So, you watched my video on farming leader. You have looked around and tried to find more information on avocado farming in India. Yet, google brings you here.
You want to know the complete information on avocado farming so you can start your own avocado farm in India. You would like to know the costs involved, profitability, output, planting methods, varieties etc.
This post will answer all your questions. And after reading this if you feel you can trust me and the quality of my Israeli imported plants and service I provide, you can call me at +916268643227.
What varieties of avocados to plant?
I offer 5 imported varieties of avocado plants; all are imported from Israel. These can be divided into two categories,
- Green skin avocados: Pinkerton, Ettinger and Reed
- Black skin avocado: Hass and Lamb Hass
Generally, the green skins can tolerate higher temperature as compared to their black skin counter parts. I suggest if the temperature crosses 35 degree Celsius, you should go for green skins. However, if it remains below 35 degree C, then go for Hass and Lamb Hass.
I often get asked which is the best variety out of these.
There is no simple and straight forward answer to that. All the above mentioned varieties are commercial, yet Hass is the dominant one. But growing Hass avocado in India requires very favourable climatic conditions. So far, I have identified two regions which are perfect for Hass, North-eastern states of India and coffee estates of South India.
Locations like Madhya Pradesh, Gujrat, Maharshtra and Punjab are more suited for green skins.
But keep in mind that green skins will go for less price than Hass.
What are rootstocks?
One question that I often get asked is why I import plants from Israel. The answer is ROOTSTOCK. There has been no research done on avocado rootstocks in India. Lots of nurseries in India offer avocado plants for cheap. The main thing that differentiates me and them is that my avocado plants, regardless of the avocado variety you buy, are grafted on industry standard rootstock from Israel, Ashdot 17.
What these other nurseries in India do is, they graft on random avocado seeds. Without a good rootstock, you won’t get that commercial harvest you were hoping for. And you will only find out about that 5-7 years later once the tree matures and you realise that it’s not yielding as expected. You have to decide if you want to compromise on quality.
Life of an avocado orchard, if managed properly can be upwards of 40 years. So, compromising on quality would not be a wise decision in my opinion.
In Israel, avocado farming was introduced 60 years ago Over the last 60 years, they have done a lot of research to develop rootstock avocado varieties that are suitable for arid conditions, calcareous and alkaline soils and can consistently give high yield both in terms of quantity and quality.
Another thing to note is some rootstocks can offer protection from diseases. Israeli rootstocks like Ashdot 17 and Degania 117 were developed through cross breeding for protection against alkaline soils and high calcium content in the soil which is typical in arid areas. Tzrifin 99 and Degania 189 offer protection from verticillium wilt.
You can give me a call at +916268643227 to book your avocado plants grafted on Ashdot 17.
Why you need type A and type B avocado plants?
Avocado flowers are hermaphrodites with synchronous dichogamy. In simple words, this means they struggle with self-pollination. That’s why you need two varieties for cross pollination.
For pollination, I use Ettinger. It is a type B Israeli avocado variety which is favoured more than Hass in the local Israeli market as well as some parts of Eastern Europe and Russia. I suggest planting minimum of 11-15% Ettinger in your orchard. I will guide you how to place your Ettinger plants inside an avocado orchard. Ettinger isn’t placed randomly anywhere in the orchard, contact me +916268643227 to understand the orchard design and layout.
What soil tests should be done?
I suggest doing following soil tests before considering avocado farming in India. These are
- EC
- Calcium
- Exchangeable sodium/Sodium absorption ratio
- Soil Texture analysis
- PH
- Macro Nutrient analysis
When you send me this information, I will be better able to guide you if you should go for avocado farming or not. Just make sure that the soil is well drained. If not, raised beds can help. I will explain more about raised beds further down in this post.
Planting space for avocado farming?
The planting space I recommend for avocados is 3.5 meters tree to tree and 7 meters row to row. This turns out to be around 165-170 plants per acre. 3.5 meters between the tree is required for the canopy to take shape and 7 meters between rows is required for the tractor to go inside your avocado orchard for spraying, harvesting and pruning.
How to prepare the field for avocado farming?
There are three things you need to do before you transplant the avocado plants into the field.
- Building raised beds
I have created several videos on my YouTube channel on how to build raised beds. The idea is if you have black cotton soil or a soil with high clay content then water drainage can be an issue. Excessive water in the roots can kill your plants, so to avoid that, I suggest to build raised beds. Its not an issue if the slope of the land is good and the soil is well drained. - Installing irrigation system
I suggest to use inline drip options by Netafim. Either Dripnet or Uniram. But this all has to be done before planting. - Digging holes according to the planting space
Holes should dug according to the size of the bag, not too deep or not too shallow either.
What should be the planting space?
Planting space I recommend is 7 meters between rows and 3.5 meters tree to tree. Bear in mind that 7 meters is required so that the tractor can easily move inside the orchard for spraying and harvesting.
How to Prune?
There are multiple pruning techniques you can use. The purpose of pruning is to allow the plant to have maximum sunlight inside the canopy. This will help in higher yield of avocado fruits.
Where you can get the plants?
You can order the plants from my nursery. All the plants are imported from Israel. My next consignment is due to arrive later this year. Then I will grow the plants, keep them in my nursery for one year, and then you can take delivery of the avocado plants anywhere in India. It is also mandatory to keep the plants in my greenhouse because of the plant quarantine laws. The plants you will get will be roughly 1.5 years old. Planting at that age is ideal as it results in less mortality. You can call my nursery at +916268643227 to book your plants today.
How much profit can you earn from Avocado farming in India?
Per acre profit depends on what variety you plant and how favourable are the climatic conditions. In Israel, they get 6 tonnes per acre from green skins and around 4.5 tonnes per acre from black skins. In India, I think black skins would sell for around 200rs per kg in the wholsesale market and green skins would go for 100-150 rs per kg in wholesale. That suggests we can earn around 6-7 lakhs from green skins and 8-9 lakhs from black skins. These are my conservative estimates, actual returns depends on the market rate of the future.
I hope this was helpful.
Thank you,
Kind Regards
Harshit Godha
Founder, Indo Israel Avocado
+91 6268643227
