Gujarat farmers eyeing high-return crops

Gandhinagar, May 20: Gujarat is witnessing major changes in the agriculture sector with farmers shifting towards highly profitable cash crops like cotton, fruits and vegetables instead of tobacco or groundnut that are less attractive and provide low margins.

Officials said the state is now a major producer of Bt Cotton and area under cultivation, especially in Saurashtra region, has gone up and the total area in the state is estimated to be around four per cent higher in 2007-08 as the yield and profit were much higher in the previous season.

Area under groundnut cultivation is expected to be lower, they said.

Cotton sowing has already begun and farmers hope the monsoon in the region will be in time. Gujarat is one of biggest producer of cotton and production in the previous year was 9.3 million bales, almost one-third of country's production.

State Agriculture Ministry sources said groundnut output fell to 4.98 million tonnes in 2006-07 from the previous year's 7.99 million tonnes due to crop diversion and erratic monsoon rains. The officials expect area under groundnut cultivation to fall by 10-15 per cent this season as cotton seed purchase was gaining pace indicating a rise in area under cotton cultivation. Farmers have received good returns from cotton and more and more farmers are shifting towards cotton.

With several corporates, including Reliance and Subhishka, opening retail chains in Gujarat and other states, fruits like mangoes, bananas and grapes are becoming major crops in Central and Southern Gujarat as bulk buyers are giving good returns. Farmers are now taking two crops in several regions. The state is also turning into a major exporting base for fruits and vegetables to other states as production of these have increased over the years.

On the other hand, area under tobacco cultivation has shrunk substantially during the last five years due to lower demand from ''beedi'' units. Farmers from Anand and Kheda districts are fast turning towards other horticulture crops like vegetables, fruits and cotton.

Tobacco dealers said farming in the state has suffered a lot in the last five years because of various reasons and in a few years time, Gujarat might stop growing tobacco.

Sarasa, Od and Samarakha villages in Anand and Kheda districts used to have 100 per cent area under tobacco cultivation. Now this area has shrunk to only 20 per cent. The tobacco yield has gone down to 700 kg per hectare from 1,000 kg per hectare in past five years.

The Department of Agriculture hopes that area under foodgrains would rise by 5.3 per cent during the 2007-08 Rabi season and yeild 14 per cent higher production. In oilseeds, the department hopes to increase the area under cultivation by 7.9 per cent during the 2007-08 Rabi season to achieve 17 per cent higher production.

UNI