Date farmers in Rajasthan rue shortage of saplings, subsidy cut

BARMER: Date farming has emerged as a fruitful option for the farmers in desert region of Rajasthan as it has given a handsome return in recent years. Considering the results, the state government has also planned to extend the date cultivation area in the state from last year’s 161 hectare to over 1,500 hectares in coming years.

However, the date farmers are fighting challenges on many fronts. While they are facing shortage of date saplings, the government has reduced the financial support given to them.

Kishnaram Choudhary, a date farmer of Barmer, said, “Many farmers like me are interested in date farming, but we are not getting saplings. I approached officials of the agricultural department many times for saplings but failed.”

In 2009, he was among a few farmers who had experimented with date farming in one hectare in the desert region and had earned a profit of ₹1 lakh in the first year the plants started giving crops. After getting good income, he planned to extend the date cultivation area, but did not get the saplings.

Farmers of the desert region experimented with date farming in 2009. Initially, 11 farmers grew the fruit crop on 22 hectare in Barmer district. They got their first crop in 2013 and reaped good profit. Taking note of the results, the government started giving 75 percent subsidy on date farming, while fixing the cost of date saplings at ₹3,000 each. Farmers got a subsidy of ₹1,950 on each date sapling. The popularity of date farming among the region’s farmers could be gauged from the fact that date cultivation area in Barmer increased from 22 hectare in 2009 to 200 hectare by 2018. Now, the government has announced procurement of offshoot saplings from the farmers who are already cultivating the dates. The government has also reduced the cost of each sapling to ₹1,000 from ₹3,000.

The shortage of date saplings has increased the price of sapling, as people who have the saplings are charging between ₹5,000 and ₹5,000 for each plant, Choudhary said, adding that, “In such a situation, the government financial support is providing to be too little.”

Kishorilal Verma, deputy director at agriculture department in Barmer, said that there is a shortage of date saplings. He said earlier the government had fixed the cost of date sapling at ₹3,000 each, but it has now been reduced to ₹1,000. Verma said that the government has introduced a new policy of procurement of offshoot saplings.