Amar Singh, 64, is not a regular farmer. When he decided to take up farming at his family’s 9-hectare farmland in northern Rajasthan’s Bikaner district, he was clear he didn’t want to grow the routine crops such as wheat and cotton. He tried growing tangerine for a few years, and then Singh read about the olive cultivation experiment in Rajasthan and became curious.
“I visited the government farms in Lunkaransar (Bikaner) and Barore in neighbouring Sriganganagar district to learn more about olive farming, and in August 2012 decided to set aside a portion of my farm for olive cultivation,” he says. Singh, who has planted olive trees on 1 hectare, is one of the first farmers in Rajasthan who have decided to bet on the foreign crop.
It was in 2007 that the first experiment in olive cultivation began in the desert state. After the success of the pilot project, saplings have now been planted on 15 hectares of privately owned fields in Bikaner, Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts, and more applications wait for approval at the Jaipur office of the Rajasthan Olive Cultivation Limited (ROCL), which conducted the pilot. The area under olive cultivation will gradually increase to 5,000 hectares over the next three years.
On Rajasthan becoming the first state in the country to start commercial cultivation of olives, ROCL chief operating officer (COO) Ajai Kumar Pachori says: “Olive cultivation is leading to a farming revolution in Rajasthan. After the success of the pilot project, we have now entered the commercial cultivation stage and are flooded with applications from farmers. So far, we have approved applications for 61 hectares, out of which 15 hectares have already been planted with saplings.”
ROCL distributes saplings raised at its high-tech olive nursery at Bassi, Jaipur, to selected farmers at 75 per cent of the plant cost. The company charges Rs15,400 (Dh1,057) per hectare. The nursery, where saplings are being incubated with Israeli technology, has a capacity to produce more than 1 million plants annually; 500,000 are now ready for planting.
Suresh Nandal, who planted olive in 4 hectares in September last year, is happy with the growth. The plants are now three-four inches (8-10 centimetres) tall, he says. Nandal owns 150 “bighas” of land in Gardadasar village of Bikaner’s Lunkaransar tehsil. He says people are health-conscious now and are turning to olive oil. “I read about olive cultivation in Rajasthan on Google and visited a government farm in Bikaner, where Dr Sitaram Yadav, a scientist, advised me to try the new concept in farming,” he says. The next thing Nandal did was pay a visit to the ROCL nursery in Bassi and apply for saplings.
Tarsem Singh Randhawa, 42, has also been drawn to the crop for its oil. “When I was in Southall, London, in 2001, I noticed how everyone used olive oil for cooking,” he says. On his return to his village in Sriganganagar, he heard about olive cultivation in the Barore government farm. “When I visited the farm last year, fruiting had begun, and I was convinced I could grow olives at my farms too,” he says. Randhawa has planted olives in 4 hectares, and says if the results are good, he will shift completely to olives from wheat and mustard.
Sukhbir Singh, 44, from a village in Khajuwala tehsil of Bikaner, learnt about the olive-cultivation project from a friend. Last year, he planted saplings on 1 hectare while his friend Ram Pratap Verma in a neighbouring village set aside 2 hectares for this Mediterranean crop.
Olives are best planted in temperatures below 10C and needs 10C-18C during the flowering stage, in September-October. The cold winter spells in Rajasthan make the state conducive to olive farming. The climatic conditions in the state are similar to Israel, which has been successful in farming olives. The plant, which requires little water, is sturdy enough to weather the region’s high temperatures.
The olive-cultivation project in Rajasthan was conceived in 1996 after a team of farmers and agriculture experts visited Israel to study the technical feasibility and economic viability of the crop. Following recommendations of this team, the government decided to promote olive cultivation in public-private partnership.
In 2007, ROCL was set up by the Government of Rajasthan through Rajasthan State Agriculture Marketing Board in collaboration with Plastro Plasson Industries (India) Limited (now Finolex Plasson Industries [India] Limited) and Pune & Indolive Limited of Israel.
ROCL imported 112,000 olive plants from Israel and undertook plantation on 182 hectares in seven government farms — Barore (Sriganganagar), Bakalia (Nagaur), Lunkaransar (Bikaner), Santhu (Jalore), Basbisna (Jhunjhunu), Tinkirudi (Alwar) and Bassi (Jaipur) — in different agro-climatic regions of the state. The company has chosen seven leading varieties — Barnea, Arbequina, Cortina, Picholine, Picual, Coraniki and Frontoy — for cultivation in Rajasthan.
The first plants were planted in March 2008 at Bassi. Olive plants at all plantation sites showed good growth and fruiting occurred this year at three farms, Barore, Bakalia and Lunkaransar, while flowering was observed at Basbisna, Tinkirudi and Bassi. Well-known olive experts in the world have been regularly visiting, inspecting and monitoring the progress in the farms and providing technical know-how, while Israeli expert Gideon Peleg has been based in India as a full-time technical consultant.
“After ROCL decided to go for commercial cultivation, it engaged young agriculture professionals to act as trainers to the farmers, and olive experts made several visits to the fields to provide farmers with technical guidance and to supervise plantation,” ROCL’s Pachori says.
Olive is mainly grown for its oil. The quality of oil is the main criterion for judging the price of produce. According to ROCL manager Yogesh Kumar, one hectare of farmland under cultivation can produce 2.5 tonnes of oil and 15 tonnes of fruit with 12-16 per cent profit, bringing gains of up to Rs350,000 per hectare. “Farmers can get Rs170-Rs200 per litre on their produce,” he adds.
The company, he adds, has completed formalities to import a Rs30 million oil-extraction machine from Italy to be installed in Bikaner.
Kumar says most states in north India have favourable climatic conditions for olive plantation and many have shown interest in the crop. “Odisha and Punjab have taken saplings for 10 hectares each from us, while scientists of Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University will soon take saplings from our Bassi nursery. Haryana is also showing interest,” he adds.
The cost of a sapling is Rs150 and one needs 550 saplings for 1 hectare. For Rajasthan farmers, the subsidised rate is Rs28 per sapling.
The success in Rajasthan has also caught the attention of leading olive oil manufacturers such as Borges Mediterranean Food Products and Leonardo Olive Oil. “These two companies have shown interest in our product. We are also in talks with Indian Olive Association for marketing olive oil,” Kumar says. ROCL will invite bids in September-October this year to ensure it gets the best price.
And even as more farmers in Rajasthan wait for the end of February to plant olive saplings in their fields, leading olive oil manufacturers are already keen on tapping India’s growing demand for this healthy cooking oil. Surely, Rajasthan farmers can expect a rich harvest.
Rakesh Kumar is a writer based in Jaipur, India.
