Vidisha: A small initiative of a young farmer of the village made the whole village financially prosperous and self-sufficient; an example of this village Pali in Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh, where every farmer has started doing medicinal farming. Now farmers are also setting up their own processing unit in this village. So that one can increase their earnings by making medicines from their brand. 300 middle-class farmer families live in Pali village, whose only source of income is agriculture.
In the year 2014, Lakhan Pathak, a B.Sc pass out of the village, had started the cultivation of Ashwagandha in one and a half acres of land, in which he got good profits. After this he started increasing the area of Ashwagandha. Seeing his progress, other farmers also started cultivating Ashwagandha. Two years ago, when the corona epidemic spread, the demand for Ashwagandha suddenly increased as Ayurvedic medicine increase immunity. Due to which the farmers here started getting good prices, where Ashwagandha was earlier sold for Rs 20,000 a quintal. Last year, farmers got their price up to Rs 40000 per quintal. Due to good profit, the trend towards medicinal farming increased among the farmers and they have also started the cultivation of Akarkara and Kalonji.
Medicinal farming, which started from one and a half acres in 8 years, has now reached 200 acres. Farmers Pran Singh Dhakad and Jasman Ahirwar tell that the risk of damage due to natural outbreaks in medicinal farming is much less than traditional crops. Hail and frost do not cause much damage. They tell that now medicinal cultivation has started in 25 villages including Bamhori, Mohi, Gokulpur, Agra Jagir, Bilkhedi villages. Farmers of more than 90 villages have started doing medicinal farming in about 800 acres in the district. Ashwagandha is cultivated the most in Pali village. A target has been set to increase the area of medicinal cultivation to 1200 acres next year.