Karjan farmer is raising dried fruit almond orchards to improve the farming environment

As World Environment Day is being celebrated on Saturday, Paresh Harivadan Patel of Vemar village in Karjan taluka has started cultivating almonds used in dried fruits to improve the farming environment.

This Australian variety of almond tree grows to a height of 20 to 25 feet, so it definitely makes the environment green and also benefits it.

Almonds are a new for Gujarat farmers are now using social media, including YouTube, to learn new farming stories. Paresh came to know about this new cultivation of almonds and during investigation found a nursery in Gandhinagar is growing seedlings of this variety.

He got about 700 plants from there and planted them as an experiment and a new venture. Thus, the cost of one plant is Rs.120 but with the cost of transportation and planting to Vemar, it costs him around Rs.200. He get encouraged because the plants grow well.

Informing that the production of almonds starts after plantation and matures in three years, Pareshbhai said, This is his new venture and crop and don't know how much success he will get. So to reduce the risk, he harvest Pink Taiwanese gooseberry with almonds in one hectare and has been grown using Zikzak method. So even if the success of almond cultivation is less, the cost will be offset.

He said that the almonds on this tree are the same as like which are extracted by drying the dried fruits after they fall to the ground. These fruits can be peeled in a thresher like peanuts.

The farmer can make his own packing and sell it himself or even sell it to dried fruit traders. According to the information given to them, they can get 30 to 40 kg of nuts on one plant.

Paresh has 60 vighas of land on which he only does horticulture. He says there is a big labour problem in traditional farming like cotton so farmers like him prefer horticulture.

He has grown Kesar mangoes, custard apple, pomegranate, citrus as an experiment. According to him, very few farmers in Gujarat have ventured to plant Australian almonds. His fellow farmers have also ventured to grow 5 to 10 plants.

The Vadodara office of the Horticulture Department has taken note of his experiment in almond cultivation.