A horticulture expert’s efforts make Kolar jackfruit farm a tourist attraction

The endeavours of a horticulture qualified in the early 70s to market the prospective of jackfruit would seem to be yielding fruits now. A excellent illustration for this is a jackfruit farm set up by late Mari Gowda, the father of horticulture in Karnataka, who was also the Director of Horticulture in the state in the 70s, in Kolar district of Karnataka.

BG Prakash, Dean of College of Horticulture, Tamaka, Kolar district, reported the Tamaka jackfruit farm in the district was established in the 70s by late Mari Gowda. He took endeavours to convey diverse versions of jackfruit from various sites in the region, and cultivate them in a dry-land spot like Kolar.

With all over 1600 jackfruit trees, this farm is possibly one of the major jackfruit farms in the region. He reported that 49 versions of jackfruit are developed in this farm.

Stating that jackfruit crop has been attracting the attention of quite a few people now, he reported Tamaka jackfruit farm will get all over ten,000 visitors a year. A excellent variety of learners are also browsing this farm, he reported.

Prakash reported this when offering the inaugural deal with at a webinar on ‘jackfruit as crop of future’, organised by the Tamaka-centered College of Horticulture on Friday. The college or university, which came into existence in 2009, is handling this farm now.

Nagaraj KS, Assistant Professor at Fruit Science Office of the college or university, who tackled a complex session, highlighted the versions recognized by farm universities in the region.

He reported some of the farmers’ versions are also in excellent demand from customers. In actuality, Gubbi and Tiptur taluks of Tumakuru district have quite a few versions of crimson jackfruit.

He also highlighted the versions developed and most popular by the farmers in coastal Karnataka and Maharashtra.