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N GUJ FARMERS SING ‘ALU-LLUIAH’
Crorepati Villagers Owe Prosperity To Potatoes & Modern Cultivation Tech
MARCH 18, 2008:
Jethabhai Chaudhary is 92. He has been through much, but never had
as good a time as he is having now. In 2007-08, he proposes to file
income-tax returns for an income of Rs 1.54 crore. This is his
earnings for four months from humble potatoes. A farmer in this village of Dantiwada taluka, some 180 km from Ahmedabad, Chaudhary owes his prosperity to the long extreme winters and Mc-Cain Foods India Ltd, the worldwide French fries king.
Deesa in Sabarkantha has been growing potatoes since 1854, but the yield during the past four years has made the farmers crorepatis. In 2004, Mc-Cain, which supplies potatoes to McDonald’s and Pizza Hut across 100 countries, arrived in Mehsana. They trained the farmers in scientific methods and made them millionaires. In 2004, Crorepati Chaudhary’s I-T returns reflected an income of Rs 7 lakh.
During this year’s scrutiny, Palanpur I-T officials refused to believe the farmers’income documents.A team of 60 I-T officials camped at Dangia and found that Chaudhary and other farmers were only being honest.
Others like PG Chaudhary have broken records in potato farming. Before McCain, the yield from one acre was one to 10 tonnes, and now it’s 15 tonnes.
Chaudhary is ahead of others by producing 20 tonnes per acre. Earlier, a farmer spent Rs 23,000 to grow potatoes in one bigha of land and earned only Rs 28,000 from it. After McCain came into the picture, the expenditure reduced to Rs 17,000 and the income shot up to Rs 57,000. (Times of India)
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Earlier,
farming in these parts was done in the traditional way. But after
McCain’s arrival, farmers learnt the technology of sowing and
reaping with machines, and using special fertilizers.