Athagarh: Thailand ber is now being farmed in Athagarh area in Cuttack district of Odisha. Though it seems surprising, it is true. A farmer from Athagarh area bought Thailand Apple ber seeds from Kolkata and sowed in a land that was going on uncultivated for long. Astonishingly, merely after 8 months he could pluck the first batch of Thailand bers from his harvested plants. Besides personal use, he is now selling the ber at a price of Rs 80 per kg to the traders and the market price of the Thailand ber in Odisha is Rs 100 per kg.
Amiya Kumar Jena’s family of Nuabandh village in Athagarh block has taken up farming of this foreign fruit. And these are beautiful as well as tasty.
Jena, who was working as an electrician to support his family, got the idea of Thailand ber farming from YouTube. He followed the instructions and tips from YouTube and proceeded to farm the Thailand Apple ber in Odisha.
Since seeds of this plant is not available in Odisha, he brought it from Kolkata and cultivated it. He has cultivated about 500 Thailand ber plants on the 3 acre land that was not being farmed.
After doing this farming, Amiya not only became self-employed but could also provide jobs to others.
About 30 kilos of ber is being produced from each plant of this farm in a season. He earns up to 1 lakh 50 thousand rupees profit from this farming in one season, said farmer Amiya.
Even a few months back, a few tourists from Italy had visited his farm. They were excited to see the farm. They also bought some ber.
Apart from ber, Jena is also farming many other fruits including guava and papaya. Besides he also is doing honey farming and fish farming. According to him this became possible only because of his strong willpower and hard work.
The young farmer thanked the state government for providing various benefits and subsidies to the farmers by which farmer like him is able to take up new farming challenges and earn good.
Watch the video here:
Ms Kalinga