Apple pioneers new terrain, moving from hills to plains

Thanks to progressive farmer Hariman Sharma of Bilaspur, the iconic apple has finally made its way from the Himachal Pradesh highlands to the milder plains.

In the 1990s, Hariman, a farm laborer, grew mangoes on his little property in Bilaspur, which lacked the winter frost and altitude needed to produce apples. In 1999, Hariman happened to meet an orchardist in the nearby Shimla area by coincidence, and he used the opportunity to plant a few apple plants in Bilaspur. “Since Bilaspur has a hot, humid subtropical climate with highs of 45 degrees Celsius, I didn’t have much hope.” However, I raised a few more after seeing the little apple seedlings begin to grow. After a further two years, the tree began to yield small-sized fruits. I grafted an apple tree on top of a plum tree to increase the quality of the apples. After six years of labor, everything paid off in 2005, according to Hariman.

In 2014, after a number of fruitful tests over the next several years, Hariman submitted an application for this apple variety’s patent. The National Innovation Foundation-India (NIFI) planted 10,000 seedlings on the fields of around 1,200 farmers in 29 states to see whether the novel type could flourish in various climates. “In MP, Meghalaya, Manipur, Maharashtra, UP, Punjab, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana, Rajasthan, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Delhi, and Telangana, fructition was successful,” according to Hariman. The Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Rights Authority, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Government of India, and the National Innovation Foundation awarded Hariman the patent for HRMN-99 (HRMN is an abbreviation for his name) in 2022.

Hariman said, “As the traditional apple types aren’t mature enough to be picked until the final week of July, I now sell around 50 quintals of product in the local market of Bilaspur in June at a very fair price. In my orchard, the larger trees produce 45 kg of apples annually, while the smaller ones provide over 10 kg.

“It is being cultivated by farmers in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan,” he answers with pride when asked whether other people have also grown HRMN-99.

Professor BN Prasad said, “We have been in touch with Hariman Sharma for the past two years.” Prasad resides in a Jharkhand neighborhood close to Jamshedpur. About 150 apple seedlings of the HRMN-99 kind were planted by me. After a year, 110 of these began to blossom and produce fruit. It also has a very sweet flavor. I want to plant additional saplings going forward.

He continues by saying that the apple type may thrive without snow and that the standard cultivars need 1,600 hours of frost. “We only require 100 hours of low chill, or a temperature at night of less than 7 degrees Celsius,” claims Prasad.

Similarly, 400 of the 600 seedlings that we planted were harmed by a fungal infection, according to Atul Mishra of Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh. We harvested three quintals from the remaining 200 seedlings, which we saved for ourselves and donated to friends and family.

Following HRMN-99’s commercial success in India, the variety was sold to Bangladesh, Nepal, Germany, South Africa, and Mauritius. “Recently. We planted the seedlings on a 50-acre plot in Salalah, an 800-kilometer coastal city, after I accepted an invitation to Oman. The Malaysian government has invited me to increase the diversity in one of their towns, “says Hariman.

The Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister presented Hariman with the National Innovative Farmer Award in recognition of his contributions to the horticultural industry. Additionally, in 2017, then-President Pranab Mukherjee honored him with the Grassroots Innovation and Outstanding Traditional Knowledge Award.