Money-making Dragon Fruit and Malaysian Rambutan

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Dear Reader, About 15 years ago, while working for a business magazine, I interviewed a senior executive at a private bank for a story I was reporting. During our conversation, the topic turned to agricultural loans. He told me that the farmers who approached the bank for credit were not clad in dhotis and kurtas but in branded jeans and T-shirts. They drove SUVs and negotiated interest rates with the confidence of seasoned businessmen. Today, when I read and write stories of successful farmers almost every other day, I am often reminded of that conversation. In 2011, millionaire farmers were news to me. In 2026, they're routine. Three of our stories this week celebrate the success of farmers who embraced exotic fruit cultivation and are now earning lakhs from the same land that once brought them only a few thousand rupees. My colleague Anu spoke to Abraham Thomas, whose family cultivated rubber for two generations before it became financially unviable. Instead of earning Rs 50,000 per acre from rubber, Abraham decided to uproot the plantation in Kerala's Pathanamthitta district and replace it with Malaysian rambutan. He uses organic farming practices, and now each tree yields an average of 100 kg of rambutan every season, generating Rs 10,000 in revenue. Abraham sells the fruit from his farm and also sends it to Bengaluru and other cities. The earnings per acre are ten times those of rubber, and the 72-year-old farmer is happy to have changed his family’s fortunes. To read our earlier newsletters, click here Miles away in Rajasthan, Rameshwar Jat shared a somewhat similar story with my colleague Riya. Tired of dwindling returns from cotton and wheat, he decided to experiment with dragon fruit, which he had first seen growing in a farm along a highway in Gujarat. He ordered dragon fruit saplings from Sri Lanka on an experimental basis in 2020. The plants began fruiting 20 months later, and he sold them at Rs 250 per kg from his highway-touching farm. The high rates and low maintenance costs prompted him to expand in 2022, and Rameshwar ordered saplings from Israel. He uses the trellis method instead of the more popular ring-pole method of dragon fruit farming. Riya has compared both the techniques in the story and also explained why the trellis is financially rewarding for farmers in the long run. Rameshwar now earns Rs 10 lakh per acre in the drought-prone Bhilwara district and inspires other farmers to look beyond loss-making crops and adopt organic farming practices. Riya also wrote about five professionals who quit their jobs to start avocado farming. From an Oxford MBA and an IT engineer to an IIT PhD, she wrote about five growers who built profitable avocado businesses given the fruit’s premium prices and rising demand, especially in urban areas. Our weekend feature lists five fruits that can turn your terrace into a mini fruit forest. Unlike seasonal vegetables that require replanting every few months, fruit plants are a long-term investment. Once established, they bear fruit year after year while adding greenery and beauty to the terrace. If you love gardening, don’t miss this one. Happy Reading! Warmly, Rashmi How this Kerala farmer earns Rs 10,000 per tree with rambutan farming How this farmer in drought-prone Bhilwara earns Rs 10 lakh per acre from organic dragon fruit farming From Oxford MBA to IIT PhD, 5 professionals who quit jobs to earn lakhs from avocados 5 fruits that can turn your terrace into a mini fruit forest