Introduction
The
almond, known as the king of nuts among
dry fruits,
is a highly nutritious food. It is rich in almost all the elements
needed by tile body. It is an effective health-building food, both for
the body and mind and a valuable food remedy for several common
ailments.
Production area
The
almond cultivation in India is restricted to selected hilly
areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Almond
growing has gained popularity in Himachal Pradesh. However, on the
whole, only around 1,700 tonnes of nuts are produced from an area of
2,400 hectares in Jammu and Kashmir and some 100 hectares in Himachal
Pradesh.
Growth promotional activities
The J&K government has formulated
almond development
program for bringing additional 12000 hectares more area under its
cultivation in a phased manner. Presently, an area of 18870 hectares is
under almond cultivation with total production of 9672 metric tones. The
experts have suggested strategies for increasing almond fruit set and
artificial pollination with bouquets. The research has indicated that
the bouquets increased the fruit set and the affected decreased rapidly
with the distance even with a tree. The pollen germination tests
revealed no differences between one day old flowers from cut or intact
limbs. Then the bud pollination was found to be very effective as it
would accept pollen from the same flower and would overcome self-
compatibility and highest fruit set was 5.66 per cent in Jammu and
Kashmir.
Almond Types
There are two varieties of almond,
sweet almond and
bitter
almond. There are thin-skinned and thick-skinned among the sweet
variety. The thin-skinned, known as Kagzi in vernacular, is the best for
use. The bitter variety of almonds should not be used as they contain
prussic acid, a deadly poison. They have, however, some commercial
importance and are used for producing almond oil, perfume and cosmetics.
