Innovation at its best: Apples for hot regions, ‘Swiss’ axe

Seema Kaul

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 14

Apple tress alongside mangoes in June in the plains is surely an unusual sight.

The rose-coloured Hariman-99 variety apples were developed by Bilaspur-based Hariman Sharma in 1999. The farmer has distributed the saplings of his summer apples across the country. Apple trees have borne fruits in Hoshiarpur (Punjab), Sirsa (Haryana), Belgaum and Chikmaglur (Karnataka). The trees have also been planted in Chandigarh as well as in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

“The tree is propagated through grafting. It is planted in December and bears fruit within two years in June,” Hariman Sharma said, explaining how he developed the summer variety, at the Festival of Innovation being held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. However, to get the sapling, which is priced at Rs 50, one would have to travel to Sharma’s farm in Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh.

So, how was the variety discovered? In 1999, Sharma noticed that discarded apple seeds had germinated in his orchard where he also grew mangoes. He grafted the sapling onto a plum tree and was surprised to see a few small apples appear on a branch a few weeks later. He travelled to Kashmir and returned with some rootstock of the Golden delicious variety of apples. The apple branch was grafted onto the rootstock and bore average sized fruit within two years. Thrilled with the discovery, he gave his name to the new variety and began propagating it through grafting.

Another crowd-puller at the festival is a multipurpose axe. Visitors swarm the stall as Anantnag-based blacksmith Mohammad Rafique Ahangar drops a mini-saw, a knife, screwdriver, blade sharpener and wood carver into the hollow handle of the multipurpose axe. Priced at Rs 1,500, the axe has a claw hammer on one end and a hammer on the other, which can be turned to a 90° angle to make it an adze (carpenter’s carving tool). The length of the handle is adjustable.

“The idea is to have an all-in-one tool for a carpenter so that he does not need to carry an axe, hammer, screwdriver and minisaw separately. The tools inside the handle can be taken out and firmly screwed onto the axe handle,” says Ahangar.