Korba: In an inspiring story, tribal farmers in Chhattisgarh's Korba district have successfully switched to cashew cultivation from the traditional paddy crops and have set up their own processing units without any government help. The farmers in Kartla block of Korba are not only growing the cashew crop successfully, but are also transporting cashew to different parts of the country through the processing units.
Most of the farmers of the district grow the traditional crop of paddy. However, around 2,000 farmers of Kartla block have developed a plantation of 30,000 to 40,000 cashew trees on about 2000 acres of land. The estimated cashew produce is up to 100 tonnes annually. It all started 12 years ago in 2011 when the farmers switched to cashew cultivation in view of meager returns from paddy.
With the hard work of about 11-12 years, the farmers have formed their own cooperative society and established cashew processing unit without any government help. In the initial days, farmers used to supply the raw material to the processing units. However, lately, the farmers also started the processing work on their own.
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The processing units have also provided jobs to the local village women. Besides, the farmers' income has also increased considerably due to the cashew cultivation. Farmers are also increasing the area of cashew fields year by year. Lakhan Singh Rathia, President of Mahamaya Cooperative Society Maryadit said that Kartala's cashew is completely organic.
“We do not have any modern machine. Much of the processing process is manual. The farmer is getting a profit of about Rs 1 lakh annually,” he said. He said that besides cultivating the cashews, they also carry out the processing work and sell the produce in the outside markets.
“The income of farmers has increased immensely. We have about 2000 registered farmers from different societies who are producing cashew from 10 tonnes to 100 tonnes,” he said. Navapara farmer Mahavir Patel said that he has planted 30 trees at his farm with about 5 kg of cashew nuts produced by each tree. Patel said that a kilogram of cashew sells for Rs 800.
“Farmers have worked hard for years and are continuously increasing their area. There has been a drastic change in the economic condition of farmers. The standard of living of the farmers has also improved," Patel said.
