Maruti Nirmal of Takavade village in Kolhapur district is a farmer and gardener. He cultivates sugarcane on eight guntha of land (0.2 acres); the land is in the name of his father Rajaram.
Maruti’s neighbours cultivate sugarcane too, and because there is no boundary between their fields, Maruti says, “when the sugarcane in the nearby field bends after some time, it casts a shadow on the crops near it. If I cultivate soyabean or groundnut, some of my crops near the boundary won't grow without adequate sunlight. I’ve only 0.2 acres and I can’t afford to lose any crop.”
Sugarcane does not fetch him much profits since his plot of land is tiny. He spends around Rs. 10,000 on cultivation costs. In 2015, Maruti had a borewell drilled at a cost of Rs. 70,000. With water from this and the rains, he manages to harvest eight tonnes; the price at which he can sell in the market per tonne varies from Rs. 2,700 to Rs. 3,000. “If everything works well, the maximum amount I can earn is Rs. 14,000 from agriculture in an 18-month [sugarcane cropping] period,” Maruti says.



