Legend has it that when the divine physician duo Ashwini Kumars concocted the chawanprash for Chawan Rishi on his deciding to get married at the age of 80, one of its most important ingredients was the safed musli, or the Chlorophytum borivilianum.The virile Punjabi male may not need to warm up to the herb’s aphrodisiacal qualities, but the farming brethren are certainly looking at the medicinal uses — and the lucrative returns — of the herb very seriously. The diversification initiative, interestingly, does not come from a government or sponsored body; rather, it is a private company which is organising seminars, conducting field trials and convincing farmers..If safed musli accounts for just four-five acres of land in the state at the moment, Hara Seeds, acting in collaboration with the Ludhiana-based High-Tech Punjab Nursery, wants to see the area expand to 100-150 acres in the current year itself. The planting of the crop occurs in late April-May.At a recent seminar attended by the ‘Father of Safed Musli’ Rajaram Tripathi — the hugely successful founder of the Maa Danteshwari Herbal Farms in Bastar — Hara Seeds’ owner Sukhjit Singh Hara said that they had already sold enough tubers to cover nearly 80 acres of land in Punjab.‘‘By the time planting starts in May, another 20 acres will be under the crop,’’ said R K Saini of Hi-Tech Nursery, which is providing the know-how to the farmers. Last year, the company conducted successful experimental trials for the crop.‘‘Farmers get encouraged when they learn that safed musli has an international annual demand of 35,000 MT, but supply of only 5000 MT. Besides, it’s a high value crop where the returns compensate the investment very well,’’ said Saini.Added Hara, who is thrilled with his own experience of growing safed musli on three acres of land, ‘‘Each acre of the crop calls for the investment of Rs 2.5 lakh, but will yield returns worth Rs 6 lakh.’’Apart from the initial outlay, farmers have to pen in the costs of growing a completely organic product. But the promoters are confident of overcoming these obstacles.
