Moga farmer finds fortune in cultivation of broccoli

Kulwinder Sandhu

Tribune News Service

Moga, January 30

Broccoli is slowly making inroads in many households of the Moga district. It is filling the plates of health conscious people during their meals because recent scientific findings show broccoli is an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and rich in vitamins. It also helps prevent cancer.

Surprisingly, this vegetable was not cultivated in Moga, the heartland of the Malwa belt, until a few years ago, but some farmers have started cultivating it in the recent years. It gives a profit of Rs 3 lakh per acre in just 120 days by spending Rs 40,000 per acre.

Ajay Sood, a progressive farmer of Saleena village, cultivated broccoli on one acre in 2018 and earned a profit of Rs 2 lakh. In 2019, he had cultivated this vegetable on 3 acres and earned a profit of Rs 3 lakh from the first harvest. The harvest is still going on these days.

“The results are good and I will cultivate it on 10 acres in the next season,” he said.

In reply to a question, he said a seedling of broccoli costs Re 1 and in an acre, 29,000 seedlings were planted with spacing of 45x30 cm. The best time for plantation is September. It is ready for harvest by January. The first flowers weigh 450 gm and once plucked the second crop of four flowers appear on the same roots which are 100 gm each. At the rate of Rs 25 per kg in wholesale market, a farmer can earn approximately Rs 3 lakh for broccoli produced on one acre. One broccoli, which is similar to cabbage and cauliflower vegetables, yields 800 gm of production, he added.

However, Sood said he had faced a lot of problems in the marketing of the vegetable because Moga is predominantly a small market. “I sold it in the markets of Jalandhar and Ludhiana and will look for good buyers in Delhi during the next season”, he said.

He said if the government helped set up a good market at the local levels in Punjab, then more farmers could take up broccoli cultivation, which would improve their socio-economic condition by many folds.

Dr Jaswinder Brar, a senior scientist of the Agriculture Department said, “It is being grown as a new crop, here. However, we see its demand has grown in the past couple of years. It has a lot of nutritional value and more farmers can take up broccoli farming soon.”

He said, “India is the second largest producer of broccoli after China, while the US ranks third. So, we are looking forward to growing the vegetable in abundance in our own state because the environment here is conducive. It can become an economic game-changer for the small and marginal farmers, who are passing through hard times”.

Dr Brar said the latest scientific findings showed broccoli is an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and pro-detoxification. It is a good source of sulforaphane, a phytochemical (naturally occurring plant compound) that has strong anti-cancer properties.

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