Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 17: Farming of rare ‘Dragon Fruit’ in Jammu is astonishing but Harbans Lal, a farmer from Purkhoo area, is doing this from the year 2019.
In an exclusive interaction with the Excelsior, Harbans Lal informed that from the last year he has extended the area for growing Dragon Fruit to 20 kanal in which he has grown about 5000 plants and is earning handsome profits from it.
“But things were not the same initially and the success came after about two years of start when in five kanal land even less than one fourth of the crop was successful which fetched me only Rs. 1.5 lakh,” the farmer said.
He said that today the price of this fruit is Rs. 250 per kg and he sells it at Narwal Mandi while some people, who suffer from certain diseases and need it, also collect the fruit from his home.
Harbans informed that apart from him some more farmers in Purkhoo area have now started Dragon Fruit farming.
He said that he brings saplings of this fruit plant from Hyderabad, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Ludhiana and a plant of Dragon Fruit bears fruits for at least 25 years.
“These plants start bearing fruits in the month of May-June and fruit bearing lasts till the month of October,” Harbans Lal maintained adding: “The Dragon Fruit plant needs temperature not more than 36 degree Celsius and slight watering and this farming gives very positive results.”
He informed that he also travelled to Vietnam to know more about Dragon Fruit farming and now he motivates many farmers to grow this fruit as there are many patients of diabetes and other diseases who need this fruit in Jammu.
“At the very start of this farming I brought saplings from Jallandhar where the seller offered me Rs. 50 more than the price of the fruit in Jammu but I preferred that people of Jammu should benefit first,” Harbans Lal continued.
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