The aim behind the lease was to promote citrus fruit farming, something that was to act as the foremost initiative towards crop diversification in Punjab.
Set up in February 2006, the Citrus Council was a brainchild of the then Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. He had inked an agreement with the farmers to take about 5,000 acres of land on lease to develop citrus orchards, including of kinnow. But at present, only 2,100 acres remains in the council's possession whereas the rest has been returned to farmers.
The land was leased under two conditions: Farmers opting for 12-year lease were to get an annual Rs 10,000 per acre along with an increase of 20 per cent every three years whereas farmers opting for a six-year lease were to be given Rs 10,000 per acre along with 2 per cent hike every year.
After six years, these farmers were not to be given any money but they were to share the profit earned from the sale of the fruit with the Citrus Council on a 50:50 basis for the next six years.
On the completion of 12 years in both the cases, the council was to return the land along with the established infrastructure, including drip irrigation system, to the farmers without charging any money for developing their orchards.
Best quality citrus cultivars, rootstocks and seed of 32 varieties suitable for Punjab were imported from California by a multinational company having huge stakes in the fruit juice sector. To propagate the scheme, a nursery was established at Jallowal near Jalandhar. Many of the imported varieties were to bear fruit before or after the kinnow crop, thus making the fruit season to last at least for six months in a year without creating any glut in the market.
However, the project has almost collapsed now, allegedly because of political reasons and the unprofessional approach of the bureaucrats concerned, say insiders.
The Association of Land Owners of Citrus Orchards claims the project still had great potential for the state. Its members say after the change of guard in 2007, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was not "properly briefed" on the project, following which it did not receive the desired support from the state government.
Association president Reet Mohinder Singh said farmers were still interested in keeping the project going but that would not be possible without the government's support.
Reet Mohinder said some of the imported varieties such as 'Daisy Tangerine' and 'W. Murcott' were of high quality and its plants were in high demand. Even some farmers in the Chief Minister's Badal village had opted for these varieties, he said.
Another farmer whose land has also been leased by the council demanded that the government should not back-out from the agreements signed with the farmers. He said there was no provision in most of the agreements signed with them that the council could terminate the pact before the expiry of the lease period.
Under the agreement, the council was bound to fulfill the commitments made to the farmers, he said. He also said the affected farmers were consulting legal experts to move the Punjab and Haryana High Court to get the agreement honoured in letter and spirit.
