Strawberries: India
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Contents |
History
1827-2021
Vikram Doctor, February 7, 2021: The Times of India
There’s a berry interesting story behind India’s strawberry success
We might look proudly today at our ingenuity in growing the fruit in arid areas but behind this ‘miracle’ is a global journey across the Americas, Europe to desi shores
Strawberries seem to be popping up everywhere. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent Mann Ki Baat he lauded the efforts of Jhansi-based Gurleen Kaur in growing strawberries in the arid area of Bundelkhand. She grew them on her terrace, then took them into fields and now Jhansi has a strawberry festival.
The PM could also have cited his home state where, in December last year, TOI reported on strawberries being grown in the near desert of Kutch. Haresh Thacker got 30,000 plants from the strawberry fields of Lonavla in Maharashtra, used Israeli-inspired drip irrigation and has now harvested his first crop. And in the same month TOI reported on another young farmer, Shyam Gaonkar who has grown strawberries in the tropical conditions of Goa’s Sattari taluka, where they flourish alongside chillies.
But perhaps the most unlikely place to grow strawberries in India was reported by TOI in 1884 when it noted “the success of the experiment at the Tanna Jail gardens under the able superintendence of Mr. SS Smith”. Tanna is now Thane and the strawberry plants presumably benefited from the free labour of prison inmates, but it proved they could be grown in the humid climate of the Konkan coast as well as the hills of the Western ghats.
These strawberries had iconic importance for the British, much like the strawberries cited by the PM today. If they are made to represent Indian ingenuity today, in the 19th century they were made to represent the power of the British empire, which could recreate such examples of British identity in unlikely places, just as British colonists were recreating little versions of Britain across the world.
The strawberries were “sentimental objects in service of a powerful national ideology,” writes John Plotz’s in an essay ‘The First Strawberries in India’, published in Victorian Studies journal in 2007. The strawberries Plotz is referring to were cultivated by Lord Auckland, one of the more undistinguished governorsgeneral of India whose tenure, from 1836-42, is best known for the First Afghan War, which ended in disaster for the British.
Harriet Tytler, who became famous for being the only British woman to remain in Delhi during the Rising of 1857, recalled in her memoirs being taken as a girl to see what she was told were the first strawberries grown in India, especially for Lord Auckland: “Two of the plants had one ripe berry each. No one touched them, but all expressed the desire to be Lord Auckland to have the pleasure of eating the first Indian strawberries…” And then, when no one was looking, Tytler writes that she just picked the berries and ate them herself.
Even before then, the Agri-Horticultural Society of Calcutta had offered a prize in 1827 for mallies who could grow good strawberries (and other English produce). In 1857, the impending turmoil didn’t prevent a TOI correspondent reporting on strawberries in Sialkot: “a garden here with as fine a bed of them as you could like to see”. By 1859 the Madras Agri-Horticultural Society could report “pots of strawberries in flower and fruit” at its annual show. From Darjeeling to distant Ceylon, the British were growing strawberries and, apparently, not always just for eating. In 1871, TOI reported on two gentlemen from Poona who “report says they are both on matrimony intent — and I dare say thought a strawberry party as good a place for furthering their view.”
These 19th century strawberries might have been suitable for this because they were the fruit of an exceptionally successful marriage. The strawberries known in Europe and Asia for centuries — even found in the hills of northern India — were too small and low fruiting to be of much interest for cultivation. But interest grew when different strawberry varieties were discovered in the Americas — first, small, but well flavoured ones in North America, and then larger, but bland tasting ones in South American, in Chile.
In Hybrid, Noel Kingsbury’s fascinating history of plant breeding, he explains that sexual differences in plants were not widely understood then and since the first examples of the Chilean strawberries taken back to Europe, in the early 18th century, were all female, attempts to grow them were not successful. But in 1764 Nicholas Duchesne, a French botanist, realised Chilean strawberries could be crossed with the North American ones, creating large berries with good flavour — and in the process discovering a lot about plant sex and breeding.
These were the berries that rapidly became popular in Europe, and would still have been a relative novelty when the British brought them to India. They might have been signs, as Plotz argues, of imperial agricultural prowess, but they were even better signs of the power of globalisation, with two types of American berries crossing to form a new version of an old fruit, and then sent across the world. Today they are being projected as examples of Indian ingenuity, rich, red and luscious to eat.
Production, region-wise
Nilgiris
M Soundariya Preetha, Strawberries cherry-picked from Nilgiris, March 25, 2019: The Hindu
Better awareness about the nutrient-rich fruit is driving demand
The Nilgiris, known for its teas, potatoes, carrots and a range of exotic vegetables, is witnessing farmers going in for strawberries too.
Strawberry plants were grown in the Nilgiris, especially in Thambatty area, as early as 100 years ago, says Premnath Mahalingam, director of Strawberry District.
2015-19/ area under strawberry cultivation: 25 acres
According to Shiva Subramaniam Samraj, Joint Director of Horticulture, the Nilgiris, in the last three to four years, the area under strawberry cultivation has increased to about 25 acres in the district.
Though strawberry cultivation is risky, demanding investment and maintenance, the market is growing and farmers are slowly getting into it. Farmers get the saplings from different States and some firms import them, too.
Short-duration crop
It is a high-value, short-duration crop and the strawberries picked from the Nilgiris gardens are sold across the country, adds Premchand, director, Samberry Exotics Pvt. Ltd.. He has 7-8 acres under strawberry cultivation and plans to get into contract farming and organic strawberries this year.
Even the varieties grown in Europe and California can be raised in the Nilgiris, it is learnt. The demand for strawberries is high in the southern States and there are farmers who sell in cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai also, says Mr. Premnath, who has two acres under strawberry.
Better awareness among consumers about the nutrient-rich fruit is driving demand, he says. After June, when production declines in the other States, strawberries from the Nilgiris are sold across the country, he adds. A majority of the strawberry produce in the country comes from Mahabaleshwar.
No value addition
However, there is no harvest in that region from June to November. The fruit is harvested throughout the year only in the Nilgiris. Farmers and companies that are into strawberry cultivation in the Nilgiris prefer selling the fruit rather than going in for value addition, he says.
The fruits are of better quality if the crop is grown under controlled conditions. The initial cost of investment is high, though that varies depending on the variety. Farmers should have a polyhouse and take up mulching. They should be able to tie up directly for marketing, adds Mr. Samraj.
The Tamil Nadu government had come out with a scheme to support strawberry farmers. However, the farmers have sought higher financial support from the government, he says.
Mr. Premchand points out that the annual harvest from one acre is almost 10,000 kg. About 30,000 saplings can be planted in one acre and the investment required is ₹3 lakh.
