The Agriculture Scientists at the Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology have reached a new milestone in the Opium farming ecosystem.

In what could be said to be a welcome news for Opium farmers, the scientists at MPUAT in Udaipur have developed a new varierty of Opium after multiple trials and have named it "Chetak". This will be a milestone achievement to benefit the farmers of Rajasthan and neighoring Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The scientists at MPUAT, in their endeavour to discover new varieties, came across this new Opium crop that has comparatively higher production of not only Morphine but of Poppy Seeds as well. The climate of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh is suitable for this variety of crop as told by the scientists at MPUAT.

Dr. Arvind Verma, the Research Director at MPUAT informed that this varirty of Opium was developed under the auspices of the All India Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research Project, Udaipur.

He also informed that if farmers cultivate the "Chetak" Opium according to the approved technique, then an average of 58kg of Opium will be produced per hectare and the average Morphine yield will be 6.84kg per hectare. An average of 10-11quintal Opium seeds and 9-10 quintal Poppy Seeds can be obtained per hectare. The speciality of this flower is that the colour of the flower is white. Once sown, the seeds mature into a full fledged plant in 135-140 days.

Economic Benefit to Farmers

As per Dr. Karnataka, Vice Chancellor of MPUAT, this crop will definitely give a lot of benefit to farmers of the region as there is lot of demand for the Opium cultivated in Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Pratapgarh, Bhilwara, Kota, Baran and Jhalawar districts.