VNR-Bihi. No, it’s not the name of any satellite. It is the name of a new guava variety in India that produces the biggest fruit. The guava is 300 g to 850 g in weight. It is so big just one fruit is enough for a family of four!
This is not all. Apart from the huge size that immediately attracts attention, this tropical fruit guava has a longer shelf life and fewer seeds than other guava fruits.
The best part?
It fetches premium price. It is selling like hot cakes in the market. It easily sells for 80-150 Rs/kg.
Who Developed and Marketed it?
VNR Bihi is a research-led guava variety that has made waves in the market and in research work. It is developed by a reputable private research organization VNR Nursery under their fruit breeding program.
This innovative variety has already won several awards and gained recognition among researchers, farmers, and traders.
Its popularity can be seen from the fact that an increasing number of people have begun to cultivate this guava variety. Even one software engineer quit his job to grow 1900 guava trees in his 3-acre plot in Haryana.
A former banker has planted 2000 saplings of this variety in his plot in Telangana, while a plant pathologist successfully raises 850 plants in this Bengaluru plot.
How VNR Bihi Originated
The origin of this jumbo size guava variety goes back to 1996 when a farmer named Narayan Chawda of Gomchi village located in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, came across a beautiful Thai guava fruit.
The fruit’s size, shape, taste, fewer seeds, and longer shelf life impressed the farmer. The fruit was also crispy to eat.
The farmer started a breeding program for guava as per the suitability of India’s climate and palate.
However, at this time, nobody knew about this king-size guava.
The world came to know about this new guava variety in India only when VNR Nursery started developing it and showcased it in Pune’s Kisan Exhibition held in 2011.
But it looks like the jumbo size guava is still not found everywhere in the market in India and is still not among the widely used varieties of guava in India. But wherever it is found, people love eating it. And the growers of this variety are all smiles because it is lucrative and lovable.
