Kinnows/Citrus of Toba Tek Singh

Report by: Muhammad Jarrar Ahmed (Secretary General, Agri. Education Pakistan;

Assistant Editor, Vet. News & Views)

Toba Tek Singh was named after a Sikh religious figure Tek Singh is located in

central Punjab occupies 3252 square kilometres of Pakistan. Density of population in the

district is 589 persons per square Kilometre. The majority of people living in this district have

profession of agriculture and it produce several kind of agricultural and dairy products like

meat, eggs, cotton, maize, several pulses, peach, guava, tomato, melon, water melon, mango,

tobacco and onion Toba Tek Singh is very well known for Poultry and Tunnel farming too.

Citrus Farms of Muhammad Jarrar Ahmed (Secretary General, Agri. Education Pakistan; Assistant

Editor, Vet. News & Views) at Toba Tek Singh

District Toba Tek Singh is one of the best producers of orange locally known as

“kinnow”. It contributes towards export standard quality of orange produced in all Pakistan.

The annual average production was 122 thousand Mon Tons over the period 2005-08.

Citrus of Muhammad Jarrar Ahmed’s farm at Toba Tek Singh

The soil and climatic conditions in Pakistan especially in Toba Tek Singh have given

the Kinnow a unique beautiful golden-orange colour, its abundant juice, and its excellent

aroma and taste which distinguishes it from other comparable mandarins grown in the world.

Primarily Kinnow is in close relation with tangerine, similar in taste. Ideal conditions for

growing kinnow include abundance of water, rich nitrogen content in the soil and relatively

cool weather. Winter in the plains of Toba district, endows with an excellent atmosphere for

this fruit and the resulting fruit is sweet and has a very distinctive taste.

Its trees are highly productive. It is not uncommon to find 1000 fruits per tree. These

fruits can be stored at room temperature conditions or under cold storage conditions. The

Pakistani Kinnow season starts in December and fruits are available until the end of March.

Kinnow harvesting starts when the fruit's external colour becomes orange, from December to

February. The best harvesting time is mid-January to mid-February, when the fruit attains a

TSS/acid ratio of 12:1 to 14:1. The fruit quality declines in later pickings.

Though Pakistan is among top 10 producers but its

current export is much below than the production. Our

exporting potential is a mere eight per cent due to a big

chunk of 25 per cent going to waste on account of poor

management during harvesting, transportation, packaging,

and storage. Proper production technology, marketing and

high quality should be focussed for competing in

international markets. There is a need to follow the well

established production technology, improve post

harvesting, packaging, transportation, and storage

facilities. The storage life of fruits can be extended by 50-

100 per cent by using wax technology and of kinoow up to

30 days. Another area is an increase in export of frozen

concentrated juices of citrus and other fruits.

Muhammad Jarrar Ahmed (Secretary General, Agri. Education Pakistan; Assistant Editor, Vet.

News & Views) visiting his citrus farms at Toba Tek Singh

Satisfactory storage facilities and packing material should be made available to

growers for which private sector may be buoyant to step in. Unskilled labour should be

trained to convert it to skilled on better cultivating, harvesting and post-harvesting techniques

of citrus.