Sikkim Farmers finds Baby corn an attractive cash crop

Gangtok,31May: Under the 100 days programme of the State Government, Food Security and Agriculture Development Department had covered 40 hectares of area under Baby Corn farming in the current season. The identified clusters covered under this farming are Lower Martam, Lower Rumbuk, Sombaria, Tharpu and Chumbong in West Sikkim, Samatar, Chisopani and Chalamthnag in South Sikkim and Rumtek, Sajong, Changey, Marchak, Saramsa and Namcheybong in East Sikkim. Furthermore a total of 200 farmers were also trained by the department to take up Baby Corn farming in approximately 40 hectare of area a press release informs.

Adding more the release highlights that Baby Corn is highly perishable commodity and has to be processed within 48 hours of harvesting. Accordingly, department has tiedup with the Sikkim State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited (SIMFED) for marketing and Government Fruit Preservation Factory (GFPF) Singtam for processing. SIMFED has fixed a support price of Rs.60 per kg for the Baby Corn and has been purchasing Baby Corn from the farmers at the same rate and is processed in the GFPF Singtam and canning is done. Now the harvesting has started and product is ready for marketing.
It is a well known fact that seeing the tourism potential of Sikkim, the Chief Minister on many occasions has desired that Baby Corn should be taken by the farmers as a cash crop. With the success of this venture, farmers are very keen to take up Baby Corn on a larger scale, Department has decided to take up Baby Corn farming in more areas by next year. For this, department is also strengthening GFPF, Singtam by increasing its capacity from 750 cans per day to 4000 cans per day under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana