Nestled amidst misty green hills and valleys of the Eastern Ghats, a small patch of farm in Anantagiri is showing the way towards sustainable methods of growing dragon fruit. Indigenous to Central and South America, dragon fruit was once found only in refrigerated shelves in supermarkets. It was with an aim to bring this fruit to the local markets of Visakhapatnam and make it easily accessible, Jestin Joseph embarked on a journey of growing dragon fruit on a three-acre land in Anantagiri, about 90 kilometres from Visakhapatnam.
An adventure sports and corporate leadership trainer, Jestin had been working in the Anantagiri region for the social welfare of the tribal communities for the past couple of years. “In this part, pepper and coffee are commonly grown. But while I was researching on these, I came to know about dragon fruit, its low input cost and how it has emerged as a super crop in the last few years in India,” says Jestin. He travelled to Solapur and Aurangabad in Maharashtra, which were the hubs of dragon fruit production in India six years ago, and spent time there to understand the techniques and challenges of cultivating the fruit.
