Punjab forays into papaya cultivation,with 900 trees

Dr Baz said they brought the Taiwanese variety Red Lady of the crop from Solapur district in Maharashtra to explore its possibilities in Punjab. Several laboratory experiments later,they zeroed in on a progressive farmer,Karamjit Singh,of Wadala Veeram village.

The cultivation of Red Lady is also done on a large-scale at Bijapur area in Karnataka and some areas in Tamil Nadu.

Dr Baz said that with Karamjit Singhs farm dotted with small papaya plants,he has received requests for its cultivation from other parts of the state. He now envisages to plant more than 20,000 more papaya saplings this season.

The farmers,Dr Baz said,want to adopt the cash crop in order to shed the traditional cycle of wheat and rice sowing.

Earlier,farmers in these border districts were reluctant to go for the crop due to harsh,frosty conditions. Now that some varieties of fruits have withstood the harsh weather conditions,they are willing to take up their cultivation, said Deputy Commissioner,Amritsar,Kahan Singh Pannu,who is also an expert on agricultural economy.

Karamjit Singh said he had first successfully tried his hands at Culture variety of bananas that withstood winter conditions.

It was during a chance meeting with the Horticulture department officials that I learnt that plantation of papaya is possible. Thus,the farm, he said.

I had long shed the traditional pattern of crops and took to growing vegetables on my 10 acres of farm. The returns were healthy but upon calculation I found that profits from papaya would be manifold. While one acre of wheat gives a farmer around Rs 40,000,vegetables give up to Rs 80,000. At the same time,papaya on an acre of land would fetch anything close to Rs two lakh. This encouraged me to shift from vegetables to horticulture now, he said.

Another advantage of the Taiwanese variety is that one does not need to plant 10 per cent male plants on the farm,as the variety is hermaphrodite in nature. One acre of field can have 900 plants.

The plantation is done in the months of September-October and the fruiting starts in the month of May,which continues till December, said Pannu,adding that a team of horticulture department visited Solapur area and brought saplings to distribute amongst the farmers here.

He added that if the trend is sustained,Punjabs farmers will have a viable and alternative not only to the traditional crops but even to the vegetables.

He said though Punjab Agriculture University PAU had recommended growing some varieties of papaya,its commercial cultivation was never taken up in the state.

After successfully introducing banana cultivation,our focus is papaya now, he said,adding that their studies have concluded that consumption pattern of papaya here is up to 2000 metric tonnes and the annual increase of the fruit8217;s production is 10 per cent.

Papaya is currently being planted on a trial basis at eleven acres of land, Pannu said.