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NEW DELHI / WAM
With an eye of markets in the Gulf, India is to expand the cultivation of dragon fruit by more than 16 times, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare here has announced.
To help augment this effort, the ministry has authorised the setting up of a Centre of Excellence for dragon fruit cultivation in Bengaluru in Karnataka state. Dragon fruit, also known as Pitaya worldwide, is called Kamalam in Sanskrit language all over India.
The new Centre of Excellence is to be established by the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, an autonomous agency affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
A roadmap is being prepared for increasing dragon fruit cultivation in India from the present area of 3,000 hectares to 50,000 hectares in five years after this effort was brought under the Ministry’s Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture.
In addition to the proposed facility in Bengaluru, creation of dragon fruit plantations is now the focus at the Central Island Agricultural Research Institute in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India’s eastern-most territory. This Institute comes under the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, a subsidiary agency of the Ministry.
In recent years, dragon fruit has become popular at breakfast buffet tables at high-end hotels in the Gulf. Until recently, this delicacy was being imported to the Gulf exclusively from from tropical and sub-tropical America and Asia. However, two years ago, India exported a consignment of dragon fruit produced in Tadasar village in Maharastra state to Dubai for the first time. India’s Ministry of Commerce said the export to Dubai was supported by the Ministry’s Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme and its Market Access Initiative.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised domestic dragon fruit cultivation and export in his monthly interactive radio broadcast with the Indian people following the first export consignment to Dubai. By making dragon fruit cultivation a cause celebre in his radio broadcast, which has millions of listeners, its increased cultivation and export has received a shot in the arm. India now hopes to get an increased share of the Gulf market with new agricultural initiatives.