Farmers
are nowadays getting better money for their crops by
shedding traditional methods of farming and going in
for growing flower-bearing plants, vegetables and
medicinal plants. Jagdish Singh, son of Ratirag
Kushwah is a living example of this pleasant change.
He
is a resident of village Magrani in Narwar development
block of Shivpuri district. The joint family of
Jagdish Singh and his elder brother Ram Sewak Singh
has 15 bighas of land on which they used to sow
traditional crops like wheat, maze, millet etc. But
these crops could suffice only food grains
requirements of the joint family. One day, Shri
Jagdish met Narwar's Horticulture Officer Shri Vinod
Kumar Pathak and expressed his desire to grow
vegetables and flower-bearing & medicinal plants
on his land.
Shri
Pathak informed him that the Horticulture Department
gives subsidy on growing vegetables and flower-bearing
& medicinal plants and one can take advantage of
this scheme to grow more profitable crops. Shri
Jagdish agreed to do so and was given saplings of
marigold, rose, Rajnigandha (tuberose) etc. costing Rs
3 thousand under 'Pushp Vikas Pradarshan Karyakaram'
and seeds of tomato, lady's finger, brinjal etc at 50
per cent subsidy under 'Sag-Bhaji Utpadan Karyakaram'.
Jagdish started growing vegetables on his land.
In
the meantime, he was advised by Horticulture
Department officers that he can earn more profit by
growing jackfruit (Kathal) and other fruit-bearing
trees on his fallow land. Shri Jagdish did the same
and about five years ago planted 15 trees of jackfruit
and other fruit-bearing trees. Now every tree is
yielding 40 kg to 2.5 quintals of jackfruits and Shri
Jagdish is earning extra income of Rs 50 thousand to
Rs one lakh yearly from the sale of jackfruits. In
between the trees, Jagdish grew crops of wheat and
vegetables. The family got wheat for their own use
apart from vegetables worth Rs 25 thousand per acre.
He is also employing five labourers.
Shri
Jagdish says that farming can indeed become profitable
if one solicits right guidance and takes optimum
benefit of state government's schemes.
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