Vidarbha, the land of farmers' suicides, may soon witness changes in cultivation methods.

In a bid to introduce newer technologies in agriculture, the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry's Cotton Development and Research Association is implementing Front Line Demonstrations in Vidarbha for the third consecutive year with the assistance Centre.

The Ministry of Agriculture allocated 1,100 FLDs on production technologies to CITI-CDRA in four villages of Shelapur, Pimpri Gawli, Talani and Talkhed in Motada tehasil of Buldhana district, along with two pest management FLDs in the two villages of Tarad Khed and Gummi.

The above will incur an expenditure of Rs 24 lakh. Under FLDs for production technologies, 1,100 farmers would be eligible to receive input subsidy in the form of inputs worth Rs 1,400 per acre, with each farmer getting benefit for only one acre.

Weaker sections of the society and women have been selected for the above programme, according to the guidelines issued by the government. They will be supplied fertilisers, pesticides, and micro nutrients, among others.
The programme aims at improving cotton yield and reducing the cost of cultivation through transfer of modern production technologies. The participating farmers opted for cultivation of Bt Cottons such as Bunny, Mallika, Rasi-2 and Brahma varieties on a large scale.

Last year, the CITI-CDRA implemented FLD project on production technology in four villages of Buldhana district, and the average yield was 9.35 quintals of Kapas per acre as compared to 6.25 quintals of Kapas in non-project farms.