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Indian sugarcane farmers switch to flowers and soya bean

For many years, farmers in Latur, Osmanabad and Solapur relied on water-intensive sugarcane, expecting huge profits. The unpredictable monsoons and the groundwater depletion have forced them to rethink their strategy and for the first time, the government, too, is encouraging them to look beyond sugarcane.

The government-sponsored ‘Beyond Sugarcane’ movement has gathered pace in the dry district of Osmanabad, with thousands of farmers taking to soya bean, tur and horticulture, and most importantly Gerbera. This campaign supplements the much-publicised ‘Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan’ aimed at creating decentralised water sources.

The district administration brought 14,500 farmers under farming groups on the basis of crop choice. “At present, we have 220 polyhouses and produce 1.5 lakh flowers every day,” says District Agriculture Officer Shankar Totawar. Thanks to the sustained efforts in the past one year, the area under sugarcane cultivation has halved.

Solid income
The cut Gerbera flowers are sent to Delhi, Hyderabad, Banglore and Thailand and provide an income of around Rs. 1 lakh per acre every month. The success of the Gerbera cultivation here is reflected in the fact that two new varieties of the flower will be named after two villages of Osmanabad: Padola and Upla.

Click here to read the complete article at www.thehindu.com.
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