Non-traditional crop. For additional income, small farmers in Odisha, Jharkhand take to marigold
Helped by the Union government’s National Rural Livelihood Mission programme, some farmers in tribal areas of Jharkhand and Odisha have started augmenting their income, partly due to marigold cultivation as awareness campaigns and handholding by non-governmental organisations aided them to venture into non-traditional crops.
“It is highly profitable as this season I earned ₹50,000 from half an acre, whereas other crops are not that lucrative,” said Mami Pedenti, a farmer in Rayagada district of Odisha who started marigold cultivation three years ago. She wished she had more land to grow the flowers. Pedenti is one of the 290 small farmers in the district who have been growing marigold on a part of their land, according to Jagat Jyoti Barik, coordinator of NGO Pradan in Jaykaypur, Odisha.