EUGENIO VIASSA MONTEIRO
Several relevant facts high light waves of modernity emerging in Indian agri culture, away from traditional practices and towards crops that yield higher returns. What facts are these? Date palm cultivation in de sert areas: 19,000 hectares of date palms in the Rann of Ku tch desert in Gujarat. Planting can expand quickly using tissue culture techniques to reproduce the characteristics of the chosen mother tree by cultivating tiny tissues in a rich nutrient medi um, where they quickly take root and produce palm trees identical to the original, free of viruses. 160 trees planted per hectare in well-prepared soil to achieve an annual production of 100-200 kg of dates per tree, harvested once a year; multiple harvests are possible, depending on demand. There is a need to respect the 10% proportion of male plants. A more delicate issue is har vesting when the tree grows and reaches considerable heights. There have been attempts to develop devices to obtain cano py and harvest dates from much taller trees, similar to an aged tall coconut tree. Much remains to be done to master this issue. Such a plantation is an intelli gent response to the soil’s aridity and desertification, as date palms do not require much water, be ing desert trees; irrigation can be drip-fed during planting and growth. What was once a desert area becomes a green, rich or chard, modifying the climate and attracting moisture and rainfall. Olive tree cultivation: Some years ago, an attempt was made in Rajasthan to plant olive trees. It was a successful attempt, and already, olive oil from India is available for sale. A much larg er quantity of cultivated land is needed in areas suitable for its growth, with the species best suited to India’s microclimates. One can find olive oil from Jay pore Olives, a brand that offers extra virgin olive oil from locally cultivated trees. However, most mass-market olive oil is import ed and packed domestically, with considerable sales. Rajasthan has set a target of reaching 1,000 tonnes of olive production by 2025 to boost the domestic olive oil supply. They produced 150 tonnes in 2020, showing significant growth po tential for Israel-sourced sap lings in arid regions, with cul tivation now also in temperate zones such as J&K and Himachal Pradesh. In new ventures that require some boldness, people with re sponsibilities in the State can play a decisive role, attracting those with passion and econom ic resources to invest heavily in the development and sale of new species that take time to estab lish in the market. The ideas by themselves are excellent, but they need someone to push them on a large scale and over a long time. Apple Varieties as HRMN 99 (Hariman 99): This is an innovative, all-terrain variety developed by progressive farm er Hariman Sharma in Himachal Pradesh. It does not require deep chilling hours for flowering and fruit setting and can thrive at temperatures up to 40–45°C. It has been successfully trialled and is already commercially cul tivated across 29 states in India, including Maharashtra, Karnata ka, Telangana and Manipur. The fruit is large, with a soft, sweet, and juicy pulp. Over 1.4 million saplings have been distributed to more than 100,000 farmers, indicating sig nificant ongoing growth in total planted area and future produc tion potential (cfr Google.com). Potato crop pushed by grow ing consumption of chips, French fries and other classic potato uses, India is now the largest producer, with around 60 MT a year, second only to China. I was thinking this could also be done with sweet potato, which is well-suited to the In dian climate and can be grown after the monsoon months, pro viding farmers with a second source of income. Sweet pota toes have the best properties for human health. Our big retailers could carefully study how to pro vide a strong push to their con sumption, in the form of chips or puree for side dishes and break fast, under the apparent format of cereals. With the widespread expansion of rice cultivation, the months after rice harvest could give high yields of sweet potato, once markets become aware of their excellent properties. New varieties of seeds of several cereals: Identified and multiplied at ICAR (Indian Coun cil of Agricultural Research), with better productivity and resistance to adverse weather and diseases, India became the world’s leading rice producer in the year 2024/25. ICAR has identified 184 new and improved varieties of 25 cereal crops, including rice, wheat, sorghum, maize, puls es, oilseeds, fibre crops, and other crops. Now, in the last 12 years, wide, high-yielding new varieties have been approved. The 184 improved varieties will deliver much better yields and quality for farmers. Several vari eties with special traits, such as drought tolerance, salinity and alkalinity tolerance, and disease and pest resistance, will provide farmers with a protective shield against changing weather pat terns and climate change. For oilseeds, 13 new varieties, including mustard, safflower, sesame, groundnut, rapeseed, and castor, and 11 fodder crop varieties will be essential re sources for livestock farmers. (cfr. Google.com) Disruptive Innovation in Ag riculture with GVT-Global Vikas Trust, which helps marginal farmers with small landholdings discover how to earn much more than they are used to. How do they do it? They make people think about what they are planting and how much they earn; then they sug gest planting a variety of trees (more than 25 types) in propor tions the farmer decides. In the first attempts, people listened attentively, but no one decided to try. Later, one or two people de cided to try, and after some time, seeing their results, many others were convinced it was a good idea. “The two biggest problems they needed to face were poverty and the climate crisis. Thus, Glob al Vikas Trust was born (found ed in 2016), to drive a mass movement to increase farmers’ income and enrich the environ ment by planting millions of fruit trees. “Short-cycle trees, such as banana and papaya; medium-cy cle fruit trees, such as pineap ple, guava, pomegranate, lemon, lime, and orange; and long-cycle trees, such as mango and jack fruit, increased farmers’ annual income from 25,000 to 50,000 rupees per acre to an average of 250,000 rupees, in general, a more than 10-fold increase. So far, GVT, through 30,000 farm families, has planted more than 67 million fruit trees (cumu latively) on about 43,000 acres spread across 5,000 villages (Jan uary 5, 2026). The increase in vegetation cover from large-scale tree planting has led to a signifi cant rise in rainfall, transforming a previously arid, drought-strick en area into a lush green land scape. An important outcome was also the increased participa tion of all stakeholders involved in the project, fostering a sense of collective responsibility.” This move, driven by fresh, disruptive thinking to innovate in products and improve returns, is spreading nationwide. I see, with optimism, these progres sive advancements and imme diate sharing to make farmers’ earnings much more attractive. (The Author is Professor at AESE-Business School (Lisbon), at I.I.M. Rohtak (India), author of The Rise of India)
