Farmers Make Geography History….JAYASHREE BHOSALE & MADHVI SALLY PUNE
Apples in Rajasthan, coffee in Himachal! Innovating farmers are making impossible possible by dint of their hard work. And the icing on the cake is that this is happening in back-of-beyond Bharat and not in the swank labs of India
Apples in Rajasthan, coffee in Himachal! Innovating farmers are making impossible possible by dint of their hard work. And the icing on the cake is that this is happening in back-of-beyond Bharat and not in the swank labs of India
Call it innovative farming if you will growing coffee in Himachal, tea in Kolhapur, and apples in Rajasthan. Driven by the urge to do something different or to earn higher returns, a new breed of farmers is cultivating crops not usually grown in their areas.
I experimented with tea because I wanted to do something different, said Balasaheb Tekawade, who grows quality tea on 30 acres of farmland in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra. His adjoining tea factory produces 100 kg of tea every day, fetching him premium prices, and he now plans to bring in another 30 acres under the crop.
This was also the motivation for hotelier Rustom Cama, who wanted to see the climatic extreme an apple tree could endure. The 150 apple trees he planted on his farm in Mount Abu, Rajasthan, three years ago have started bearing fruit. Having successfully grown apricots, plums, pears and peaches on his farm in the Aravallis, Cama is now looking forward to a commercial crop of apples in the next few years.
Tekawade and Cama are the face of a new class of farm entrepreneurs that is ready to take on the risk of breaking the traditional equation of agricultural commodities with their specific geographies. And when the effort pays off, it is good returns.
This new thinking has also been embraced by some farmers wanting to move out of traditional crop cycles. Vikram Sharma began experimenting with coffee in Himachal Pradesh 12 years ago, using 50 different plant varieties. It was an isolated move then, but gradually others joined in, wanting to move out of wheat and maize. I saw coffee plantations in Karnataka and realised the climatic conditions in the two states were similar, Sharma said, adding that rising domestic consumption and firming coffee prices were key incentives.
This season (May-September), and for the first time, Himachal has become home to more than 40,000 coffee plants, with 80 farmers across Mandi, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Una and Shimla districts replicating the effort. Most of the farms are situated in the sub-mountain and low-hill sub-tropical zone of the state at a height of 670 metres and above.
In Karnataka, the yield from one plant is 1-2 kg; our plants will yield 3 kg, Sharma said.
These farm entrepreneurs, who have closely studied the climate of their regions, have dared to go against the advice of agricultural experts.
Premium rice variety basmati is now being grown outside its key producing states of Punjab and Haryana, driven by growing demand, good returns and incentives from state governments. Kerala has lost its place as the top pepper-producing state to neighbouring Karnataka, where it is being cultivated in coffee estates in the districts of Kodagu, Chikmagalur and Hassan.
Some Experiments Due to Agro-Climatic Reasons
The cultivation that started two decades ago has been spreading to all coffee estates over the years. State government incentives, however, are not available for all crops. In the case of tea, individual farmers like Tekawade are unlikely to get it, with the Centre having decided not to support tea cultivation in non-traditional areas.
Twenty years ago, when domestic production of tea was low, the government had launched a project to promote its cultivation in non-traditional areas. Some experiments, like the one of growing tea in Keonjhar district of Orissa, failed due to agro-climatic reasons. Today, tea production has overshot demand. Hence our policy is to consolidate and replant, not to support horizontal expansion of tea production, said G Boriah, director of tea development, Tea Board of India.
Growing non-traditional crops is a recent trend. This is possible if the local micro-climatic conditions are similar to those in the traditional growing areas of those crops. Yet, the taste and other features of such crops is always different from those grown in their traditional geographies, said Rajaram Deshmukh, director (agricultural sciences and technology), Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Pune, and former vice-chancellor of the Mahatma Phule Krushi Vidyapeeth.
Deshmukh said these experiments were important in view of global warming. Farmers are facing problems in maintaining yield, taste and other characteristics of the agricultural commodities due to changing climatic conditions. So it is useful for them to try new, non-traditional crops, he said. He gave the example of banana. Rising temperatures in the banana bowl of Jalgaon district of Maharashtra have resulted in a drop in the crops acreage in this belt. Instead, the traditional sugarcane belt of western Maharashtra has now become the new hotspot for export-quality bananas.
– A FARMER IN
Maharashtras Kolhapur district known for its sugarcane and gur has taken to quality tea cultivation
Maharashtras Kolhapur district known for its sugarcane and gur has taken to quality tea cultivation
– HOTELIER IN Mt Abu,
Rajasthan, is growing apples after success with apricots, plums, pears and peaches
Rajasthan, is growing apples after success with apricots, plums, pears and peaches
– FARMERS IN
Himachal Pradesh are growing coffee, apart from traditional crops like apples, wheat and maize
Himachal Pradesh are growing coffee, apart from traditional crops like apples, wheat and maize
– BASMATI IS BEING
grown outside its key producing states of Punjab and Haryana
grown outside its key producing states of Punjab and Haryana
– KERALA HAS LOST
its place as the top pepper-producing state to neighbouring Karnataka, where it is being cultivated in coffee estates
its place as the top pepper-producing state to neighbouring Karnataka, where it is being cultivated in coffee estates
– SUGARCANE BELT OF
western Maharashtra has become the new hotspot for exportquality bananas instead of Jalgaon
western Maharashtra has become the new hotspot for exportquality bananas instead of Jalgaon