Rajasthan bats for super-grain quinoa

As part of its crop diversification efforts, Rajasthan will encourage over 50,000 farmers to take up cultivation of super foodgrain quinoa this year, said State Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu Lal Saini.

Rajasthan State Seeds Corporation, which engaged some farmers to grow quinoa seeds on an experimental basis, has managed to raise over 20,000 quintals of seed for this year.

“We plan to distribute the seeds to 50,000 or more farmers for growing,” Minister Saini told a team of visiting mediapersons.

He said the government had identified areas in 11 districts that were suitable for growing this highly nutritive grain.

Quinoa, often referred to as a ‘wonder’ foodgrain, can grow in areas where water is scarce or even in those affected by salinity.

Recently introduced in the country, quinoa is being cultivated in isolated pockets in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Once processed, quinoa can fetch prices anywhere between ₹50,000 and ₹100,000 per quintal. In comparison, millet crops, such as jowar or bajra, are sold at prices ranging from ₹1,200-1,600 per quintal, he said.

“We expect bumper production this year and hope to get some contract farming deals for our quinoa farmers,” Saini said, adding that crops such as quinoa will help the State realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of doubling farmers’ income by 2022.

The government, he said, had plans to give subsidies as high as 50 per cent to entrepreneurs willing to set up agri processing units in the State.

The State already occupies pole position in the cultivation of many crops, such as coriander, cumin, garlic and cluster beans.

According to Saini, olive cultivation in the State is set to climb new heights. “Many farmers have come forward and we expect the area under olive cultivation to increase by 5,000 hectares this year,” he said.

“We will soon launch olive green tea in the market,” Saini said. During the first Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet (GRAM) last year, the Rajasthan government had signed a memorandum of understanding with a private firm to introduce olive green tea.

There will be a provision to buy back olive leaves from farmers, to be used for this nutritive beverage, he said. The harvesting of leaves would help farmers recover the cost of cultivation, which is important as Rajasthan’s farmers often suffer from adverse weather conditions. This would be besides reaping table olive fruits.

Agricultural scientists in the State are also exploring ways to extract oil from olive leaves, the Minister said. “In Rajasthan, farming is a gamble. In the last 70 years, crops were affected at least in 50 years either due to droughts or floods. But our farmers are very resilient,” Saini said.

The State, which already has two agri export processing zones, for cumin seeds in Jodhpur and coriander in Kota, plans another for garlic in Kota. ‘Farmers in the region cultivated garlic over 1.3 lakh hectares leading to a bumper crop of 7.5 lakh tonnes this year, he said.

The Minister said last year’s global agri meet elicited a very good response and the State wanted to organise such events in its four agricultural divisions. The first one is to be held in Kota this week. “The idea is to showcase our agricultural prowess and at the same time familiarise our farmers with new agricultural technologies, innovative farming techniques and potential value addition in different crops, he said.

The writer visited Rajasthan on an invitation from the State government

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