Karnataka Farmer Grows 700 Varieties of Exotic Fruits From 40 Countries

Karnataka-native Anil Balanja grew up watching his father cultivating several varieties of jackfruit and mango. He was always certain about being a farmer and started off by planting areca, coconut and rubber at the age of 19.

Five years ago, the youngster decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. He planted different types of exotic fruits on his farm which are rarely grown in the country. This includes avocados, santol from Malaysia, Kepel from Indonesia and many more.

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Today, Anil’s farm, located in the Dakshina-Kannada district, is rife with over 700 exotic fruit varieties collected from 40 countries. He sources the seeds of each fruit from his friends abroad and nurseries. 

He also keeps a detailed record of each fruit, favourable temperature to grow, soil type, scientific names and even medicinal values. He now runs a nursery of his own to propagate the fruits he gathered.

The farmer also grows seedless variants of mango, jackfruit, lemon, guava and jamun on his 30-acre farm. His tropical fruit collection is from Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brazil, Thailand and more. The farming was begun by planting Biriba from Brazil.

Here’s a look into Anil’s amazing fruit farm:

Edited by Yoshita Rao