49 years on, and this farmer, who’s a faculty dropout in Kolkata, has solely cultivated warmth, chilli, cauliflower, onion, mango, and a local papaya selection on the small fertile land left behind by his late father.
As his farming advanced, he found that the native number of papaya was weak to illness and supplied poor yield. It stored bothering him as a farmer. A number of months later, he emerged with a proposal to carry out an experiment utilizing two species of papaya.
Utilizing a trial-and-error technique, he cross-pollinated the flowers of the hybrid papaya selection referred to as Pink Woman 786, which produces fruit profusely, with the flowers of the native papaya.
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Immediately, he harvests a formidable 75 metric tonnes of papaya yearly. His new papaya selection locations him among the many prime papaya growers within the Chinsurah-Mogra Block of West Bengal.
This yet-to-be-named papaya selection is the results of years of cross-pollination. Meet the farmer behind the innovation – Krishna Chandra Halder.
A brand new selection, a brand new id
With 1,875 papaya vegetation, Halder now produces 75,000 kilograms of fruit yearly throughout his 3.5 bighas of agricultural land in Uttar Simlapal village, Hooghly district. His papaya is analogous in look to present varieties however stands out for its elongated form. Every fruit measures 15 to twenty centimetres in size and weighs between 500 and 750 grams.
Acquainted as a desk fruit, the papaya is nice and fragrant, with orange-red pulp and black pepper-like seeds. Its garden-fresh high quality and year-round availability have earned it robust demand within the Kolkata fruit market.
The farmer’s experiment
When Halder started farming in 1976 for his livelihood, he had no concept that his cross-pollination experiments would finally change his life. Immediately, he generates a income of Rs 22.5 lakh yearly from papaya gross sales alone.
He admits that distinguishing the stigma of feminine flowers from the pollen of male florets was a troublesome job initially. Later, he adopted the hand-pollination technique since pure pollination was not efficient. This technique, involving the fragile brushing of every petal, consumed quite a lot of time.
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“I experimented on a number of vegetation. Nothing labored for the primary three to 4 years. One night, I observed flower buds and hoped they might flip into fruit. About seven to eight months later, I used to be overjoyed to see my efforts bear fruit. I haven’t named the range but. So long as it provides me a great yield, I’m pleased,” says the 70-year-old farmer.
Cross-pollination vs pure pollination: Skilled insights
Dr Nitai Mudi, Senior Scientist at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Agriculture Science Centre), explains, “Cross-pollination is a standard follow. Nonetheless, hybrid varieties usually don’t produce viable seeds for future use. The perfect outcomes usually come from pure pollination.”
A District Horticulture Officer, requesting anonymity as a result of protocol, provides, “The horticulture division doesn’t conduct fruit selection identification. That may solely be performed by gene testing or tissue tradition at specialised labs like Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya in Kalyani. However most farmers keep away from this as a result of excessive prices and are content material with a great harvest.”
A fruitful enterprise
For almost a decade, Halder centered on preserving this resilient breed. To scale up, he purchased two extra bighas of land and planted 1,200, 500, and 175 papaya vegetation in three separate fields. Since 1986, he’s been turning a gradual revenue.
Papaya, or Carica papaya, has a number of varieties in West Bengal together with Ranchi Choice, Honeydew, Washington, and Coorg Inexperienced. Nonetheless, most are weak to illness and delicate to soil and local weather. Halder’s unnamed selection is disease-resistant and high-yielding. Every plant produces round 40 kilos of fruit per 12 months.
He sells his papayas wholesale at Rs 150 per palla (a neighborhood measure equal to 5 kilos). Throughout Ramadan, costs rise to Rs 450 per palla. Halder sells 20 palla, or 100 kilos, of papaya daily at Chandannagar wholesale market.
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“Papayas weighing 500-750 grams are in demand as a result of smaller household sizes. Outsized fruits, even as much as 5 to 6 kilos, don’t promote nicely. These underneath 2.5 kg are most popular and fetch as much as Rs 150 per kg,” he explains.
Round 2,500 kilos of papaya are equipped every day to the Kolkata market from Hooghly district. Two vehicles, every carrying 1,250 kilos, make the every day journey.
In keeping with CEIC Knowledge’s mid-2025 report, West Bengal produced 334.161 tonnes of papaya. India is the world’s largest papaya producer, accounting for 44 % of the worldwide output at 53 lakh tonnes a 12 months.
Planting, care and cultivation
Papaya vegetation are fragile and want bamboo helps. Halder maintains a 6 to 8-foot hole between every plant and finds clay soil optimum. Male vegetation flower; females bear fruit. Vegetation normally survive for 2 years and are then changed.
“I make investments Rs 1 lakh per bigha for contemporary cultivation. Though farmers get tax exemptions, we nonetheless need to pay land income,” he says.
Halder nurtures every plant with mustard flakes, groundnut flakes, and urea. Pesticides like Merivon and Rogor preserve bugs at bay.
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He credit Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV) for serving to him with soil preparation, vermicompost, and natural fertilisers. “Dr D. Ok. Ghosh of BCKV invited me to their classes. I learnt learn how to establish and deal with sick vegetation, and that’s helped me immensely,” he says.
Nearly within the military, however selected the soil
In 1976, Halder was chosen for the military and police however turned each down. “Farming provides me pleasure. Different jobs include too many drawbacks,” says Halder, the third of 4 brothers.
He attended Hooghly Jyotish Chandra Vidyapith however couldn’t seem for his Tenth-grade exams as a result of his father’s sudden demise. “Our monetary situation pressured me to take up farming,” he provides.
Through the years, Halder has acquired a number of awards for papaya cultivation and even gained first prize for mango at an exhibition in Kochi, Kerala, in 2011.
Now, he trains different farmers within the area to develop this papaya selection. “The coaching will assist them develop extra and earn higher,” says Halder, with quiet satisfaction.
All pictures courtesy Partho Burman
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