Dragon fruit growers rake in the moolah

Lucknow: Two and a half years ago, Ram Sakal Yadav, a young farmer in Kaushambhi district, had almost packed his bags.  He was set to migrate to Mumbai in search of a job that would ensure him a steady income.

“Our agricultural income was reducing and the family was increasing. I had no option but to migrate and feed the family,” he recalls.

It was Akhand Pratap Singh, the then district magistrate of Kaushambhi, who persuaded Ram Sakal Yadav to stay back and try out an alternative.

The district magistrate had got saplings of the dragon fruit from West Bengal and he encouraged Yadav and other farmers to plant it. Initially, not many were willing to experiment but later about 60 framers agreed to plant the sapling.

“Within 18 months, the fruits appeared. No one in the village had seen these types of fruits. The district magistrate made arrangements to send the fruit to Mumbai and Delhi and then the profits started pouring in,” says Yadav.

Sources, however, insist that the first crop of the fruit was consumed by farmers from the district who wanted to savour its taste. With help from horticulture experts, the local farmers not only started planting trees but even started cultivating saplings that could be exported.

“Degan phal’, (as the fruit is known in local parlance) ne hamari kismet badal di”, says Binda Devi, a 62 year old widow, who has a daughter-in-law and four grandchildren to take care of after her son abandoned them and left home four years ago.  Explaining the technique of dragon fruit farming, Binda Devi says that the tree is very fragile and needs to be supported by wooden planks.  “You can use one wooden plank to support four trees that require mild watering. The fruits star appearing by the end of 18 months and each tree can yield up to 60 to 120 fruits. The officers have helped us understand the details of ‘degan phal’ farming,” she says.

A horticulture expert D.K. Trivedi said that the soil of Kaushambhi was conducive for dragon fruit farming.

“The fruit, also known as ‘pitaya’, sells in big cities at Rs 250 to 300 per kilogram and the only major cost of cultivation is the wooden planks that are needed to support the tree. One tree yields fruits for several years and animals do not eat it because of the thorns around it”, he said.

The fact that dragon fruit is said to be helpful in the treatment of diseases like diabetes and asthma and has anti-aging and anti-cancer properties, has also made it popular in the region.

The district horticulture officer Mewa Ram, meanwhile, says that there are about 7500 dragon fruit trees now in Kaushambhi and the fruit from here is sold in Mumbai, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. The farmers have even created a page on Facebook called Dragon Fruit Kaushambhi where they have posted photographs of the dragon fruit and tree.