Tata Nano brings about a paddy revolution in Gujarat

Is it the Nano effect? We may never know but it could well be the beginning of a shift in the cropping pattern among farmers living in and around Tata’s Nano plant in Sanand.  Thanks to the Narmada canal water which is made available to Nano plant and the surrounding villages, farmers are now looking at growing crops other than cotton.

Khoraj, a small village near Tata Motors’ Nano plant in Sanand taluka has made a major shift from cotton to paddy, due to easy availability of water. For the past many years, Gujarat has seen a rise in area under cotton cultivation.

It is estimated that cotton sowing is being carried out in around 30 lakh hectares of land this year, which translates into more than one-third of the total land in which kharif sowing is normally undertaken.

But in Khoraj almost 90% sowing has shifted to paddy in the past couple of years. This year, farmers are expecting good profit from paddy instead of cotton. Farmers in Khoraj said that Narmada canal and good rains have increased water availability.

“Earlier we went for Bt cotton but it needs lots of pesticide and water. This in turn hardened the soil. So around three to four years ago farmers of Khoraj shifted from Bt cotton to Kalyan cotton,” said Raghu Jadav. He said now farmers are moving to paddy.

Farmers said that the easy availability of water has made them look at other crops for better profitability. Now, of the total 5,000 bigah under cultivation over 90% is used for paddy production.