Bio-enzymes from kinnow

Subject – Environment

Context – some Punjab farmers are creating bio-enzymes from kinnow

Concept –

The start of kinnow season in Punjab also brings with it the falling fruit, which is considered a total waste by farmers. But this fallen fruit can prove a boon to improve soil, water, air, depleting ground water, water contamination and overall ecology.
- Not only can plant health be improved, it also helps prevent indiscriminate usage of chemical sprays of fungicides and bacterial diseases on crops, especially vegetables, tuber crops like potato and cereals.
- Farmers can collect these dropped fruits from their kinnow fields and prepare bio-enzymes (BEs) at a low cost.
- Around100 farmers in Punjab, especially in the kinnow belt, have started making BEs from this waste fruit — peel and ‘D’ grade, very small kinnows.

What are bio-enzymes?

Bio-enzymes are organic solutions produced through fermentation of organic waste including various fruits, vegetable peels and flowers, by mixing in sugar, jaggery/molasses and water.
It takes 60-100 days to ferment organic waste.
To fasten the fermentation, yeast can be used as culture to prepare it in 45-50 days.
BE’s also have a lot of usage in our daily lives.

Kinnow –

Kinnow is a year-long duration crop and the main harvesting period is from November-end to March, but some varieties of citrus fruit start coming into the markets in October.
Horticulture department experts say nearly 15-20 per cent (1.5 lakh to 2 lakh tonnes) of the total kinnow production falls from the tree before and during the harvesting period.
- Experts say the fallen fruit is a major challenge for kinnow farmers in the state as one needs to dig up small pits to bury them, otherwise the fallen fruit rot and invite a fly attack on the healthy fruit still on the plants.
But now, some farmers are using this waste kinnow to improve the pH level and soil fertility of their land by making BEs from this waste fruit.

Formula to prepare BEs

40 plastic drums having 500 litres capacity each (a one-time investment) to which added 99 kg kinnow, 33 kg jaggery and 330 litres water in each and tightened the lid, which needs to be loosened up for a few seconds every day for 30 days to release the gas due to fermentation process.
After 30 days, the lid is opened in the same manner on a gap of two days for two weeks and then the drum is kept air-tight and opened occasionally.
The bio-enzymes are finally ready in three and half months.
We can use it for a whole year in the form of spray on vegetables and mixing it with field irrigation.

Advantages –

Effect of citrus BEs on crop disease showed good results against bacterial diseases like black rot, bacterial canker on crops like cabbage broccoli, cauliflower, kale, turnip, tomato, radish and oilseeds etc. and showed good results on fungal diseases like collar rot, root rot, damping off and wire stem on the crops like rice, cereals, potato, tomato, sugar beet, cabbage, soya bean, cucumber etc. and it worked moderately on cotton, melon, onion, Banana, soyabean against wilt, crown rot like fungal diseases.
BEs have a lot of good microbes and one of the major methods which helps overall improvement of our ecology and helps in mitigating the imbalance, which has occurred due to overuse of chemicals, in our soil, air and water.
In a state like Punjab where water table is depleting fast and water contamination is also major issue, BEs can bring the soil back to life which helps in better water recharging and also stop the contamination of water by improving the health of soil.