The elite papaya selection Thomas Delight was released formally on 1st Nov. 2020 (Karnataka Rajyotsava Day) by Dr. N Krishna Kumar, Former Dy Director General (Horticulture), ICAR and Dr. Hithlamani, Retd. Additional Director of Horticulture, Bangalore at the farmers and officials meet at ‘Thomas Biotech’ company premises. This involved the display of fresh fruits, distribution of brochures, flyers, cultivation package and free TC plants to selected farmers and officials. Dr. Pious Thomas, CEO & Director welcomed the dignitaries and briefed about the company products and the new release.
At the interaction meet, the officials and farmers who have grown the female TC papaya ‘Dawn Delight’ gave very encouraging feedback. The TC plants proved elite with uniform plant stand compared with the seed-propagated papayas, apparently superior to other popular varieties commonly grown by the farmers with preferred and more uniform fruit size, high sweetness, seedlessness, high pulp ratio with very thin skin, improved keeping quality, etc.
The new TC papaya ‘Thomas Delight’ with solid large oblong fruits was welcomed by the farmers and the officials as a very novel input to promote papaya cultivation and also to reduce the reliance
of the country for papaya seed imports.