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Jackfruit king Mr. Harishchandra Sitaram Desai
Mr. Harishchandra Sitaram Desai is also known as “Jackfruit king” of Maharashtra for his remarkable style of cultivation of Jackfruits. Mr. Desai is an innovative farmer from Lanja, District Ratnagiri. His farm is fully organic, as he doesn’t use any chemical fertilizers, he used “Drip irrigation” which is first time ever in Konkan region and he surrounded his farm by “Solar fencing”.

Early life and Education

Mr. Desai born at village Hatkhamba in Ratnagiri district region. In childhood he used to sell tea, alphonso mangoes, Jackfruits, cashew and other related foodstuffs in local market. His father and mother both were farmer. As an elder child, he had responsibility of his whole family. Hence, he started earning money since school age. In morning, he worked in his farm, in midday he attended his school, and in evening he sold stuffs in local market. This schedule he followed till his graduation. Due to this work, he become able to understand market strategies, selling skills and also he gained a future aspect, which helped him a lot in future. He done his graduation in Mathematics from Gogate Jogalekar college, Ratnagiri which is affiliated to Mumbai University. After graduation he worked for almost 4.5 years in Konkan Capsule company, MIDC, Ratnagiri. Then he joined Public Health Department, Maharashtra state government as X-Ray Scientific officer, where he gave 31 years of valuable service. Although, he had a very tight schedule in medical field, an intuition of farming couldn’t keep him relax. Hence, he bought a small piece of land in village zapade, Lanja and started farming.

Career

He bought a small land plateau in zapade village. He decided to farm environmental friendly plant “Jackfruit” instead of cash crops like Alphonso mango, cashew nuts etc. He planted very much varieties of Jackfruits and also innovatively discovered new varieties. His farm is a good platform for farmers to perform several agricultural experiments. During new plantation, Mr. Desai keep as it is all traditional plants like Ain (Terminalia elliptica), Kindal (Terminalia paniculata) etc. Mr. Desai said,” Traditional plants are natural habitat of birds, animals and microorganisms. So, while development we have to keep in mind their presence.” At 61, Mr. Desai looks towards future as a new generation of Farming. Every year a week before Vat Poornima in June, traders arrive at the Konkan villages to pick Jackfruits for just Rs.5 to Rs.10 per fruit. And they earn Rs.100 to Rs. 200 net profit by selling into megacities. Desai believes that, farmer should get all the net profit as he owns it. Desai advises farmers to limit the vertical growth of the tree while encouraging its horizontal speed. His mantra is,” Don’t let it grow beyond 12 to 15 feet. That will make it easy to pluck the fruit.” Nowadays, Mr. Desai is the largest Jackfruit cultivator in Maharashtra. He had 13 acres Jackfruit farm in zapade village. He had planted 1300 Jackfruits trees, constituting total 76 varieties e.g. Thailand, Pink, Kerala, Milk jack, Honey Jack and much more. Hence, Mr. Desai is known as “Phanasking” in the state of Maharashtra. Desai had opened a government benefited nursery in his farm. The people from all over Maharashtra came there to buy Jackfruits younger saplings. Around 10,000 saplings of 76 varieties of Jackfruits were cultivated in his nursery. In financial year 2020-21, total 20,000 saplings were sold from his nursery. In Maharashtra, total 200 acres of area is covered by the saplings sold by him. The parts of Maharashtra like Yavatmal, Wardha, Ahmednagar, Pune and states like Goa, Gujarat are now under Jackfruits plantation.

Innovative Ideas

The younger Jackfruits saplings frequently got attacked by Indian bison, Monkey and other wild animals. To prevent the plants from this, Mr. Desai had implemented the idea of Solar fencing in his farm. He compounded whole his farm by this fencing. He got benefited by subsidy and hence implement solar fencing with rupees 60,000. The second innovative idea is about Drip irrigation. Konkan is blessed with monsoon having largest raining frequency in whole Maharashtra. Still, most of water rapidly rushes towards Arabian sea. Hence, Mr. Desai had used Drip irrigation system in his farm. Now, water directly goes to plant roots and subsequently, conservation of water takes place. The Jackfruit tree has lots of medicinal use. Indian/American diabetes association recommended 1 tablespoon powder of raw jackfruit bulb for type 2 diabetes treatment. The leaves of Jackfruit are effective in many clinical purposes. Mr. Desai had exported Jackfruit leaves to foreign country. Mr. Desai is founder member of “शेतकरी शास्त्रज्ञ मंच”(Farmers research group) and he is doing research on Jackfruits plants in terms of Ayurveda.

Next generation

Mr. Desai’s elder son Mr. Mithilesh Harishchandra Desai now worked as successful Jackfruit Entrepreneur. He completed his graduation in BTech Agricultural Engineering from Rahuri krishi Vidyapeeth, Ahmednagar. He had given several UPSC civil service examinations in New Delhi and then shifted to farming. Young people should come to farming. Hence, they can implement innovative ideas on its own. Educated youth if come towards farming they can pursue successful farming career just like Mr. Mithilesh Desai. And can pursue a successful farming career.

Address

The Jackfruit Farm, At post Zapade, Lanja, District Ratnagiri - 416701.

References

https://krishijagran.com/success-story/king-of-jackfruit-this-farmer-grows-75-varieties-of-jackfruit-in-his-farm-earns-good-income-from-it/