necessary.

• Lychee has the highest mortality rate and poor plant establishment in Nepal after planting up to 2 years of age. Research on this area is very essential for motivating farmers in lychee farming.

• Wrong harvest methods and practices are reducing the life of the plant and decreasing the yield. Investigations in this area are equally important.

• Incapability of producing healthy and standard plants by the private nurseries and the Government farms are another problem for research. Standard propagation techniques and raising healthy sapling means should also be investigated and the producers should be trained.

• A skilled manpower development programme both for researchers and development agency staff through training is necessary.

• Similarly, farmer’s knowledge and skills must be enriched through running a field-based training and visit programme in lychee growing areas where modern but sustainable technologies are developed and used.

• Research and development on use of Mycorrhiza and Azotobacters should be initiated to improve soil fertility and crop productivity as sustainable soil fertility improvement measures.