Apple · India · BBC Technology
The rise of the fruit that tastes like custard
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Ashoka Shivareddy comes from a family of farmers, but it was hard to make a living in their drought-prone district of Kolar in southern India.
Key facts
- Manoj Kumar Barai exports the NMK-01 variety to the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Europe
- The area receives rainfall of only 60 to 70 centimetres, and farmers dig borewells of up to 1,300 feet
- most of their money goes into chasing water," he says
- In regions like Maharashtra, temperatures can go up to 40 degrees, and even during transit it can reach 30–35 degrees, which is not ideal for this fruit
- The shift from 30% pulp recovery in wild varieties to 70% recovery in hybrids like Arka Sahan has effectively doubled the usable harvest for farmers without needing more land," Sakthivel says
Summary
"The area receives rainfall of only 60 to 70 centimetres, and farmers dig borewells of up to 1,300 feet - most of their money goes into chasing water," he says. Amid mounting losses the family gave up farming and in 2005 moved to the city - to Bengaluru - and started a vegetable shop. Shivareddy became an AI software engineer, but he never lost the farming bug. In 2018 he decided to revive the family farm, but with a more scientific approach.