Indian strawberry farmers rely on varieties imported from the US and Europe, but that could change.

In the west of India, the mountainous region of Mahabaleshwar is home to most of India's strawberry farms. An altitude of more than 1,000m (3,280ft) gifts the region a long cool growing season between November and March. But that doesn't mean farmers have an easy life - it's a labour intensive and risky way to make a living. "If you have a field full of strawberries and sudden heavy rains hit, the entire crop is ruined and we have to bear massive losses," says Sheetal Danavle who, with her husband, grows strawberries on half of their three-acre farm. Strawberry plants have to be replaced every season and are not grown from seed. Instead, farmers buy young plants from suppliers. For Danavle, on her small farm, that's an outlay of $2,500 (£1,900) every year. "If the season goes well, you can earn double your investment. But the climate makes it a huge gamble," she says. Thousands of farmers grow strawberries across the Mahabaleshwar region, making the fruit one of the most profitable horticultural crops in western India. Despite that success the industry still relies on varieties that are imported from California, Florida, Italy and Spain, as no one in India has developed a domestic plant.