by Deepthi Sanjiv, Bangalore Mirror Bureau
Thirty-one-year-old Anil Balanja from Belthangady Taluk of Dakshina Kannada district who has grown over 500 varieties of fruits in his farm was felicitated by the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research and Central Horticultural Experiment Station for collection and conservation of garcinia species at Madikeri recently.
On 25 acres of land at Balanja, near Guruvayanakere of Belthangady taluk, he grows crops such as areca and rubber for commercial purpose, while for the past four years, he has started growing tropical fruits from across the world. Out of 500 rare varieties of fruits, over 80 varieties are from foreign countries.
Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, Anil said, “I was felicitated because they have identified farms for growing the maximum number of garcinia in the state. In my farm, there are 14 edible varieties of which seven are foreign varieties. In addition, there are 2-3 non-edible ones (wild) which are also available,” he said.
The foreign varieties include garcinia humilis?? known as achachairu. Its taste is described as both bitter and sweet and is somewhat reminiscent of lemonade.
The rather tough, bitter rind can be split open with a knife or with the teeth, and the edible part of the fruit sucked off the seed. The tree is related to the mangosteen and grows in the southern part of the Amazon basin in the central area of Bolivia. Mexican garicnia, garcinia gardneriana (Bacupari) from Amazon, garcinia longifolia, garcinia brasiliensis, sea shore mangosteen (Garcinia Hombroniana) from Malaysia, garcinia cowa, garcinia xanthochymus and Garcinia indica, a plant in the mangosteen family, also known as sweet kokum, are also grown on his farm.
Other than garcinia, Anil has grown over 60 varieties of mango plants and over 70 varieties of jackfruit and 25 varieties of Annona also known as custard apple.
Source: The Bangalore Mirror