The State government plans to promote farming of medicinal plants, especially geranium, in Khunti in order to combat illegal opium farming flourishing in the district.
A day long training session was organised in Khunti recently in which over 100 farmers from Khunti, Murhu, Torpa, Karra and Arki block participated. The farmers were trained on farming of geranium and other medicinal plants by experts from Birsa Agriculture University, Bardani Lakda and Suman Barla.
State Rural Development Minister Neelkanth Singh Munda, who was present at the training session motivated the farmers to plant such crop which is beneficial for the society and their families. "When we got to know that geranium farming is done in hilly areas and is very profitable we started farming of this plant along with other medicinal plants like Tulsi, Lemongrass and others in Khunti," he said.
The farming started as a pilot project has been successful. Munda informed that faming of geranium on 25 decimal fields produces around 3 litres of oil, selling which the farmer earns up to Rs 50,000.
He also said that recently, the lemongrass field in Angara helped produce 50 litres of oil while basil farming is done on 50 acres land in Kalamati.
The training programme was organised by Khunti based social organisation Sewa Welfare Society. Chairperson of the organization, Ajay Sharma said, “Opium forming is being done in over 10,000 acres of land in Khunti. In the last one year, 15 villagers were convicted by the court while over 70 were arrested by the police for illegal farming of opium.
Sharma informed that villagers are not just being arrested for the illegal work but their health is also suffering. "Recently, a man indulged in opium farming in Oskeya village of Murhu block died after his kidneys were affected. Another man in Maranhada was in coma for seven days due to inhaling poppy pollens regularly while working in the fields. Many little children are being affected as their mothers take them along while going to work in fields," he said.
Considering the ill effects of opium farming on the villagers, the organization decided to train farmers on the benefit of leaving opium farming and being involved with farming of medicinal plants.
“The farmers were very much interested. The rural development minister also agreed to expand the pilot project of geranium farming in other villages and provide geranium plants and technical support to these farmers on our request by the end of this month,” Sharma said.