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About /Vegetables/Garlic
Garlic is the second most widely
used cultivated allium after onion. It has long been recognized all
over the world as a valuable spice for foods and a popular remedy
for various ailments and physiological disorders.
It is grown through out Pakistan and consumed by most of the
people. It is used practically all over the world for flavouring
various dishes. In America about 50% of the entire output of fresh
garlic is dehydrated and sold to food processors.
In Pakistan, middle east and other countries, it is already
being used in several food preparation especially in dishes, curry
powders, curried vegetables, meat preparation, tomato ketchup etc.
The important garlic producing countries in the world are china,
Turkey, India, Thailand, Korea, Egypt, Pakistan etc.
Garlic is considered as a rich source of carbohydrates,
protein, phosphorous. Ascorbic acid content was reported to be very
high in green garlic. Nutritive composition of fresh peeled garlic
and dehydrated garlic powder as reported by Puthi (1979) is
presented in table No. 1. Table 1.
Particular |
Fresh
peeled garlic cloves |
Dehydrated
garlic powder
|
Moisture%
|
62.80
|
5.20
|
Protien%
|
6.30
|
17.50
|
Fat%
|
0.10
|
0.60
|
mineral
matter%
|
1.00
|
3.20
|
Fibre%
|
0.80
|
1.90
|
Carbohydrates%
|
29.00
|
71.40
|
Calcium%
|
0.03
|
0.10
|
Phosphours%
|
0.31
|
0.42
|
Potassium%
|
-
|
1.10
|
Iron%
|
0.001
|
0.004
|
Niacin%
|
-
|
0.70
|
Sodium%
|
-
|
0.01
|
Vitamin
A.I.U.
|
0.0
|
175.00
|
Nicotinic
acid(mg/100g)
|
0.40
|
-
|
Vitamin
C (mg/100g)
|
13.00
|
12.00
|
Vitamin
B(mg/100g)
|
-
|
0.68
|
Vitamin
B2 (mg/100g) |
-
|
0.08
|
The uninjured bulb contains a colourless, odourless water
soluble amino acid alliin. On crushing the garlic bulb, the enzyme
allinase breaks down allin to produce allicin which is the principal
ingredient of the odoriferous dialy11 disulfide.
Area and production of garlic crop in different provinces of
Pakistan are mentioned in Table No.2. The area under garlic crop in
Punjab, Sind and N.W.F.P are almost same while area under this crop
in Blochistan is many fold less. Average production (tonnes/ha) was
more in NWFP and Punjab as compared to Sind and Balochistan (Table
No. 2).
Table
-2
Area & production of garlic crop in Pakistan
Province |
Area
(000 hectare)
|
Production
(000 tonnes) |
Average
Production (tonnes/ha)
|
|
1997-98
|
1998-99
|
1997-98
|
1998-99
|
1997-98
|
1998-99
|
Punjab
|
2.7 |
2.9
|
28.9
|
30.0
|
10.70
|
10.34
|
Sindh
|
2.8 |
2.8
|
17.4
|
17.5
|
6.21
|
6.25
|
NWFP
|
2.8 |
2.9
|
29.6
|
30.9
|
10.57
|
10.66
|
Baluchistan
|
0.5 |
0.6
|
3.9
|
4.3
|
7.80
|
7.17
|
Pakistan
|
8.8
|
9.2
|
79.8
|
82.7
|
9.07
|
8.99
|
Fruit, vegetable and condiments statistic of Pakistan 1998-99 (MINFAL,
March, 2000)
Production
Technology
Soil
Fertile, well drained and loamy soil is required for high yield.
Heavy and hard soil significantly affect the bulb size and yield.
Climate
Garlic is frost resistant crop requires cool period during early
growth and dry period near maturity. The increase in day length from
8 to 12 hrs increase the bulb weight, bulb diameter and number of
cloves and reduce the number of secondary leaves.
Time of Planting & Method of
Sowing
Garlic is planted in
single clove but bulbils are also used occasionally. In hilly area,
this crop is planted in March-April where in plains, it is planted
from August to Oct.
The
quantity of planting material required per area depend on clove size
and number of cloves per bulb. A distance of 15 to 20 cm (row to
row) and 8 to 10 cm (plant to plant) is recommended.
Manuring
and Fertilizer Requirement
Garlic
responds very well to organic manure, application of 16-20 tonnes/acre
at the time of field preparation is recommended. Application of
N:P:K @ 75:85:55 kg produce higher yield. At the time of planting,
half of nitrogen along with full dose of P and K should be used, the
remaining half of nitrogen be applied 30-45 days after planting.
Irrigation
and interculture
Garlic crop needs irrigation once in a week during vegetative growth
and at 10-15 days interval near maturation. Garlic is a closely
planted crop which requires 3-5 manual hoeing for higher yield.
However weeding is tedious, expensive and often damage the plants
therefore weeds can be controlled by using oxadiazon (0.5 lit/acre)
and pendimethalin (1.0 lit/acre), as pre-emergence weedicides.
Harvesting
yield
The crop is ready for harvest when the tops turn brownish and show
signs of drying up and bend over. The bulbs mature in 4-6 months
after plantation depending upon the climate.
Average garlic bulb yield is about 6 to 10 tonnes/hectare in
different areas of Pakistan (table No. 2). However, a yield of 21.0
tonnes/hectare was obtained by cultivar chinese at NARC (Table No.3)
Table
3
Data regarding maturity, yield and other characteristics
obtained during 1998-99 at NARC.
Cultivar |
Days
to maturity
|
Yield
(tonnes/ha)
|
Avg.
wt(g)/bulb |
Avg.wt.(g)/clove
|
Chinese
(Exotic)
|
207 |
21.30
|
81.45
|
5.13
|
Lehson Ghulabi (local)
|
190
|
9.49
|
39.10
|
1.73
|
GS-I
(local) |
185 |
9.03 |
38.92 |
1.07 |
Mehmood
et al, 2000 (Sarhad J. Of
Agri.).
Import
and Export and Price
Data regarding import/export and prices are presented in Table 4 and
5.
Table
4 Import and export of
garlic crop.
Year
|
Export
|
Import
|
|
Quantity
(Tonnes)
|
Value
(000 Rs.)
|
Quantity
(Tonnes)
|
Value
(000 Rs.)
|
1996-97
|
90
|
995
|
17
|
331
|
1997-98
|
-
|
-
|
1657
|
37456
|
1998-99 |
3001 |
64549 |
29785 |
562374 |
Fruit,
vegetable and condiments statistics of Pakistan 1998-99 (MINFAL,
March, 2000)
Table
5
Monthly whole sale prices (Rs. Per 40 kgs) of garlic in 1998
in main market.
Months |
Lahore |
Hyderabad |
Peshawar |
Quetta
|
January |
1453
|
715
|
937
|
1427
|
February
|
2344
|
1060
|
1115
|
1774
|
March
|
1099
|
1013
|
1150
|
1740
|
April
|
691
|
824
|
990
|
1002
|
May
|
686
|
605
|
750
|
694
|
June
|
863
|
630
|
675
|
1004
|
July
|
1092
|
768
|
911
|
1226
|
August
|
1197
|
710
|
1248
|
1548
|
September
|
1048
|
647
|
1350
|
1447
|
October
|
1035
|
610
|
1293
|
899
|
November
|
1132
|
585
|
1120
|
919
|
December
|
1234
|
595
|
1156
|
1034
|
Avg.
|
1156.17
|
730.17
|
1057.92
|
1226.17
|
Fruit, vegetable and condiments statistic of Pakistan 1998-99 (MINFAL,
March, 2000).
Storage
Garlic bulbs can be best stored for 3-4 months in well ventilated
room. Storability is also affected by emzyme activity and the
cultivars most suitable for storage have generally have low
ascorbate and polyosenol oxidase activity. Application of 2500 or
5000 ppm MH as foliar spray before harvest is reported to inhibit
sprouting in storage up to 300 days without any appreciable adverse
effects on yield. The treatment also reduced the loss in weight of
bulbs stored at low temperature (1.0 to 8.0C).
Pests
Best control of garlic rust (Puccinia
allii) can be obtained with Mancozeb
80 w.p. @ 1.92 kg/ha. Fusarium rot in stored garlic caused by Fusarium
oxysporum and F. solani can also be controlled by
fumigation with fermalin (Rath and Motharty, 1980)
Stored garlic is observed to be infested by larvae of Ephestia
elutella. Fumigation with Phosphine tablets is an effective
treatment.
References
Mehmood, T., S. I. Hussain,
Khalid Mahmood Khokhar and M. H. Bhati (2000) Accepted for
publication in Sarhad J. of Agriculture. Anonymous
(2000) Fruti, Vegetable and Condiments of Pakistan. MINFAL, GOP of
Pakistan. Pruthi J.S. (1979)
Spices and Condiments. Nat. Book Trust, India. pp 125-32. Rath,
G.C., and Mohanty G.N. (1980) Indian Phytopath 39;614-15.
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