Telangana apple hits Hyd market

Jadcherla (Mahbubnagar): Experimenting in agriculture being his second nature Krishna Reddy of Charlapalli village in Jadcherla mandal of Mahbubnagar district imported the crossbreed sapling of green apple and jujube (popularly known as Regu pandu in Telugu) from Thailand and started cultivation two years back. He did not anticipate that the new variety would become very popular so soon though he named the fruit as Telangana apple.

Krishna Reddy, who was vexed with the regular farming, started experimenting with several commercial crops in his 18-acre farm. He visited his relatives in Thailand sometime back and came across a new variety of fruit which was a crossbreed between green apple and jujube there.

He evinced keen interest to import the saplings and managed to get 700 of them at the rate of Rs 35 per sapling two years back. He experimented and nurtured the saplings in two acres out of his 18-acre farm near Charlapalli.

Six months after planting the saplings, they started giving fruits. In the first stage, the yield was 20kg per plant. However, the next year the yield has gone up to 25 kg to 80 per plant. After he received encouraging feedback from the market with the fruit selling Rs 35 to 40 per kg, he started his own nursery and took up cultivation in two more acres.

At the rate of 350 plants per acre and each plant yielding fruits worth Rs 600 to 1000, the farmer would get good profits, says Krishna Reddy. Now Hyderabad market is flooded with Telangana apple, which he fondly named it.

A number of farmers from Adilabad, Warangal and Nizamabad are evincing interest to take up cultivation of Telangana apple. They are purchasing the saplings from Krishna Reddy at the rate of Rs 35 per sapling.