Kinnow is a citrus hybrid developed at the University of California in 1935 and brought to Punjab in the 1950s. It suits the climate of the south-western districts and the Abohar belt became the centre of its cultivation.
It is now grown on both sides of the border and is Pakistan's largest fruit export. The Abohar and Sargodha belts are the two great kinnow districts and neither knows much about the other.
It is the clearest successful example of crop diversification in Punjab, and it took decades and required processing, grading and cold chain infrastructure to work.
It is also seasonal, perishable and price-volatile, and orchards take years to come into bearing, which is a large risk for a farmer who can plant paddy and be paid a guaranteed price in five months.
That comparison is the whole diversification problem in one sentence.
The fruit is a cross of two mandarins made in California and brought to Punjab through the agricultural university's programme in the 1950s and 1960s.
The trees take five to seven years to bear, which is the barrier. A farmer switching out of paddy carries five years without income and has no procurement guarantee at the end of it.
Processing is the missing link. Punjab has very little juice or concentrate capacity, so the whole crop has to move as fresh fruit within weeks of picking.