A horticulture expert’s efforts make Kolar jackfruit farm a tourist attraction

The efforts of a horticulture expert in the early 70s to promote the potential of jackfruit seems to be yielding fruits now. A good example for this is a jackfruit farm set up by late Mari Gowda, the father of horticulture in Karnataka, who was also the Director of Horticulture in the state in the 70s, in Kolar district of Karnataka.

BG Prakash, Dean of College of Horticulture, Tamaka, Kolar district, said the Tamaka jackfruit farm in the district was established in the 70s by late Mari Gowda. He took efforts to bring different varieties of jackfruit from various places in the country, and cultivate them in a dry-land area like Kolar.

With around 1600 jackfruit trees, this farm is probably one of the largest jackfruit farms in the country. He said that 49 varieties of jackfruit are grown in this farm.

Stating that jackfruit crop has been attracting the attention of many people now, he said Tamaka jackfruit farm gets around 10,000 tourists a year. A good number of students are also visiting this farm, he said.

Prakash said this while delivering the inaugural address at a webinar on ‘jackfruit as crop of future’, organised by the Tamaka-based College of Horticulture on Friday. The college, which came into existence in 2009, is managing this farm now.

Nagaraj KS, Assistant Professor at Fruit Science Department of the college, who addressed a technical session, highlighted the varieties identified by farm universities in the country.

He said some of the farmers’ varieties are also in good demand. In fact, Gubbi and Tiptur taluks of Tumakuru district have many varieties of red jackfruit.

He also highlighted the varieties grown and preferred by the farmers in coastal Karnataka and Maharashtra.

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