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Some progressive farmers in Dakshina Kannada district are making efforts to grow non-traditional fruits in the region.
After L.C. Soans of Soans Farm in Moodbidri in the district started the cultivation of rambutan four decades ago, now most of the farmers have rambutan plants in small numbers in their plantations.
Rambutan is a fruit of Malaysian origin.
L.C. Soans told Business Line that now rambutan is developed as a fruit crop in the district.
Most of the retail outlets in the district sell rambutan at around Rs 300 a kg, he said.
He used to distribute it among his close circle free-of-cost a decade ago.
Edward Takode, a farmer with small holding in Moodbidri, said that recently one of the buyers in the region had asked him to supply two quintals of rambutan fruit. Varanashi Krishnamoorthy, a farmer from Adyanadka village in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, said that he first tasted rambutan at Soans Farm two decades ago.
Soans asked him to prepare plants out of the seeds of the fruits he tasted. As a result of this, he also planted them in his farm, Krishnamoorthy said.
Asked about the reason for the popularity of non-traditional fruits, he said as the income level of people goes up, they look for different exotic fruits.
On the potential for other exotic fruits, Soans said he has got the yield of jabuticaba and abiu fruits.
Though he did not market them, he distributed them among his friends. The feedback is good, he said.
In fact, Soans recently supplied 1,000 saplings of these fruits to a farmer in Kerala.
Jabuticaba is a fruit of Brazilian origin, and tastes like grape.
Abiu is a fruit of South American origin, and tastes like sapota.
Krishnamoorthy said he has been growing ‘milk fruit’ is his farm. This fruit is sweet in taste.
Asked if he tried to market this fruit, he said he is preparing saplings of that as he finds potential in that crop.
He said that most farmers have been cultivating the non-traditional fruits on experiment basis, and not on commercial scale.
vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in
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