Sangrur, March 27 -- In a shift away from the conventional sugarcane trade, farmers in Sangrur and Barnala districts are turning to value-added, flavoured jaggery (gur) production, boosting their incomes, with some leading producers now earning close to Rs.1 crore in a single season.

Harpreet Singh, a 45-year-old farmer from Babbanpur village of Sangrur, has set up a unit - Chacha Bhatija - on the Dhuri-Malerkotla road where he, along with his nephew Jatinder Singh, produces over 15 jaggery varieties flavoured with chocolate, amla, carrot, coconut, sesame, dry fruit besides a medicinal "herbal" jaggery and turmeric-infused shakkar. The diversification of traditional jaggery has profited him drastically with his daily earnings rising from...