Nagpur: Fast transforming from a Maoist hotbed to a steel industry hub, Gadchiroli district has quietly proven its adaptability on another front. A group of farmers have been able to successfully grow strawberries in the tropical climate of Gadchiroli — a fruit otherwise known to flourish on hilly slopes of Mahabaleshwar or in the Northeast. Many Gadchiroli farmers had not even seen a strawberry before they had grown one and the fruit has made it to the weekly tribal markets in the interiors of the district. The large police force deployed to deal with guerrillas are a major customer of the new fruit, said source in the agriculture department.The produce is fetching Rs400/kg and is consumed within the district. “I surfed the internet to know how a strawberry looks when I first heard about it from officials. Not many of us had heard about the fruit before we began cultivation,” said Pavirarao Samatdar, a farmer. He has grown strawberries on half an acre of his 5-acre holding. It’s March-end and he’s harvesting the crop,” he says.“Gadchiroli is predominantly a paddy-growing area, but the agriculture department is also promoting alternate crops. The strawberry experiment began with two-three farmers in 2019 but eventually picked up, reaching 50 farmers spanning an area of 12 acres,” said the district superintendent agriculture officer, Preeti Hiralkar. Eventually the programme was approved by the district planning committee, she said.Mulchera has a hilly terrain, so it can provide settings akin to Mahabaleshwar. The seed is sown in Oct-Dec, when Gadchiroli becomes cold,” she said. “An acre yields around 10 tonnes of strawberries. However, farmers here have preferred to start cultivating on a quarter or at the most half an acre. The plan is to push them to increase the acreage and add more farmers. The rates are at par with what the Mahabaleshwar strawberry fetched during peak season,” said Vikas Patil, the taluka agriculture officer.There are individual farmers in Nagpur and Wardha where farmers are growing strawberries. However, Mulchera in Gadchiroli is being pushed to emerge as a strawberry belt, said officials.Initially, saplings from Mahabaleshwar were sourced, which did not suit the local climate. The winter dawn variety was sourced from Rajnandgaon in neighbouring Chhattisgarh, which succeeded.
