Vegetables a rage in the apple land

After apple, it is now off-season vegetables that are fast changing the face of rural Shimla, which nestles in the mid hills of Himachal Pradesh.

In the last few years there has been a fast-growing trend to shift from growing traditional subsistence crops like wheat, corn, and barley to vegetable cash crops like cauliflower, cabbage, tomato, French beans, peas, among others.

The farmers in this enterprising mountain district of the state are cashing in on the demand for off-season vegetables from markets in northern India at a time when production stops in the plains during the off-season.

Vegetables grown in the hills are said to taste better than those grown on plains. Also, less chemical fertilisers and insecticides are used to cultivate them here, say experts.

"By early October this year, the production of vegetables had crossed the Rs 100 crore mark in Shimla district alone," said H R Sharma, deputy director of the state agriculture department.