Karnataka - Bidar   

Good price and an assured market

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai

HARVEST TIME: Prakash Kulkarni displaying the roots of the plant, which are used for medicinal purposes.

Bidar: Fed up with the fluctuating market for crops such as sugarcane, green gram and black gram, some farmers in Bidar are taking to alternative crops.

"I don't regret the decision," says Prakash Kulkarni of Vilaspur in Bidar taluk, who has been growing Coleus forskohlii (makandi beru) for four seasons now.

A Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company introduced this medicinal plant to him two years ago. The farmer is now advising others to follow his example. "The most difficult problem today is finding a market for your goods. In the case of crops cultivated under the contract farming method, this is taken care of. We can concentrate on producing a better quality crop," says Mr. Kulkarni.

The crop has a six-month cycle. It needs less water that crops like sugarcane and can be grown in rain-fed areas also. Farmers with irrigated fields can get two crops a year.

"The most important advantage of this crop is that it can be grown on sandy soil, which is not considered very fertile. The cost of production is around Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 10,000. Each acre yields around six to 12 quintals. The returns are significant at Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 12,000 a quintal. The price is high in summer and low in the rainy season. The profit margin is higher than for commercial crops like sugarcane," he says.

He has devoted two acres to the medicinal plant and wants to expand the area this year.

Suresh Janashetty of Gadagi, who has also been growing Coleus forskohlii, has similar feelings. Contract farming is a safer bet than depending on commission agents, he says.

He wants legislation brought in to streamline the practice of contract farming on the lines of China and Israel.

The contractor (company) provides seeds and technical support for a fee. Its officials visit the fields regularly to monitor the growth of the crop. Problems surface only when there is a larger fluctuation in price than expected, says Mr. Janashetty, who is the secretary of the local unit of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha.

Nagendra Pakhal is another farmer who cultivates the medicinal plant in Gadagi. He provides technical assistance to farmers in Bidar and surrounding areas.

The plant is popular among farmers in Gulbarga, Raichur and Belgaum and Zaheerabad and Medak in Andhra Pradesh.

If more farmers begin cultivating Coleus forskohlii, then a processing plant can be set up in Gulbarga or Bidar, he says.

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