Bright yellow petals appeared to be swinging happily in the mild breeze over a vast swath of cropland – it seemed the spring was in full bloom. Not just nature was looking happy; a big group of farmers were also in jovial mood as their mustard plantations were getting ready to be harvested. There was more reasons to rejoice – some of those farmers are set to go for ‘value addition’ to their mustard crops.

A group of farmers, can easily be termed as ‘progressive’ farmers, of Bishalgarh under Sepahijala district in Tripura have started to go for ‘value addition’ to the crops.

About 70 to 75 farmers of Bishalgarh under Sepahijala district in Tripura are cultivating mustard along with other crops for several years.

One of those farmers, Bazlu Mia said for many years a small amount of mustard was cultivated here, mainly to meet the needs of the farmers themselves as well as to earn some extra profit.

But at present the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of the state government is giving all the necessary agricultural assistances for mustard cultivation including supplying fertilizers, improved varieties of seeds etc. This initiative made several farmers interested in cultivating the crop for earning additional profit.

“Due to the high profitability of this crop and intervention of the Agri department, new farmers are getting involved in mustard cultivation every year”, commented Bazlu Mia.

Even as rains in last December caused some damages to their crops, the farmers are expecting good yields.

They mainly sow seeds in the land from November to December. Crops can be harvested within three to three and a half months after sowing. Several farmers said that after sowing, plants do not require much care – as a result, the cost of cultivation is relatively low.

After harvesting, the agriculture department will buy mustard from the farmers.

The interesting twist in this year’s cultivation is that, some farmers like Bazlu Mia will extract oil from mustard and sell the oil in the local market.

“The oil we produce does not contain any adulterants. For this reason, buyers like to purchase oil, and many even booked in advance. With this value addition, farmers are benefiting a lot by cultivating mustard”, Bazlu Mia said and thanked the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of the state government for helping the farmers in this endeavor.

Debabrata Pal, assistant director of the local Bishalgarh Agriculture Regional Officer’s Office, said mustard has been cultivated in about 13 hectares of land in the area this year, from which about 120 containers of mustard have been produced.

“We supplied high yielding PM-27, 28, 30, 32 and N-9 varieties to the farmers,” he added.

The farmers were given free seeds by the Department of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare. Moreover, the farmers were assisted with the necessary materials and suggestions for the cultivation, Pal said.

# Bindusmita Bhowmik may be contacted at bindusmitabhowmik17@gmail.com