In a region where orchards take up the largest portion of its 2.07 lac hectares of farmland and annual exports sometimes exceed a crop of over 250 million boxes, it is easy to imagine its primary cash crop, ‘the apple’ as a native fruit growing since the beginning of time.
Yet nothing could be farther from the truth.
Ancient Himachal was no Eden and there was not a single apple tree to be found within her present day borders.
The first to bring apples to the region were British settlers. The variety of apples they cultivated were two strains of bitter apples. More suited for European taste, this variety produced limited commercial success.
Then in 1916 arrived the non-indigenous Red Delicious – an American variety of sweet apples from Iowa (USA).
Possibly first cultivated in 1872 AD, the Red Delicious was sweeter in taste.
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First planted by Samuel Evans Stokes (see Hindu article: A foreigner and freedom fighter), an American social worker turned experimental farmer, the fruit was the precursor that kick-started the hill state’s apple industry with its sweet tantalizing taste, and put it on course to be a major power in cultivation.
Presently, this Indian state produces over sixteen varieties of different apples, of which the royal, red and golden variety rate high on the popularity charts.
I F I This is an Independent story highlighting how the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh came to cultivate the apple. It includes bits of information procured from News Outlets. I
