Sweet potatoes make life sweeter for farmers

DHENKANAL:Sweet potatoes, cultivated in Paamal, Parbatia, Sankarpur and other villages of Sadar block in the district, are reaping profits for its growers. The farmers, who had once started cultivating sweet potatoes with the assistance of Agriculture department in 2014, have now become self-reliant and are now growing the crop on their own.

Farmers of Sadar block have grown sweet potatoes over at least 100 hectares on commercial basis. Most of the beneficiaries of this cultivation are women, who had been trained in farming. They can do everything, from preparing the ground to harvesting the crop.

They usually start the cultivation from July onwards. They harvest the potatoes in October. Under the Nutri Farm initiative of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), agriculture scientists had demonstrated on growing sweet potatoes in 2014-2015 and encouraged the farmers to cultivate the crop in place of paddy.“The farmers followed their suggestions and now they have benefited from the crop, which requires low investment for its cultivation. The cash crop does not need much water,” experts said.

“After we got success in the farming, scientists trained us for value addition so that we make more profit,” said Amrendra Behera, a farmer.“These farmers are trained enough. They do the farming without any support from the agriculturalist. Government needs to guide them for marketing their produce and help them enhance the productivity and cultivation area with  changing times. This is better than paddy cultivation. In the absence of Government’s marketing initiatives, some middlemen collect sweet potatoes from the fields and sell them to make more profits from the local markets. This is sheer exploitation of the real growers,” District Agriculture Officer, Gunanidhi Behera, said.

Recently, experts from France had visited the crop field and interacted with farmers over the farming process and risk management involved, sources said.Meanwhile, farmers in the area urge the State to turn its attention towards the cultivation of sweet potatoes. “Krishi Vigyan Kendra and Agriculture department must create market links to give us better price for the cash crop,” they said.