Guava
Guava is native plant of tropical America (from Mexico to Peru). It is a very popular fruit of the country (in output 4th place). The plant provides two crops (winter and summer) in a year. About 92 varieties of guava have been found of which 10-12 are of commercial value. Here Allahabad Safeda, Sardar Behat Coconut, Chittidar, Lalguda and apple colour in Uttar Pradesh; Nasik, Sardar and Dharidar in Bihar, Maharashtra and Gujarat; and Dholaka, Nasik, Dharwar and Bedana in south India are of main importance.
Uttar Pradesh (24,700 ha), Bihar (11,210) and Madhya Pradesh (5,530 ha) are the main producers of guava in the country. Bulk of supply comes from Allahabad, Bareilly, and Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh; Champaran, Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur in Bihar; Pune, Aurangabad, Parbhani, Nasik and Ahmadnagar districts in Maharashtra; Kurnool and Cuddapah districts in Andhra Pradesh and Ahmadabad district in Gujarat.
Major portion of the country’s production of guava is consumed internally as a fresh fruit. A small portion of it is also utilised in the manufacture of jam, jelly, nectar, cheese and toffee. It is rich in nutritive matter and is rightly called as ‘apple of poor people.
