Value addition leads to ‘no tension agriculture’

There are two ways in agriculture for a farmer to earn money. One is by growing and selling the harvested crop, second is to go in for some value added products.

Farmers are encouraged by scientists to try and explore value addition technology areas as it enhances the marketability of the produce.

Compared to selling the raw harvested produce, value addition requires more financial inputs, proper guidelines, and backup technologies to ensure success.

Mr. Shanker Kishore Chaudhary, a progressive small scale farmer of Vaishali district,Bihar, is a farmer who cultivates elephant foot yam (commonly called as Ool in North India) in his three-acre field.

Different recipes

Without stopping with just growing the tuber crop, he has also taken up value added products by creating 33 different varieties of recipes from it such as sweets, pickle, mouth-freshner, and brewing powders similar to the tea.

Elephant foot yam is a tuber crop commonly used as a vegetable and for preparation of pickles and sauce.

The tuber is commonly called as Jimikand or Ool in North India, Sooran in Gujarat and Maharashtra, Kand in Andhra Pradesh, Karnai Kilangu in Tamil Nadu and Suwarnagatti in Karnataka, it is cultivated all over the country.

"This value addition has increased the marketability and has demonstrated immense product potentials of this tuber," said R. Ramadhar, Chairman, Bihar State Farmers Commission, Patna.

Mr. Chaudhary grows the crop in his field and also takes the lands of other farmers on rent for raising the crop.

"I normally harvest 50-60 tonnes from a hectare of land and earn a gross income of Rs. 2 lakhs in about 10 months.