Dimapur: This fairy-tale-like tale of a Naga woman entrepreneur Lucy, and her dream venture, is a true story of determination and faith in herself andhard workthat has borne fruit.
Meet Lucy Ngullie Thomas, an avid entrepreneur. Ten years ago,her passion for exotic fruits and plants prompted Lucy to cultivate the-then rare dragon fruit and other exotic plants on a five-hectare plot atShitovi village, 15 km from Nagaland’s commercial hub Dimapur. Her passion was shared equally by her late husband K.T Thomas, who was a top state government official, a scholar, writer and renowned intellectual, and together they named their dream venture the Dream Dragon Fruit Farm.
Dragon Fruit Plant at a farm in Nagaland. BNE image
Ever since they started cultivation of the pink-coloured dragonfruit and other exotic plants big-scale in the year 2013, Dream Dragon Fruit Farm hasproduced impressive harvests year after year. The business has beenselling the fruit in bulk to whole-sellers andretailers besides supplying cuttings of dragon fruit and other exotic plants for sale to interested farmers throughout the country.
After her husband passed away a few years later, Lucy took upon herself the task of managing this huge venture single-handedly and today she has managed to single-handedly capture the dragon fruit market throughout the state besides supplying in bulk to other states of the country.
“For a marginalized farmer, producing dragon fruit is an ambitious and challenging enterprise that requires investment, patience and time. While it is costly to produce, it also gives huge returns,” according to Lucy.
Initial challenges aside,Lucytook a step further and launched her own brand of organic dragon fruit wine and juice in January 2021, brewed right from the farm’s winery. Her new brand of organic wine was officially launched and toasted in presence of the district public relations officer Lolano Patton and localdignitaries where Lucy admitted she took up the new venture primarily as value addition to her farming inputs and another step towards self-sustenance.It was reported that she had hired expert brewers from abroad and that the farm now has a proper winery.
Elaborating on her new venture, Lucy explained that she took up winery taking into consideration that dragon fruit are perishable and that this was the only way to ensure that the abundant harvests don’t go to waste and encouraged fellow Naga farmers to learn to be self-reliant rather than depend on government subsidies or intervention.During the launch itself, she announced that she already had a long queue of orders for the wine.
She has turned the 100% organic wine into white wine and red wine and sells them at reasonable prices, creating a local market for the drink.
Lucy’s success in this unique venture has evidently encouraged quite a number of avid farmers across the state to take up cultivation of dragon fruit and today, footpath vendors and fruit sellers displaying baskets of this exotic fruit at daily and weekly bazaars is a common sight.
Taking dragon fruit farming a step further
Lucy’s resounding success has evidently prompted other avidfarmers and landowners to take up large-scale dragon fruit farming.
In a dragon fruit farm, the average yield per pillar, consisting of three or four plants per year, is about 15 kg with the weight varying from 300 to 500 gm per fruit, said another dragon fruit farmer, Akato Sumi.
Akato, alandowner who owns vast stretches of land on the outskirts of Dimapurhas converted a major portion of his land near Kuhuboto town, 15 km from Dimapur,into a dragon fruit farm.His A&K Dragon Fruits Farm covers an impressive 60acres(almost 25 hectares).
Dragon fruit is popular in countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Israel and Sri Lanka. In the Northeast, commercial cultivation of the fruit is rapidly picking up pace, particularly in Nagaland, thanks to the vision of entrepreneurs like Lucy and Akato.
Akato explained that in the case of dragon fruit, the plant begins bearing fruit within a year after planting. While the flowering process commences from May till October, the actual harvest begins from June and continues till December, he said.
“I have been enjoying satisfactory harvests during the past few years ever since I took up this venture.We have been harvesting 2000 kg each year,” he said. Demand for the organic fruit is so high that the farm is still unable to meet even local demands, said Sumi.
So far, however, he chooses to gift a huge chunk of these rich harvests to friends, family, relatives and to charity. Most of his acquaintances see him as a benefactor and his simple explanation remains: “I am already enjoying God’s blessings, what more do I need? I am always ready to help out people in genuine need!”
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