After returning to India from the UK, my next challenge was to persuade my father and uncle to see avocado production as a viable business opportunity.
My father, though skeptical of the possibility of Avocado’s commercial cultivation here, arranged meetings with senior officers in the state’s horticulture department. Not surprisingly, all those meetings were not quite productive due to the novelty of the project.
We figured it is best to have my colleagues from Israel visit our sites here in Bhopal, see the micro climate for themselves, analyse the soil and water and suggest us how to proceed.
We hired the Israeli experts, and they visited us in October, 2018.
We had field visits of around 4 to 5 farms near Bhopal and our own sites. Judging from micro climate, water and soil test reports, local fruit produce, local cultivation practices and meetings with horticulture professionals and consultants, they suggested it is possible to grow Avocados here. But insisted, that I should start with a pilot project to see which varieties perform the best in the environment here.
Finally, a decision was made by my family to go ahead with a pilot project of 1 to 1.5 hectares and see where it goes. I am in process of ordering my plants and they are currently being prepared in Israel.
Thank you for reading.
Harshit Godha
If you would like to get in touch, email me at indoisraelavocado@gmail.com or dm me on my Instagram, my username is indoisraelavocado.
