State’s largest papaya orchard comes up in Fatehgarh Sahib

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib, July 1

A farmer of Rurki village in the Sirhind block has set up the largest papaya orchard in Punjab, thus giving boost to the efforts of the Horticulture Department, which has been advising the farmers to go in for diversification of crops in view of the suicides by farmers.

The farmer, Ajmer Singh, has set up a 5-acre papaya orchard in his 12-acre farm, the biggest in the state, with more than 8,000 plants. He has planted high-yielding Taiwanese variety of papaya seed — Red Lady — to boost his income. Besides this, he has also set up the drip irrigation system in the orchard, which would help in saving the precious ground water.

Dr Swarn Singh Mann, Deputy Director, Horticulture Department, said about 910 to 1,760 papaya plants can be grown in an acre and Rs 2 lakh is needed to be spent on the same. The life of the variety of the plant is three years. About 50 per cent subsidy is being provided by the Horticulture Department, while the Land Conservation Department is providing 80 per cent subsidy on the purchase of papaya plants, which would help in raising the underground water level.

Dr Mann said the papaya plants start giving fruits after five months of its cultivation and a plant produces about 50 kg to 80 kg papaya in three years and the farmers can get more than Rs 4 lakh per acre. He said the farmers can also generate more income by growing vegetables and strawberry. He said there is a risk involved as papaya plants are very tender and need care as they fell during strong windstorms.

He said papaya plants don’t need fertilisers and need potash and DPA besides spraying of malathion every month to save the leaves of the plant from worms and other diseases. He said the papain enzyme extracted from papaya is also used for making various medicines. He said the department is also providing a subsidy for setting up a packing house.