Farmers of Hoshangabad
and nearby districts of Madhya Pradesh who have taken to growing a
short-duration crop of moong (green gram) are seeing
their profits grow significantly.
Till last year, like in many parts
of the country, fields of this area also remained fallow from April when wheat
was harvested to June when kharif sowing began. In 2012, farmers were encouraged to utilize
these two months to grow a moong crop. Under the
National Food Security Mission (NFSM), farmers were given technical knowhow and
support for buying quality seed, fertilizers and pesticides.
The third crop in a year came as a boon to farmers by giving them a
harvest that sells at high prices. In addition, it took just two months to
grow. Scientists also told them that growing moong –
a crop with the natural trait to fix atmospheric nitrogen into nitrates that
can be used by plants - made their lands more fertile and would lead to better
yields from the next crop. Seeing this,
other farmers were quick to adopt summer moong. The
area under short-duration moong in Madhya Pradesh has
gone up four times in one year, from 28 thousand hectares last year to about
1.35 lakh hectare this year.
Pulses production is being encouraged under the National Food Security
Mission and the Accelerated Pulses Programme (A3P).
Because of these initiatives and increase in support prices over recent years,
production of these protein-rich crops has increased from about 14.7 million tonne in 2009-10 to 18 million tonne
now.
