The rugged Sunabeda plateau, 3,000 feet above sea level along the Orissa-Chhattisgarh border, has always been a tough terrain, but for Yuvraj Chhatriya, it is all part of his journey. The 30-km ride from the plateau top to the plains in Odisha’s Nuapada district and then the grueling 550-km bus journey over bumpy roads to Bhubaneswar near the coast would tire anyone out.
Despite the physical demands of the trip, Mr. Chhatriya, a member of the Chuktiya Bhunjia Tribeone of the following Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), He has a smile on his face. He has brought with him a fresh crop of strawberries, and the fruits are on sale. He counts the cash in his hand – at ₹37,500 for 1.5 quintals, it is his highest one-day profit ever. He is expected to see another bumper sale in the next two days at Adivasi Mela 2023.
A strawberry farm at Sunabeda in Odisha’s Koraput district. Photo: Special Arrangement
The strawberry harvest has brought celebration to the homes of 10 farmers living in one of the 56 villages in the tropical deciduous forest of the Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary. Strawberry cultivation was started in November 2022 to farmers who planted paddy from April to October.
“I had never heard of strawberries before. The government officials persuaded us to take up this new kind of cultivation and we went for it. The government supplied plants and gave us financial assistance to dig borewells,” Mr. Each family has been given 10 acres of land, says Chhatriya, and 20,000 saplings have been planted in each acre. The horticulture department was roped in for mulching and drip irrigation. To finance the labor component, farmers approached women self-help groups. (SHG) Mr. Chhatriya took a loan of ₹ 2 lakh.
He and his father have grown fruits on 2.5 acres of land, which has earned them Rs 4.2 lakh till date. He expects it to reach Rs 9 lakh by the end of March. It is the windfall return from any crop in the region that sends a high percentage of migrant laborers to other states.
Tribal women working in strawberry fields in Sunabeda. Photo: Special Arrangement
tribe victory
Most of the people in Sunabeda belong to the Chuktiya Bhunjia tribe, which is one of the 13 PVTGs found in Odisha. They were given the necessary training by the Nuapada district administration and the Chuktiya Bhunjia Development Agency (CBDA), set up by the state government in 1994-95 to work for the development of the tribe, especially in livelihood programmes.
“A team from CBDA went to Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra, which accounts for 80% of India’s strawberry production. We found that the altitude and climate there are similar to Sunabeda. In fact, Sunabeda’s soil quality is better,” says Himanshu Mohapatra, Special Officer, CBDA, who was part of the group. He adds that the plants provided were from Mahabaleshwar. In winter, Sunabeda’s maximum day temperature is around 25 °C and falls to 10 °C at night, making it suitable for strawberry cultivation.
“Fruits have been harvested and marketed within 40 days. It is heartening that the strawberry plants are bearing fruits continuously. One plant bears 10 to 15 fruits of different stages and sizes,” says Mr. Mohapatra.
Farmer Kaliram Sunar and his wife Gangabai pluck more than 45 kg of strawberries daily. Women work the land and tend the plants, and are involved from irrigation to harvesting. “In mid-December 2022, when the first strawberries turned red, we were overjoyed. We first offered it to our mother goddess Sunadei,” says Ms. Sunar, who starts her day picking strawberries at 5 a.m. before she goes back to household chores after 10 a.m. Mr. Sunar harvests takes them to the market.
marketing strategy
This is not the first time that strawberry cultivation has been experimented in Odisha. The practice was largely successful when it was introduced in 2021 in the Kotia gram panchayat of South Koraput district, which is a part of the Eastern Ghats, located at the same altitude as Sunabeda, and has a similar climate. The area, whose jurisdiction is claimed by both the governments of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, has seen a massive inflow of government funds over the last four years. Now, the cultivation has spread to 20 acres which includes seven women self-help groups.
Tribal women working in strawberry fields in Sunabeda. Photo: Special Arrangement
“Farmers have started growing strawberry plants. The initial investment was made in land development. The profit is likely to increase in the next season,” said Kashi Prasad Nayak, district program coordinator of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency, Koraput.
At Daringbadi in Kandhamal district, again at a similar altitude, a farmer was persuaded to take up strawberry cultivation. Kailash Dandapat, who works with Jagriti, a non-profit organization in the field of environment, food and farming, says, “The exotic fruit was introduced in two acres of land in the winter of 2022 in Daringbadi. Strawberries easily found customers during this period as tourists came from the state and outside. From two acres, the farmer has already made a net profit of ₹ 1 lakh,” he says.
The enthusiasm, however, is sceptical. Mr Dandapat predicts that strawberries will find wider acceptance among tribal farmers, but is concerned about the lack of strong marketing linkages, which could dampen hopes of ballooning in the long run.
This is echoed by the farmers. “As a PVTG, we have limited exposure to the outside world compared to other communities. Inspired by the government officials, we started growing strawberries. But after harvesting it, we find it difficult to sell it in the market,” says Biju Jhankar, a farmer from Sunabheli village in Sunabeda, acknowledging that the return on the crop is higher than any other agricultural produce he has sold so far Was. The tribals also extract honey from the forest to sell in the market.
The CBDA Special Officer said that the government is trying to build market linkages with big grocery store chains operating in the state. The government is also looking forward to large scale expansion of strawberry cultivation in districts like Gajapati, Malkangiri, Rayagada and Kalahandi which have similar weather conditions.