Farmers turn to sunflower cultivation

VIDHARBHA UPDATE

Farmers in some parts of Vidarbha have woken up to the potential of alternative crops to cotton and have taken to cultivating sunflower in a big way.

From a few acres to over thousands of hectares, the yellow flower now dot the agricultural landscape of the region.

The crop has been so bountiful that the Agriculture Poduce Marketing Committee (APMC) expects prices to come down from Rs 17,000 per quintal last year to around Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 a quintal this season.

Sunflower has never been a traditional crop for Vidarbha and this is the first time when the yield has been so high. Amrit Sitaram Patil, a farmer in Tembhri village, sowed sunflower seeds as a second crop after the end of the Rabi season last year.

Patil had only two acres of land under sunflower cultivation but could cultivate 17 quintals of seeds. He made a profit of about Rs 13,000. This year, he sowed sunflower on six hectares. He had opted for sunflower as an intermediate option and wasn't really expecting any great profits. However, his success was soon the talk of the region.

Word of mouth publicity and a swift response by the state agriculture department's Nagpur taluka office saw the launch of a programme under the farmers' field school scheme.

"The programme was conducted on a weekly basis and extended from December to March. Thirty cultivators from Ashta and Tamaswadi villages were selected and trained on the procedures of sowing and the activities to be done after it," said master trainer with the taluka office, C B Chawane. The results were so encouraging that the otherwise sleepy department got energised. Ashta village saw 45 farmers bring 60 hectares under sunflower cultivation. Khardo saw 20 farmers devoting 30 hectares to sunflower. In Daheli, 40 farmers sowed sunflower on 50 hectares.

Tamaswadi saw 20 farmers experimenting with sunflower on 40 hectares of land. Jasapur, Pohi and Mohgaon had 10 farmers each using 45 hectares for sunflower.

"Productivity is expected to be somewhere around 8-9 quintals per hectare this season, which means that the total yield of the villages here will be approximately 2,280"�2,565 quintals," said agriculture assistant at the taluka office, P M Dhoke.

The total turnover even at reduced prices of between Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000 per quintal is expected to be close to Rs 3 crore.

More cultivation unfortunately means more production and this drives the prices down. Last year, prices were ruling around Rs 17,000 per quintal. The top three areas where sunflower is blooming are "� Bhivapur, Umrer, and Kuhi. In fact, Nagpur taluka is a distant fourth in the race. Under Bhivapur agriculture taluka office, 6,150 hectares of land is under sunflower cultivation. Similarly, Umrer taluka has 5,380 hectares, while Kuhi has 1,012 hectares under sunflower.

The plant is also gaining wide acceptance at other places in the region.

The total land under sunflower cultivation in Nagpur district as of today is 13,411 hectares. This takes the total turnover expected from the crop to somewhere above Rs 13.4 crore from the Nagpur district alone.

Another reason for sunflower's popularity is that it can be sown anytime of the year despite it mainly being a rabi crop.

Pawar said that this was because it did not require a lot of water for growth. "A wet field is sufficient and the plant has to be watered only twice during its complete cycle," said taluka superintendent at the Nagpur taluka agriculture office, D S Pawar. No doubt the farmers in Vidarbha are reaching out to this crop.