Girish’s experiments with his farmlands in Vadodara

Farmers’ entrepreneurship, experimentation, and agricultural skills have always given new dimensions, results, and crops. In the dry and sandy regions of Kutch, saffron is grown, and in Jamnagar, exotic dragon fruit is cultivated. Farmers from North Gujarat, despite failing multiple times, have resiliently tried to grow saffron. Apples, similarly, are conventionally considered as the crop of cold regions like Himachal Pradesh. The idea of ​​growing it in the hot climate of Gujarat might seem unfeasible at first sight. However, Girishbhai Patel, a farmer from Vemar village in Karjan Taluka made it happen with about 220 apple trees on his farm. He planted these Himalayan trees in Gujarat in January 2019.

To clarify this anomaly of growing apples in regions like Vadodara, he said that the Horticulture Research Institute of Himachal Pradesh had developed an improved variety that could be grown experimentally in 18 states. In Gujarat, a horticultural entrepreneur from Kutch grew these apples without getting frustrated after a failed first attempt. Inspired by him, Girish commenced this experiment in Vadodara after contacting an organization in Himachal Pradesh to get the seedlings and apple trees from an organization in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Thus, he got certified plants at low transportation costs.

In the second year of planting, i.e. 2020, when these plants began to flourish and bear fruit, he was left pleasantly surprised. The advisory body advised Girish to pluck the flowers and fruits immediately as they mature. Hence, in 2022, when the plant matures, the fruits can be harvested. The people of Vadodara, accustomed to eating apples from Himachal, would also be able to try out a variety of apples from Vemar.
The apples of this variety, Harman 99, are yellow-pink in color and sweet in taste.

He bought 300 plants at about Rs. 300 per plant, including transportation costs. He planted it in place of the discarded eucalyptus, but as many as 80 plants were damaged and he contacted the organization. They said that if water accumulated around the trunk of the plant, it would die. Since the crop was most suited to sloping soils, Girish formed ridges, avoiding waterlogging around the trunks, resulting in about 220 healthy plants.

The family of Girish Patel has a thriving stationery business in Karjan. Yet he is attached to the land, and at a time when other farmers are selling lands for cash, he has increased his share of 18 bighas of land to 22 bighas. He has planted 300 Kesar mango trees and had been cultivating Eucalyptus successfully since 2003. Contrary to traditional farming fields of cotton and pulses, he only harvests trees. He said that this kind of farming was as profitable as traditional farming, and the effort was less.

The State Horticulture department also took note of his experiment. As per them, they would try and give benefits of the incentive scheme of the Government of India to farmers who take up new crops like apples. Yogeshbhai, Horticulture Officer, Office of the Deputy Director of Horticulture, Vadodara, visited the farm of Girish when he came to know about apple cultivation in Vemar and congratulated him for the new experiment.

He said that Apple is not the prevalent fruit crop of Gujarat so it was not included in their horticulture promotion schemes but with the inclusion of a wide range of fruit crops in the Government of India’s National Sustainable Agriculture Scheme, new crops such as apples were expected to benefit farmers. As the cluster of this scheme includes Vemar, including Kurali and Dhavat of Karjan taluka, they are exploring the possibility of providing incentive benefits under this scheme.