The Custard Apple Revolution: How a Drought-Resilient Fruit is Taking India by Storm

Ashoka Shivareddy comes from a family of farmers in Kolar, southern India, where making a living has been tough due to the area’s frequent droughts. “The area receives rainfall of only 60 to 70 centimeters,” he says, “and farmers dig borewells of up to 1,300 feet—most of their money goes into chasing water.” Facing mounting losses, the family abandoned farming in 2005, moving to Bengaluru to open a vegetable shop. Despite becoming an AI software engineer, Shivareddy’s passion for farming never faded. In 2018, he decided to revive the family farm with a scientific twist, looking for crops that could thrive on minimal water and rainfall. That’s when he stumbled upon the custard apple, a knobbly fruit about the size of a large avocado, with a creamy, sweet flesh that indeed tastes like custard.

Custard apple trees grow wild in his region, and locals would harvest and sell the fruit at the market. Seeing the potential, Shivareddy aimed to maximize his yield by planting the trees closer than usual. He also selected three different varieties, each offering unique benefits. And guess what? It looks like his strategy is paying off! “Last year I produced around 20 tonnes; this year, it’s about 25 tonnes. There is huge demand for custard apple, both in India and abroad,” he shares with a noticeable pride.

Still, growing custard apples isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. The traditional Balangar variety has a short shelf life—sometimes just three to four days—which limits selling options. Plus, it has a lot of seeds, making it less appealing to customers. “Traditional varieties have excellent flavor, but they suffer from low pulp content, high seed count, and a very poor shelf life,” explains Dr. Sakthivel T, a principal scientist at the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR) in Bangalore. His team has worked on a hybrid fruit called Arka Sahan, which can last a week at room temperature and has fewer seeds and more pulp. Over the last two decades, this hybrid has spread across southern India. “The shift from 30% pulp recovery in wild varieties to 70% recovery in hybrids like Arka Sahan has effectively doubled the usable harvest for farmers without needing more land,” notes Sakthivel.

His team is also exploring better ways to process the fruit and extract the pulp, aiming for wider use in products like ice cream and milkshakes. One challenge they’re tackling is that custard apple pulp turns brown quickly post-extraction. Researchers at IIHR are testing new equipment and techniques to help preserve the pulp’s milky color for longer.

Maharashtra, a central Indian state, leads the nation in custard apple production, accounting for nearly a third of the total output. Among its seasoned producers is Navnath Malhari Kaspate, who has been cultivating the fruit for decades. He traveled across India gathering seeds, which he then cross-pollinated back at his farm. “No one had really paid attention to custard apple or done research, so I decided to keep working on it. It takes 12 to 15 years to develop a new variety. This is not quick work—it’s decades of experimentation,” he shares. His efforts led to the creation of the NMK-01 variety, known for high yields, which hit the market in 2014. “We now grow custard apple on nearly 50 acres, yielding about 10 tonnes per acre. This improved variety, which does not spoil easily, has opened up export opportunities. We started exporting to Gulf countries and even sent it to Europe—something that hadn’t been done at this scale before,” he says with undeniable excitement.

Kaspate’s work doesn’t stop here. He’s currently developing a variety with better appearance and greater disease resistance. Meanwhile, Manoj Kumar Barai exports the NMK-01 variety to the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Europe. “For exports, we prefer the NMK-01 variety because it has better shelf life, thicker skin, more pulp, and a sweeter taste compared to others,” he explains. However, exporting such a delicate fruit is no walk in the park. “We have to plan everything precisely—harvesting time, transport to pack houses, airport transfer, flights, customs clearance—every hour matters,” he says.

Temperature control is crucial too. “Custard apple is highly sensitive to heat; even short exposure can reduce its shelf life,” he adds. Road journeys are often conducted overnight to beat the heat. “In Maharashtra, temperatures can soar up to 40 degrees, and even during transit, it can reach 30 to 35 degrees, which is not ideal for this fruit.” The fruit is pre-cooled for five hours before being packed and transported in refrigerated vans, then stored in cold rooms before air freight. Special corrugated boxes have been developed to protect the fruit and keep them cool during transit.

Interestingly, more fruit is now being exported as pulp or in powder form. Barai calls this a “revolution” for the export industry. The pulp is used by overseas ice cream makers, bakeries, and even at “pulp-shot” cafes. Yet, it’s still a tricky situation as the pulp has to be stored and transported at -18C. But it’s cheaper than air freight, allowing large volumes to be transported over weeks without any fruit going to waste.

Back in Kolar, Shivareddy has big plans to expand his business by selling both pulp and whole apples. He intends to set up a pulp processing unit to utilize parts of his crop that go unsold. But here’s the kicker: extracting the pulp and chilling it to -20C requires a significant investment in equipment, which he believes will necessitate a shift in mindset for many farmers. “Custard apple sits in a strange gap. Demand is rising, but farming hasn’t gone high-tech because the crop is naturally hardy. It thrives in poor soil, needs very little water, and survives on rainfall. Farmers don’t need expensive irrigation or controlled environments, so tech adoption remains low,” he states, reflecting on the challenge ahead.

So, as the custard apple continues to rise in popularity, will farmers embrace the changes needed to fully capitalize on this golden opportunity? Only time will tell.

Kaynak: Orijinal Haber