Hitting the JACK POT

A special jackfruit variety, planted by and named after his father, fetches S.S. Paramesha over ₹1 crore annually

- PRATHIMA NANDAKUMAR

With its coppery red flakes, sweetness in taste and high nutritive value, a 40-year-old jackfruit tree has changed the fortunes of a farmer in Karnataka by fetching him over ₹1 crore annually.

A two-hour drive from Bengaluru through lush green coconut groves, mango orchards, paddy and millet fields—fed by the Hemavati river canals—takes you to the village of Seegenahalli in Tumakuru district.

The village is now famous for 'Siddu,' the celebrity mother tree protected by a fence and round-the-clock CCTV surveillance. However, this tree that bears 450 fruits in a single season is not the only reason behind the prosperity of S.S. Paramesha, 42, the farmer who owns it.

Come May, farmers, horticulture enthusiasts and scientists from across the country make a beeline to Paramesha's nursery, where he sells nearly 30,000 saplings of the rare variety jointly developed and commercialised by the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru, in 2017. During monsoon, TV channels, documentary filmmakers and agriculture students come to the village to get a glimpse of the grand tree and the thriving nursery.

Siddu's speciality was noticed by Dr G. Karunakaran, principal scientist, IIHR-Central Horticultural Experiment Station, Hirehalli, during a survey to identify superior jackfruit genotypes in the traditional jackfruit-growing tracts of southern Karnataka. Seven years since, Paramesha, who used to earn ₹8,000 annually from his jacktree, now earns over ₹1 crore by selling the saplings and earning royalty from government and private agencies.

Siddu is named after Paramesha's father S.K. Siddappa and family deity Koratagere Siddeshwara of Siddeshwara Betta in Tumakuru. The name was shortened to Siddu for registration. It is a rare distinction for a fruit to be named after a farmer, and the late Dr Sri Shivakumara Swamiji, former pontiff of Sri Siddaganga Mutt, released the 'Siddu Halasu' into the market.