Doctor Uses Organic Dragon Fruit Farming To Earn Rs 1.5 Cr, Helps 5000 Farmers Learn

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By Anjali Krishnan July 24, 2022

Dr Srinivasa Rao Madhavaram from Hyderabad decided to grow dragon fruits after realising that it’s mostly imported to India.

For Dr Srinivasa Rao Madhavaram from Hyderabad—a doctor by day and farmer by night—managing two careers at the same time was never a challenge. He is rather happy that he could do both on the same day.
With an MD in internal medicine, he has equally split his work in such a way that he could balance his medical career along with farming. “I work from 7 am to 12 pm in the hospital and I spend the rest of the day at the farm,” adds the 36-year-old.
Dr Rao was born in an agricultural family in Kukatpally and grew up watching his grandfather and father toil in the fields. Ever since he was interested in farming and dreamt of pursuing it at some point in his life.
But a life-changing moment came in 2016 when he tasted a dragon fruit for the time in his life. Despite its unique look and colour, he didn’t like its taste but the fruit intrigued him so much that he started learning more about it.
Through his research, he understood that these exotic fruits, which are mostly imported from different countries, are rarely grown in India.
“When I tasted it for the first time, it didn’t taste good. Besides, it was very expensive. Later, I realised that it tasted bland because the fruit I had was imported from Vietnam and was kept for longer periods, thus losing its freshness. This made me reflect upon why it can’t be grown here in India,” Dr Rao tells The Better India.
Understanding the market gap for exotic dragon fruits, he decided to step into cultivating them organically.
Cut to 2022, he grows over 45 varieties of dragon fruits on a sprawling 30 acres farm in Sangareddy in Telangana. Not just that, he also does research and development on dragon fruits and provides free training for farmers across the country, who want to take up such exotic fruit farming.
The potential of dragon fruit
Dragon fruit
He says that dragon fruit is not just tasty but also very nutritious. “These fruits fall into the category of superfoods. They are rich in antioxidants and vitamin C. They are also low in calories. Though it’s sweeter it can be consumed evBesides, their seeds are rich in omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. Also, the sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium levels in dragon fruits are 10 times higher than in mangoes. Even iron content is four times higher than in mangoes,” he adds.
In 2016, while Dr Rao was doing his research on dragon fruit and its scope of cultivation, he realised that there are only a few farmers who grow it in India. “They were cultivating just two basic varieties of the fruit while there are over a hundred varieties available,” says Dr Rao. Thus realising the goodness and the potential of the fruit, he bought around 1,000 saplings from farmers in different states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, etc. and planted them on his land. But unfortunately, his debut attempt did not succeed as most of the plants didn’t survive.

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