Sunflower farming in Jharkhand

     

Farmers of Jharkhand's kolavadiya village are making good profit out of sunflower cultivation. Sunflower is a fast growing crop and takes only three months to grow, depending on production practices and weather conditions.

Sunflower has a huge demand; many oil mill companies from West Bengal, Gujarat and Maharashtra are looking for it and ready to pay good prices.

The farmers began with cultivation on a small area and made good profits.

"This is the first time we have started sunflower cultivation and we are further working on it. We first tried it on 8-10 acres of land. Agriculture department has also helped us in the cultivation of sunflower and we are expecting good profits out of this." said Prasad Mehti, a farmer.

The farmers plan to extend the area of operations next year.

"We are working on bigger projects and we will next time start sunflower cultivation on 250 -300 acres of land so that we can expand it and make good profits" said Sadanand Raut, another farmer.

---The Hindu