Hyderabad: Plants usually found in very dry lands, such as agave, cactus and aloe vera of both the Mexican and American varieties, are being grown on a farm in Kothwalguda near Shamshabad on the city's outskirts by the enterprising Yeturu Rama Chandra Reddy, a civil engineer and contractor turned farmer.
Agave cultivation is spread over 800 acres, cactus over 100 acres and aloe vera on about 70 acres of the family-owned farm. Such plants are generaly grown in Mexico, the US, Tanzania, Kenya, Israel and China, to name a few. They are rarely cultivated in Telangana State.
Mr Rama Chandra used to grow grapes and vegetables, but after visiting many countries, especially Mexico, he decided to develop his own variety of drought-resistant plants he named after Deccan. “I was in Las Vegas in 2013 where I learnt a lot about these plants and brought some of them to Hyderabad and developed them to our needs with the help of experts. We have our own processing plant where we make several products from them,” Mr Reddy told Deccan Chronicle.
Cactus is eaten as a vegetable, or juiced or made into fodder for animals. Agave is used for making alcohol, including the famous tequila; honey, nectar, fibre, gas power etc are other uses. Aloe vera has medicinal properties. It is anti-pruritic and good for hair. It is used in tooth paste and cosmetics.“This is a first-of-its-kind farm. The returns are good if farmers take up this cultivation,” Mr Reddy says.
Aloe vera is grown over 70 acres at the farm near Shamshabad
He said aloe vera costs about Rs1 lakh per acre (18-month crop) while the returns would be around Rs1.50 lakh. For cactus, an investment of about Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 per acre will bring in a return of Rs 1 lakh in 12 months. Agave investment is about Rs 1 lakh per acre with a return of Rs1 lakh per acre after the fourth year. “They need very little water and once planted during the rainy season, will grow without any supervision," he said.
