Papaya Man: Success Story of a Self-Reliant Farmer Who Transformed Thousands of Lives in Uttarakhand

We may hear many stories of successful farmers, but this story is a little different from the previous. Our today’s story will portray the journey of a farmer from local farming to the “Papaya Man” of Uttarakhand who has transformed thousands of farmers lives in the hilly state.

Mr Sudhir Chadha is a progressive farmer who has helped to transform the lives of various farmers in the hills of Uttarakhand and fruit growers for the past four decades.

This innovative farmer has started his experimental farming journey with Papaya. In 1979, he got the idea of plant breeding to develop and propagate high yielding varieties on his own.

He develops a dwarf papaya variety in 1986. His variety Farm Selection-1 soon got popular and Mr. Chadha became popularized as "Papaya Man".

He also got recognition in the form of the 'Innovative Farmers Award' from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. He sells 700 tonnes of the fruit and 300 kg of seeds yearly. He has started intercropping and green-house technology in Uttarakhand and cultivation of ornamental flowers, off-season vegetables, Taiwanese sweet corn, and herbs. He is a mentor to various farmers and provides them input, training, and R&D support.

He also set up Plantiss Agro in 1993 in partnership with State Government and has also started Indo Dutch Technologies in 2004.

Recently he also has developed an apple variety which gives fruiting in one year of plantation and is ready to harvest the first crop this month of the year (June2020-July 2020).

He has revolutionized agriculture and has helped various farmers to use technical knowledge for enhancing their produce and income."