Gurugram: The Haryana government plans to subsidise and facilitate the visit of farmers to Vietnam for training in the production of the exotic dragon fruit.
Commonly grown in Vietnam, dragon fruit is gaining popularity here because of its low maintenance and high profitability.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar made the announcement Saturday at the 50th episode of ‘CM Ki Vishesh Charcha’, a virtual interaction with the public that was first started during the Covid pandemic.
“Some progressive farmers demanded in the last episode that they wanted to visit Vietnam for training. We have decided that the government will provide them with some subsidy to facilitate their visit and stay,” he said.
“I have told the agriculture and farmers’ welfare department to prepare a detailed proposal in this regard so that a policy can be framed to subsidise their visit.”
Khattar also put out a video of his interaction on social media Saturday.
Speaking to ThePrint Tuesday, Sudesh Kataria, chief media coordinator for Khattar, explained that some dragon fruit farmers had met him and stressed on the need for training in Vietnam for better crops.
“I also visited a farm in Gharaunda (in Karnal district) and found that the dragon fruit is a highly rewarding crop and if farmers could get proper training, they can earn better,” said Kataria.
According to information from the agriculture ministry, as of July 2022, the total area under farming of exotic/foreign fruits in Haryana was 170 hectares (425 acres) with an annual production of 3,080 metric tonne. This included areas under all types of exotic fruits, such as kiwis and passion fruit.
Kuldeep Singh, a progressive farmer who runs ‘Rana Dragon Fruit Farm’ in Gharaunda, told ThePrint that exotic fruits have good prospects but few farmers in Haryana were into their farming because of lack of knowledge and training.
“My dragon fruit farm is spread over 2.5 acres and is probably the biggest in the state. Most of the farmers in Haryana are undertaking dragon fruit farming on less than an acre as they are not able to take risks because of lack of training,” said Singh, adding that he had visited Vietnam twice in 2023.
According to him, the quality of the dragon fruit produced in Haryana was very good and he had produced dragon fruits weighing up to 1.36 kg on his farm.
However, Virender Lather, a former principal scientist at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, believes that farming of dragon fruits can’t be a remunerative option for farmers in the long run because of a lack of market in India.
“Any fruit which is not consumed by people at large can’t find a market. Exotic fruits are largely used in five-star hotels and during weddings. Until the farming of this fruit is at a small scale, it is fine. But the moment its farming increases, farmers will find difficulty in marketing the product. This happened with strawberry, when several farmers in Haryana, particularly in Sirsa district, opted for strawberry farming. They soon had to stop because of lack of market,” Lather told ThePrint.
Arjun Singh Saini, director general of the Haryana horticulture department, said that Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand were the countries where dragon fruit was being grown on large areas.
He added that the agriculture department was formulating a scheme for providing subsidies to farmers if they wished to go abroad for training purposes. The scheme, he explained, would be all inclusive and would be for training in other crops as well.
Asked about the current status of dragon fruit farming in Haryana, Saini said that the fruit was so far being grown on 40 to 50 acres of land.
Regarding the total production and returns per acre, Saini said that the dragon fruit was not an approved crop in Haryana, and hence the department didn’t maintain any records of this nature.
According to Lather, an approved crop is one that has been designated as such by the government after due research by the agriculture institutes, and only approved crops are eligible for crop insurance, minimum support price, etc.
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‘There is much to learn’
According to Singh, farming of dragon fruits in Haryana “provides farmers an income of Rs 5 lakh per acre, which is five times more than any of the highest-rewarding traditional crops”.
“This is when we harvest for nearly three months in a year while in Vietnam, farmers are harvesting throughout the year with proper training and management.”
Singh said he visited Vietnam in March for three days and then again in October last year for nearly 15 days.
“During our first visit, we were 12 people, of which three were from Haryana. We had learning sessions in the Southern Horticulture Research Institute at Long Dinh, where Dang Thuy Linh, principal scientist, trained us about fertigation and day-to-day practices, disease prevention and management, pest control and management, and soil preparation for dragon fruit farming,” he added.
According to Singh, the farmers collected data and research papers on dragon fruit farming and went to plantations for on-ground learning.
He said that for his next visit, he had already tied up with a Vitenamese dragon fruit farmer, and he and other farmers spent 14 days on his farm to understand the farming practices. This was because it takes 14 to 15 days for the dragon fruit plant to flower from the floral bud stage. The fruit matures in another 30 to 35 days from the flowering stage.
“I could afford to visit Vietnam myself but other small dragon fruit farmers can’t do so. Hence, we requested the CM to subsidise visits so that we can learn various techniques. There is much to learn about how to manage pests, because fungal infections are common on dragon fruits. Also, many varieties of the fruit can be produced by cross-breeding of plants. We want to visit Vietnam again for a longer duration to learn the techniques needed for dragon fruit farming,” Singh told ThePrint.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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