Pomegranate – a viable fruit crop for integration

Abstract

Pomegranate cultivation is fast becoming popular in dry arid and semi-arid regions, due to higher monetary benefits compared to other crops. Once the orchard comes into bearing in third year, major expenditure is on labour and fertilizers. It can be seen that if a farmer gets good first harvesting, investment in establishing a pomegranate orchards can be recovered in four years after plantation, with a profit of around 64 paisa per rupee spent. In forthcoming years, there is increase in yield by 30-50%, hence profits would increase. Therefore, fifth year profit of ` 3.21 per rupee invested can be expected and thereafter profit may vary from ` 4 to 10 (sometimes even higher) for each rupee spent per year on production.