Jagdalpur , 06 December 2020. Farmers of Bastar district are now doing double benefit crop of sun-drying crops. Earlier, farmers had been cultivating only traditional paddy. The area of oilseed crops was very less in earlier years. According to information obtained from the Department of Agriculture the year 2015-16 in 8103 in hectares were being cultivated oilseeds. The target of cultivation of oilseed crops has been set in 14280 hectare area in the year 2020-21 . The district, 2015-16 Sunflower area 102 was ha , but the year 2020-21 in the 950 target of hectares Kshetrachchhadn has been set. Sunflower Kharif , Rabi ,Zayed is a crop grown in all three seasons. Its seeds contain up to 45-50 percent oil. Linoleic acid is found in its oil , which does not allow cholesterol to increase in the human body. Therefore, it is like a medicine for the heart patients. In the last few years, sunflower has become popular among farmers due to its high production capacity and high price.
One such farmer is Mr. Munna Nag of village Ulnar in Jagdalpur, block development of Bastar district , who was selected for sunflower harvesting in Rabi 2019 under the extension referees soul scheme of Agriculture Department . Farmers free seeds , were supplied by the fertilizer division. Sunflower cultivation was also being done by farmers from earlier years , but proper sowing, Manure management , pest disease control, the farmer was not getting much benefit. In the year 2019 , the farmer got in touch with the officials of the Agriculture Department and given proper guidance and technical information from time to time. Farmer Munna was given training by the Department of Seed treatment , row sowing and weed and pest disease control at the right time. Farmer Munna was provided solar pump under solar sujla scheme by the department. Due to which bi-lateral production was started by the farmer and the income of the farmer started increasing. In the year 2018-19 , 1.20 hectares of paddy produced by the farmer himself, obtained 4.20 quintals of paddy, 17 thousand 850Received net income of Rs. In the year 2019-20 , after consulting the departmental staff and inspecting the field from time to time and preparing the field well , the department produced more by using improved hybrid seeds and the right amount of fertilizers and 1.20 in the year 2019-20 Achieving 7.80 quintal production in hectare area, achieved net income of Rs 58 thousand 400 . Thus, due to proper technical management, the income of the farmer has increased by 8.11 percent and the farmer is going to take sunflower crop in this year. The area of sunflower is expected to increase further in the near future by farmers.