FARMING is the traditional business of the Prasad family. Several of the members share an 11-acre farmstead located at Laluni, Soesdyke Highway. They grow permanent and cash crops that are either wholesale or retail at the Stabroek Market on Fridays.

Surujdai Prasad, the matriarch of the family, has been farming since the tender age of 12. Now 55 years old, Surujdai is focusing on lessening her workload on the farm. She has reduced acreages dedicated to cash crops and is planting more permanent crops such as cherries, sorrel and passion fruit.

“I used to plant a lot of cash crops but when you go on the market a lot of persons selling them too, so you not getting a good price, but you have to do a lot of work. So I decided to plant more permanent crops and less work for me. Like with planting cherries is every six weeks you harvesting and a little maintenance is needed,” Surujdai said.

After several years, Surujdai recommenced planting passion fruit in November 2018. The high demand for the fruit and limited inputs require for a good harvest motivated the farmer. The National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) took the opportunity to work along with Surujdai on this venture.

According to Tyon Phillips, NAREI’s Extension Officer, the institute has been encouraging

farmers to diversify their crops so as to enhance their earnings. Boulanger, bora and peppers are commonly grown in the area and do not attract high prices. As such, the institute was pleased that Surujdai decided to venture into passion fruit farming once again.

He noted that the farmer was advised to plant her crop using a 20-ft spacing. Even though this may seem wide, the passion fruit plant produced more fruits when afforded adequate spacing. This technique differs from the belief that more plants on a plot would result in more fruits.

Currently, Surujdai is harvesting passion fruits and the crop is far from over. Thus far, she has harvested 6,000 passion fruits. She is retailing one passion fruit for $20, while there is a different price for wholesale customers.

“Once you have the right spacing and your plot is clean you will get a good crop…right now my crop didn’t grow with any fertiliser. I just cleared 1.5 acres and start planting, and if all goes well this crop could last up to four to five years,” the farmer said.