A farmer from Sarsout panchayat under Harihurganj block has proven that apples can be grown at a hot place like Palamau where the temperature ranges between 42 degrees Celsius and 44 degrees Celsius.

Ajay Mehta said that various experiments in apple genomics have broken the myth that apples grow only in cold, wet climates like Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir. He asserted it can be grown in hotter places too.

Sources said the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology Hyderabad has played a major role in getting apples out of the wrap of the cold and wet climate category fruit.

Ajay said he opted for apple growing here in 2019 with only 15 trees and this July he has enough apples hanging in his apple trees. He made it clear this yield is not for any commercial gains but to reassure himself that apple growing is possible in Palamau in future.

A renowned apple farmer, Harimans Sharma of Himachal Pradesh, couriered him 25 apple saplings in 2019 said Mehta.

He used 15 apple saplings here in Palamau and 10 in his other farm house in Bihar's Aurangabad district where all these 10 apple saplings withered for 'various reasons'.

The apples in Palamau will be ready for consumption by the end of July.

Sources said the apples face stiff resistance from the guava and papaya in Jharkhand as the middle class family's first choice is guava and papaya which come in plenty and are affordable price wise.

Mehta said he is growing Thai Pink variety of guava in 60 acres of land with 42,000 guava trees at his Sarsout panchayat and sells his guavas in Bihar and UP.

He said around 100 quintal a day of Thai Pink guavas goes out for sale now. The market price of his guava is Rs35 to Rs40 a kilo.

Mehta has one complaint. He has not been given any support by the state or the district administration in his progressive farming.

About the impact of the Coronavirus on his fruit business he said, "It has broken the system in the hardest way.”