Papaya Farming

Papaya is yellow fruit red from inside sweet in nature which is widely consume. It can be round and long in shape. Papaya is a popular fruit famous for its high nutritive and medicinal values. It comes early in bearing than any other fruit crop, produces fruits in less than a year and the production of fruits is quite high per unit area. 

Papaya belongs to the family Caricaceae. Botanically called as Carica papaya, it occurs in three sexes- male, females and hermaphrodites. Papaya plant grows straight up to 16 to 25ft. Being a tropical plant a tropical weather is most suited for papaya plantation. It can grow in almost all types of soils.

India leads the world in papaya production with an annual output of about 3 million tonnes. Other leading producers are Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Indonesia, China, Peru, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Varieties of Papaya Cultivated in India:

1. Red lady Taiwan 786:   New variety of papaya from Taiwan and very popular among farmers in India . Red lady papaya is very large in size and is cultivated for fruit purpose. It has 50kg to 150kg production in per plant. Most of company doing contract farming of red lady Taiwan.

It take around 10months for harvesting it has huge demand in market.

Note : There so many false company who are selling seeds in name of Red lady Taiwan.

2. Taiwan-785 : This variety is cultivated for processing purpose. The plant is dwarf in habit, producing the first fruit within 60-75 cm from the ground level. Fruits are  thick orange red sweet pulp. Each tree yields 100-125 fruits in one year. It has a good keeping quality and disease tolerant.

3. Pusa Dwarf : It is also dwarf  variety of papaya developed by Pusa a government body of India . Plant has medium-sized (1-2 kg) oval fruits. The plant starts fruiting from 25 to 30 cm above-ground level and is comparatively drought hardy. This variety is very suitable for high-density planting.

4. Honey Dew : Name of the variety got due the sweetness of the fruit. It known as 'Madhubindu' and is cultivated for processing purpose. The variety bears greenish-yellow oblong-shaped fruits with orange thick flesh and good flavors. The variety can be maintained pure by growing in isolation. Due to its excellent fruit quality it fetches good market value.

5. Pusa Majesty : Pusa majesty is developed by ICAR, it is resistant to the nemotade viral. The variety is suitable for papain production. The fruits are medium-sized, 1- 1.5 kg in weight, round in shape and have better keeping quality. It starts fruiting 146 days from the time of transplanting. The variety is tolerant to root knot nematode.

Note : There is hundreds of variety of papaya choose according to the your area and Market. It depends on soil also. You can visit the state department of agriculture or college of agriculture they definitely help you. 

Climatic Condition Requirements 

• Heavy rain can cause damage to the Papaya. High humidity required to the farm.

        

• It can be grow at the subtropical areas across India . It can be grow in the hilly areas also.

• It can grow well at sea level, it can't resist frost , so grow should be protected from cold and frost  it will damage our crop.

Soil for type for papaya farming

• The pH can be between 5.5 and 7.5. Papaya can grow in many types of soils, except sandy and sticky or heavy clay soils.

 

  Papaya roots are very sensitive to waterlogging or standing water. There should be least water at papaya farm, It water logged the it should be cleared within 24 hr. Waterlogging will create the issue of root rottening.

• If your farm has waterlogging issue then make farm slightly sloppy so water can drained out easily.

Plantation season of Papaya

• Papaya are planted during the months of June-July (monsoon), 

• October-November (autumn) or February-March (summer). The first few things to be considered while planting papaya are rain, frost and hot air since all three cause injury to the plant.

• Plants of papaya can purchase from nursery it will cost you rs. 20 to 30 per plants. You can also prepare your own nursery.

         Note 

          Plant should be 30 to 45 days old.

          But February – March is the best season  for plantation. 

Land preparation for plantation

• Papaya can plant on beds . It can also plant on plan , first ploughed the farm property and leveled it with help rotavator. The land meant for papaya cultivation must be well-protected from strong winds and must not get waterlogged easily during rains. All weeds should be removed. 

• Soil treatment also necessary and from the  protection of soil pest and decides. Use organic neem pesticides .

• Dimensions of pits of papaya plant should be 5*5 ft , 5*6 and 5*10 ft.

Note

If you are beginner than 5.5ft will best for you.

You can plant 1200plants in 1 acres in 5*5 dimension.

Mulching sheet link.  https://m.indiamart.com/impcat/mulching-paper.html

Planting of papaya

It is commercially propagated by seeds and tissue culture plants , required seed per hectare is 250gm. You can prepare nursery bed 60*60 inches .

Nursery also can prepare in nursery bag or in protray . Make mixture of vemicompost and coco pit 60% and rest 40% add soil , fill bag or tray with mixture and put two seeds in one bag or hole cover it the mixture and sprinkle little amount of water, don’t put it in direct sun light , cover it proper so inside heat can generate, open it 5 days if sprouts is visible then water it on regular basis your nursery will ready in 45days for plantation.

 You can also buy the plant from nursery it will cost you around 20  to 30 Rs. Per plant. There would no tension of germination. Buy 100 to 200 plants more so if some plants die or doesn’t grow or get any type of disease  can replace with extra plant.

 

Planting Method

• The seedlings are planted in pits of 60x60x60 cm. size. In the summer months, the pits are dug about a fortnight before planting. 

• The pits are filled with topsoil along with 20 kg. of farmyard manure., 1 kg. neem cake and 1 kg. bone meal. Tall and vigorous varieties are planted at greater spacing while medium and dwarf ones at closer spacing.

   Make beds for plantation with width of 1.5ft. use mulching sheet.

Fertilizer of Papaya

• Papaya is the most economical fruit it is cheapest nutritious available in market. Hence it required good amount of fertilizers.

• During plantation apply organic manures .

Give dose of urea and others minerals in the interval of every two months.

• Apply NPK according to the need you can also consultant with experts. 
• Don't put excessive of fertilizers

Irrigation

• Papaya needs regular water for its rapid fruit development and growth

• Irrigation should be given at weekly interval during summer and once in 8-10 days during winter season. 

• The farm should have a good drainage system as the crop is susceptible to water logging. Ring and drip irrigation are the preferred methods of irrigation. 

• Drip irrigation with 80% replenishment of evaporation losses is recommended. During summer months, the plants should be given 20-25 L of water and can be gradually reduced to 10-15 L of water/plant in winter.

Drips irrigation helps in 8% in water saving.

Intercropping

• Intercropping leguminous crops after non-leguminous ones, shallow rooted crops after deep rooted ones are beneficial. No intercrops are taken after the onset of flowering stage.

• From a papaya tree, you can yield fruits for 3-4 years. Besides, depending on species it will fruit one or two times a year. So, if you want to reuse the land intercropping is a great opportunity. 

• Needless to say that, there is a limitation when choosing other crops. During the winter, you can grow spinach, red spinach, pulse spinach, coriander leaves, lettuce, pepper in the garden. 

• However, it is better not to cultivate tomato, brinjal and copper vegetables. These vegetables are more susceptible to insect pests. The papaya tree will be in a risk with the poisonous insects.

Flowering in Papaya Farming 

Flowering in papaya starts in 5-6 months after planting process. When the sex of the plant is identified, surplus male plants , may be removed keeping one male plant for every 10 female plants, as pollinizers. Remove male plants and maintain1 male plant for every 10 plants after flowering.

Papaya Diseases

• Powdery Mildew :  The development of powdery mildew in papaya is promoted by high humidity (80-85%) and a temperature range of 24-26°C. The disease appears as on the foliage and pods. Infection is first apparent on the leaves as small slightly darkened areas, which later become white powdery spots. These spots enlarge and cover the entire leaf area. Severely infected leaves may become chlorotic and distorted before falling. Affected fruits are small in size and malformed.

• Leaf- Blight : This disease is common in papaya. This  disease causes severe damage to leaves. The disease first appears as small, discoloured lesions, which are irregularly scattered on the leaves. These spots become irregular in shape, then increase in size, and appear brown to grey in colour. 

• Damping-Off : This is a disease of young seedlings. Lesions are seen on the stem at or just above soil level. The stem becomes watery and shrinks, followed by death of the plant.

• Foot Rot of Papaya : It is a severe disease of papaya. It is characterized by the appearance of water-soaked patches on the stem near the ground level. These patches enlarge rapidly and girdle the stem, causing rotting of the tissues, which then turn dark brown or black. 

• Anthracnose : The disease prominently appears on green immature fruits. The disease symptoms are in the form of brown to black depressed spots on the fruits. The initial symptoms are water-soaked, sunken spots on the fruit. The centers of these spots later turn black and then pink .

Harvesting

Papaya when get size of around 1.5 to 2 kg then it means the fruits are fully grown and start developing a tinge of yellow color at the apex, it is time to harvest them. Another indication of harvesting time is the latex. Once the latex start turning watery instead of being milky, the fruits must be harvested. Not all papaya varieties turn yellow on ripening. Some turn yellow while others remain green even when fully ripe.

The economic life of papaya lasts for a maximum of 4 years. However, farmers do not extend its life beyond 2-3 years as from the 3rd yes production decreases. Good farm management and timely care can increase papaya production to a great degree.

Store and packaging of papaya

• Papaya fruits are very perishable, so it should be taken to wrap the individual fruit in paper and finally packed in wooden crates surrounded by soft material all-around and sawdust, especially on the bottom.

• Papaya Farming, reduction in temperature or treatment with retardants reduces the duration for ripening and enhances shelf life. Post-harvest treatment of fruits with silver nitrate or cobalt chloride extends the shelf life without affecting the palatability. 

• Papaya fruits, at color turning, can be stored at 7˚C, which will have normal ripening. The shelf life of fruit is also extended by storing at 13˚C with 1.0 to 1.5 percent oxygen or at 10 % CO. Waxing of fruit and storage under low pressure (LP) has also been successful in reducing the disease incidence and increasing the shelf life papaya.

Selling and Marketing

We can contact papaya dealers and directly supply to the market, you can also approach to the local market and vendor. There are many companies also who purchase papaya. 

Yield

We can get minimum 50kg per plant if we plant Taiwan red lady, so acre that is 1000 plant give us around 50000 kg . We easily earn 5 lac if we’ll sold price 

Best practices to get more yield and income analysis

1. Land preparation  for beginners use 1 acres land 5*5sq mtrs dimensions and make 1.5 ft width of bed and 1ft height . So water drainage will be good.

2. Use mulching sheet on bed it will help to control weeds and pests. 

3. Use drip irrigation for irrigation it reduce the cost and water. For 1 acres drip irrigation cost is 25000rs . You can purchase for companies  they will install .

4. Use of power tiller to remove weeds it reduce the cost also can make bed with help of rotavator.

5. Contact local mandi and market or deals in advance before harvesting the crop.

6. There some companies who do the contract farming of papaya. You can earn around 8 to 10 lakh from contract farming.

Income analysis 

Land preparation 5000

Seed cost 5000rs

Manure and fertilizers 20000rs

Manpower cost 10000rs

Drip irrigation 1 time cost 20000

If assume total cost 1 lakh.

Then income

If we plant red lady Taiwan

Plant 1000

Fruit per plant 80kg

Total yield 80000

If price is 10rs /kg income 8lakh

If price is 20rs/kg income 16 lakh  

If fruit per plant 50/kg then 

If price is 10rs/kg then income 5lakh

If price is 20rs/kg income 10kg.

Conclusion if you crop is perfect and fruits is perfect then you can make minimum income 5lakh and maximum 16lakh and more . From Taiwan red lady can get upto 150kg fruit per plant. Per kg price can rise to 40rs now you can imagine the income.

But for this hard work and dedication required.