Bhojpur: Horticulture has been proving a boon for farmers. After successfully growing fruits like mango, litchi, and banana, they are now concentrating on farming improved varieties of guava. Jitendra Kumar Singh from Bhojpur district has been earning Rs 24 lakh per year by growing the VNR variety of guava. He resigned as a horticulture officer. After that, his success story begins, and now he is a role model for many farmers.
He started guava farming by planting around 1,000 guava plants of the VNR variety on two and a half acres of land, giving a space of 10 feet between two plants. He used to trim them after every three months. Gradually, the plant took the umbrella-shaped trees. Jitendra took the help of drip irrigation for watering, and timely fertilizers were used to allow the plant to grow adequately.
The demand for the VNR variety of guava is high in the market. It is sold at least 60 to 80 rupees per kilogram. Jitendra Kumar went on to say that each tree of this variety can give fruit twice a year. If farmers want guava fruit in the monsoon season, they need to prune the trees in October and November so that the fruit is ready by the next monsoon. The weight of this variety of guava remains between 400 grams and 1 kilogram.
It is grown scientifically, and this variety of guava is replete with medicinal properties like very low sugar content and almost no seeds, making it delicious to eat. It is also rich in nutrients and helps improve the digestive system.
