Soon, Californian figs could be growing in our backyard
Maharashtra growers of the fruit feel exotic varieties hold good prospects, could cut imports of dry figs
With the native variety of fig produced in India limited by its short shelf life, rendering it unfit for processing, growers of this fruit in Maharashtra have submitted a proposal to grow exotic species of it, and are now looking towards two American variants — California Mission and California Golden.
A proposal in this regard has been sent to Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Central Institute of Arid Horticulture (CIAH). “Some seven months ago, a meeting was held with the authorities concerned, including former agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. The apex institutes then officially accepted the suggestion and asked to take recommended actions,” said Rohan Ursal, a member of the Fig Growers’ Association.
In India, fig is grown in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Ursal explained that the fig grown in India has a shelf life of up to two days post-harvest. “These figs cannot be processed as they have low levels of total soluble sugar (TSS) as compared to the imported varieties,” he added. The Indian variety has TSS level of around 18, whereas the imported ones have levels above 25.
In Maharashtra, figs are grown over approximately 2,500 hectares of land at Purandar and Saswad, where the scarcity of water creates aridity suitable to growing this fruit. “The conditions at Purandar resemble the Californian climate, which is tropical, dry and arid,” observed Ravindra Navalakha, chairman of the scientific committee at ICAR.
He pointed out that though countries such as Turkey, Afghanistan and Syria are mass producers of dry fig, they are reluctant to share their species, as this could spawn competition and threaten their existing monopoly on the global market. “In fact, India imports 99 per cent of its dry figs from the middle-eastern countries, which attracts huge import duties amounting to 36 per cent. Instead, if we grow the foreign variety of figs, it would save a lot of revenue for the government,” Ursal argued. Giving the proposal another push, he highlighted that growing imported species of grapes has already helped cut back import of the fruit by 60 per cent.
With Mediterranean countries fighting shy of sharing their species, California emerged as the next best option. “It was decided to approach University of California, Davis, where the focus is on cross research and other areas, to plant their fig varieties in India,” said Navalakha.
He added that California Black is suited for table consumption, with a shelf life extending to 10-15 days. On the other hand, California Golden figs lend themselves to being processed into dry versions. “Growing these novel varieties of figs will open new avenues for processing and considerably reduce the prices of the fruit, which are in high demand for calcium and iron content,” he said. These figs could also open up prospects of being grown in drought regions of Solapur and Latur, he further projected.