cash crops

While flower prices soar during festive seasons, these periodic profits offer little security to marginal farmers. Changing weather, inadequate transport and storage facilities, and unstable markets continue to impact livelihoods.

Erratic rainfall and unpredictable weather have driven farmers to switch from apple orchards to vegetables.

Inspired by the high profit from black rice cultivation in Assam, farmers in Bihar started growing it too. However, things didn’t turn out as planned.

Paddy and sugarcane are water-intensive crops, but farmers in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are practising water-efficient methods to cultivate these crops.

With rainfall patterns becoming erratic in Jaisalmer, local communities have shifted from traditional food crops to cash crops and are changing the way they eat.

Women farm workers in Maharashtra who have had no say in agricultural decision-making are now learning to grow a variety of food crops on their own land, using chemical-free fertilisers and biopesticides.