Farmers take up pomegranate cultivation in drought hit areas

Seeing their counterparts in Chithradurga, Tumkur and other regions, which have been drought prone, the farmers from Kadur too thought of cultivating pomegranate in their farmland on experimental basis. This experiment has been successful and the planters are beaming smiles.

It is not just the farmers with large land holding who have shown inclination towards pomegranate. Several traders, academicians and government employees too have taken to pomegranate cultivation but in a smaller scale.

Shanmukha Bovi from Panchanahalli, Channappa Englalli from Mathighatta, Diwakar from Yemmedoddi, Ganthe Kumar from Kadur are some of the farmers who have successfully grown pomegranate.

Ganthe Kumar says that the present condition in the taluk is not favourable for agriculture crops. Hence trying out something new is inevitable.

Horticulture Department Assistant Director Vedamurthy agrees with what Ganthe Kumar had to say. Vedamurthy said that condition is comparatively better in Chaulahiriyur, yagati, Panchanahalli and Antharghatta regions but the department is expecting the yield to go down in Sakharayapatna, Yemmedoddi, Birur and Kadur areas.

The variety of pomegranate grown by Ganthe Kumar is from Maharastra. It is called ‘Bhagavakesari’ and he had planted the variety in three acre land.He is providing water to about 3,000 saplings from a bore well as pomegranate cultivation does not require much of irrigation.

“This plant is best suited for a place like Kadur, which has been declared as drought hit,” says Kumar adding that one acre of land can be used to plant 300 pomegranate plants. If the plants are given best care till first 20 months then the yield will be of good quality.

Many farmers have not been venturing into pomegranate cultivation because it needs huge capital. While only countable number of farmers have dared to venture into cultivation of pomegranates in a big way, rest of the farmers are watching these dare devils. If these farmers earn good income, then the number of farmers growing pomegranate will certainly increase.