Engineer converts barren land into dragon fruit farm, earns Rs22 lakh from just 1 acre

When Anshul Mishra was pursuing BTech in computer science from Chennai’s SRM University, he was also searching for a solution – how to utilize the barren land his family owned in the Chilahua village of Shahjahanpur district in Uttar Pradesh. 

One such search led him to dragon fruit farming which opened a new world of opportunities. The tropical pink fruit with green scales is rapidly gaining popularity but its production is low in north India despite high demand. 

Anshul knew he had found the right crop. Before visiting home for the Diwali vacation in October 2018, he purchased 1600 saplings of the Vietnamese Red dragon fruit variety, which has red flesh. “I purchased them from a nursery in Solapur, Maharashtra and paid Rs50 per sapling. Before I completed my engineering in 2019, I had found my true calling in farming,” he says.

Also Read: Punjab’s engineer-farmer earns profit of Rs4 lakh per acre with organic farming of dragon fruit

Back home, Anshul removed stones from one acre of land and added cow dung manure. “I planted 1600 plants over one acre though the area can accommodate 2,000 saplings. The typical line-to-line gap is 10 ft and the plant-to-plant gap is 7 ft,” he says.

Investments in a one-acre dragon fruit farm

Belonging to the cactus family, dragon fruit does not require too much water and can even grow in barren, degraded lands.

The main expenditure in dragon fruit farming is setting up concrete pillars. Being a cactus vine, the fruit needs support for optimum growth. “One pillar can support four plants,” Anshul says.

Also Read: Maharashtra’s engineer-farmer earns profit of Rs 9 lakh per acre from dragon fruit farming

Each pillar costs around Rs300 to Rs350 and the investment for one acre (500 poles) is around Rs1.5 lakh to Rs1.75 lakh. The cost of 2000 plants at Rs 50 per piece is another Rs1 lakh. Combined with labour costs and manure etc., the initial investment is Rs 3lakh to Rs3.2 lakh per acre.

Anshul harvested the first crop in May 2020 earning Rs 1 lakh because the first year yield is low, like in the case of all other fruits. “Major production starts from the third year when one pole can yield 10kg to 12 kg fruits annually. The vine is productive for 25-30 years, requiring only maintenance,” says Anshul, who has won many awards for his work in farming.

Dragon fruit plant gives fruit seven times in one season. “Budding starts from the first week of May and it is ready for harvest after 45 days in June. The last harvest is in December,” he adds.

The annual maintenance cost is around Rs 50,000 per acre as the dragon fruit plant requires cutting thrice a year besides cleaning, manual ploughing etc., he adds. “My annual profit per acre is around Rs4 lakh after deducting operating expenses,” he says.

Also Read: Engineer quits US job to cultivate exotic fruits in TN, earns four times more per acre than traditional fruits

His harvest is sold within Uttar Pradesh in Shahjahanapur, Hardoi, Bareilly and Farukkhabad. Anshul has two cows and uses their dung and urine for the plants. “Apart from cow dung manure, we also prepare our sprays on the farm,” he says.

Income from nursery business

A bigger source of income for Anshul is the nursery business, which has flourished in the last two years. “It requires a little space and almost zero investment for an existing dragon fruit farmer,” he says. 

His nursery is over a small area. “I earned Rs18 lakh by selling 42,000 saplings last year,” the agripreneur says.

“Dragon fruit farming along with the nursery business is a good source of income. There is a high demand for saplings, which sell at Rs50 to Rs100 per piece depending on the location,” he says.

Farmers from 12 states including Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand besides Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir purchase dragon fruit saplings from him.

“Upto 250 plants can be sent through post office while bigger orders are sent through trucks. Some people from nearby states drive down to the nursery for purchase,” Anshul says.

Last year, he also gave 8,000 dragon fruit plants to the Central Jail in Fatehgarh, UP, planted under the Open Jail Project. 

To prepare dragon fruit saplings from a plant, he takes a stem cutting of 10 to 12 inches from a healthy plant after the fruiting season. The cut end is allowed to dry and harden in a shady place for seven to ten days. The cutting is then treated with rooting hormones and fungicides to prevent diseases.

Apart from dragon fruit, his family also cultivates wheat and paddy on more fertile parts of their farm.

(Riya Singh is a Ranchi-based journalist who writes on environment, farming, sustainability, startups, & women empowerment)

Also Read: Organic farming of dragon fruit and lemon triples Punjab farmer’s income

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