Farmers in Jajpur district are increasingly taking mustard cultivation due to its lucrative returns.
The trend is visible considering the irrigated and riverside area set aside specifically for mustard cultivation. About five years ago, mustard was being cultivated on 1,600 hectares of land. Now, it is being cultivated on about 3,000 hectares by at least one lakh farmers.
“The total area under mustard crop has increased because of the lucrative prices it fetched for the farmers the last year. Most of the mustard farming takes place in the riverside areas of Barachana, Binjharapur, Bari, Dharmasala and Dasarathapur blocks in the district,” said Ratan Jena, a farmer leader of Jajpur.
“Farmers have a large scope of profit because mustard gives minimum yield of four quintals per hectare. Farmers need ten kilograms of mustard seed to raise mustard over one hectare of land,” said Bijaya Swain, a mustard grower of Balichandrapur.
At the outset, many farmers were hesitant about the outcome of mustard. But these days they are a happy after earning profit through the cash crop.
Farmers are even keen to increase the acreage of cultivation and are happy at the Government’s assurance to promote extensive development of sunflower farming, said Pravat Sahoo, a farmer of Bari.
Earlier, farmers used to earn Rs10,000 per hectare under mustard crop area. The income is now likely to touch Rs16,000 for the same cultivated area, especially due to increasing oil prices, said Rajanikanta Jena, a mustard farmer of Ramachandrapur village.
“Hundreds of farmers cultivate the winter crop on larger areas of land, encouraged by fair prices and good yield in previous years. Many farmers are expecting a bumper production of mustard in the current Rabi season. An easy cultivation process and lower production cost is also a reason behind the popularity of mustard cultivation among the farmers in the area, said Deputy Director of Agriculture Rajiv lochan Das.
“We are providing mustard seed to farmers at the cost of Rs30 per kg. A farmer needs 30 kg mustard seed for one hectare of land. The yield of the mustard from one hectare is around four to five quintal and the rate of the mustard is around Rs3,500 to Rs4,000 per quintal,” added Das.
Most of the farmers raise mustard only in irrigated land or near the riverside land. Many farmers also spend more money by watering the mustard in non- irrigated land. We are generally encouraging riverside farmers to cultivate mustard,” added Das.