Despite Low Rainfall & 45°C Temp, How Did An Andhra Farmer Cultivate Apples?

Located in the heart of Andhra Pradesh’s Rayalaseema region, Anantapur is not a place that is known for apples. The summer temperatures here routinely breach 45°C, and the district receives among the lowest rainfall in peninsular India. But something interesting is making waves around the area. Want to know more about it?

Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur Grows Apple In Extreme Heat

Yet it is here, in the little-known village of Kotanka, that 46-year-old farmer N V Ramana Reddy has succeeded in pulling off what agricultural scientists and fellow farmers alike believed to be the impossible, a huge harvest of bright red, juicy apples in a setting that would typically kill the fruit trees completely. Ramana Reddy’s achievement is believed to be the first example of economically viable apple cultivation in the state and perhaps a first for peninsular India.

According to a Deccan Herald report, the journey was not without cost. In 2020, Ramana Reddy purchased three varieties of apple seeds from Himachal Pradesh and planted them on his land. The trees suffered, and the apples never grew larger than a lemon. After three and a half years of constant effort and a loss of roughly ₹8 lakh, the experiment failed.

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How Did Ramana Reddy Succeed?

Talking to the news portal, he said that it was a total waste of money, time and materials. People around him warned that it was not possible to cultivate apples in such heat. But he wanted to take the risk. The achievement came through an unlikely discussion. A chance discussion with a close friend who works in Israel led him to a heat-resistant apple variety developed by Israeli agricultural scientists designed precisely for arid, high-temperature environments. His friend sent the mother plant to India via parcel. For the next six months, Ramana Reddy focused on dividing and propagating the plants at home

In 2024, he planted around 600 seedlings across two and a half acres, using drip irrigation methods to manage the persistent water scarcity. And according to him, the rest is history.

Within one and a half years, Ramana Reddy had harvested two tonnes of apples, which he sold in the local market. Most importantly, the harvest arrives during March, April, and May, precisely when the local market sees no fresh apples at all.

Traditional Himalayan apples from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir reach customers between November and January. What is available beyond that is usually cold-storage produce that has lost much of its flavour.

Well, it’s such an inspiring story.

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Cover Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

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