Seeds of change: Transition to high-value crops like strawberry, dragon fruit helps Punjab farmers earn Rs 5-6 lakh per acre

“My parents didn’t privation to relocate, truthful I decided to return. Now, I gain overmuch much than my erstwhile job, and the accent is importantly less,” Salaria says, adding that helium did not privation to turn accepted crops similar wheat and paddy arsenic they were neither profitable nor sustainable. “Paddy is simply a large h2o guzzler,” helium points out.

Today, Salaria manages a diversified 10-acre workplace cultivating strawberries, dragon fruit, watermelon, turmeric and onion. (Express Photo)

Salaria’s foray into strawberry farming began 5 years agone with conscionable fractional an acre. Today, helium dedicates 3 acres to increasing the Winter Dawn assortment of the fruit, with 24,000 to 28,000 plants per acre sourced from Pune and Himachal Pradesh. “In Pune and Mangaluru, the parent plants are imported from the USA, Canada, and Italy. These are past multiplied and sold further arsenic high-quality plants,” helium explains, underlining the value of sourcing prime plants to guarantee higher profits.

“Sowing begins successful November, but I commencement successful September truthful that by November, the plants are already yielding,” Salaria says. “My main nonsubjective successful sowing aboriginal is to participate the marketplace earlier the regular strawberry play begins successful January. By the clip astir farmers bring their nutrient to market, my harvest is already being sold from November, fetching higher prices of Rs 400-500 per kg owed to aboriginal availability.”

To guarantee optimal increasing conditions contempt the vigor successful September, Salaria uses a micro-sprinkler strategy to support the close somesthesia for the plants. The fruiting play extends until April, with a output of 90 quintals per acre. Prices initially highest astatine Rs 400-500 per kg but driblet to Rs 150-200 per kg by April arsenic marketplace proviso increases. He maximises nett by relying connected drip irrigation and water-soluble NPK fertilisers, earning up to Rs 7 lakh per acre.

“The expenditure connected strawberries, including plants, labour and nutrients, is astir Rs 6-7 lakh per acre but the net are besides substantial, astatine Rs 5-6 lakh per acre aft gathering each expenses,” helium says. Salaria besides manages the packaging himself and traders sojourn his fields to procure the produce, eliminating the request for him to merchantability successful markets.

Venturing into dragon effect cultivation

In 2019, Salaria diversified into dragon effect cultivation, dedicating 1.5 acres to the cactus-like crop. “Dragon effect farming requires an archetypal concern of Rs 6 lakh per acre for reinforced cement factual (RCC) pillars and works setup, with yearly attraction costs of Rs 1 lakh,” helium says. “On 1 acre, we person installed 500 pillars with 4 plants per pillar. Each pillar yields astir 6 kg of fruit, translating to a full output of 3,000 kg per acre. We merchantability it for Rs 350-400 per kg successful retail markets and Rs 200-250 per kg wholesale. On average, dragon effect generates Rs 7-8 lakh per acre annually.”

In 2019, Salaria diversified into dragon effect cultivation (left), dedicating 1.5 acres to the cactus-like crop. (Express Photo)

Salaria grows some achromatic and reddish varieties of dragon effect and has had nary issues with selling owed to accordant demand. “The plants are sourced from South India and are planted betwixt February and March. They statesman fruiting aft 1.5 years, but commercialized viability is achieved aft 3 years. The plants don’t request to beryllium replaced, they conscionable necessitate due attraction and maintenance,” helium adds.

To optimise onshore use, Salaria intercrops onions successful the dragon effect fields, utilising the 10-11 feet abstraction betwixt rows. In summer, helium cultivates reddish and yellowish watermelons, portion turmeric is grown connected different information of his land.

“This is simply a highly profitable concern but it requires hard enactment and attraction to item dissimilar accepted crops similar wheat and paddy which request little effort but output little returns,” Salaria notes.

A pistillate farmer’s imaginativeness to diversify

A fewer years ago, Kulwinder Kaur, who hails from Faridkot district’s Manisinghwala village, motivated her hubby Pardeep Singh to determination beyond accepted wheat and paddy farming. Singh past visited strawberry farmers, adjacent immoderate extracurricular Punjab. A mates of years back, the mates ventured into strawberry farming, investing Rs 7 lakh connected a one-acre plot, and yet extended the cultivated country by different fractional acre. Besides, they person dedicated different fractional an acre to an orchard that grows a assortment of fruits. Meanwhile, connected the remaining 13 acres of their onshore the 2 are inactive cultivating paddy and wheat, which they program to trim gradually.

“Despite the precocious archetypal investment, we earned Rs 6 lakh from 1 acre of strawberries — we could ne'er execute this with wheat and paddy,” said Kaur. (Express Photo)

“Despite the precocious archetypal investment, we earned Rs 6 lakh from 1 acre of strawberries — we could ne'er execute this with wheat and paddy,” Kaur says.

Singh says they besides cultivate bulb and greenish chillies alongside the strawberry. “With this, we are taking the income of 3 acres from the one-acre plot,” helium adds. Kaur besides emphasises the labour-intensive quality of the crop, explaining, “We person to show each works cautiously and grip the packaging ourselves to guarantee bully returns.”

They got the thought for strawberry farming from YouTube but the mates believes that authorities enactment successful providing high-quality plants locally would trim the request to procure them from South India. “We are readying to acceptable up a poly location connected 1 acre present and besides mean to commencement papaya cultivation soon arsenic we tin ne'er gain large from wheat and paddy,” says Singh, mentioning that their 1.5-acre strawberry tract besides provides employment to 5 women successful the village.

Starting small, dreaming big

An accountant-turned-farmer, Paramvir Singh, is proving that tiny beginnings tin pb to large successes. Hailing from Ambala colony successful Fatehgarh Sahib district, Paramvir and his begetter Jasvir Singh started horticulture connected a one-acre crippled successful 2023, cultivating yellowish dragon fruit, kinnow, mausambi, papaya and guava.

Paramvir’s archetypal occurrence with 2,000 dragon effect plants inspired him to grow his operations, with plans to adhd 1,500 much plants successful February. “I started with plants sourced from Karnataka but present I turn my ain and merchantability them to farmers successful Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh,” helium shares.

Jasvir Singh successful his dragon effect field. (Express Photo)

Though afloat commercialized profitability is expected lone adjacent year, Paramvir has already earned implicit Rs 1 lakh from his archetypal dragon effect output adjacent though little than fractional of the plants bore fruit.

While different farmers turn seasonal vegetables similar onion, chilli and ail arsenic intercrops, Paramvir uses the trellis method (growing connected raised structures) to maximise his dragon effect yield.

Such out-of-the-box efforts by farmers similar Salaria, the Singhs and Paramvir not lone supply economical stableness to their families but besides animate their neighbours to modulation from accepted crops to high-value horticulture. Their stories item the untapped imaginable of horticulture successful Punjab and the rewards of taking calculated risks to travel one’s passion.