Last year during September I was wandering through drought affected parts of Paschimanchal.. finally I reached at Sindurpur, Purulia. There people were passing through bad times, it was almost drought- there were no rains for about two months- fields were parched, instead golden corns I found dislodged straws everywhere. Cattles were grazing on the paddy fields.. ponds,tanks & wells were dry in Dumurdi. However, after sharing their misery I was about to return Purulia. In the mean time I was searching for a restaurant to eat something. Luckily , I saw a small hotel on the road. I entered & ordered for chapatis. The manager cum bearer brought chapatis with fried vegetables.
Small fried pieces were alike beans . How could beans reached to this shanty? Who are consuming high-priced vegetable here? I asked the manager..
" Is it bean?"
" no..it's Saragsuti"?
"What? "
" Oh you know it as Gua-suti..many call it Kolkatta sim"
-" Gua Sim I have heared..but Kolkata suti?"
-" this vegetable go to Kolkata daily from here and it is now locally called Kolkatta Suti.. This is the only crop you can see under drought situation. Nothing is available other than Sagarsuti this time"
Can you show me some fresh vegetables?
"Oh..yes". He brought some samples. These were fresh,glossy and slender and replica of beans.
It was nice to taste it. I heard about Gua Sim which is called cluster bean in my in-laws house at Purulia-ii.
I was interested on two aspects .. first about its name as Sagar suti & secondly is it a viable crop in Purulia.
I began to review some literature on it. I was stuck that India is the leader of Gua-sim or cluster bean. Rajasthan produces 80% of the total bean produced in India. Further, during 2012 export earning from Cluster bean/Gua Gum exceeded the figure of Basmatirice. Tremendous export potential of cluster bean recorded. I got my answers to the first point. Purulia district was the hub of jains. There are a number of Saraks who are originally Jains. Many of them were from Rajasthan .It might be Saraks brought it from Rajasthan or they were first eaters of this plant grown wildly here. As Sarkas are accustomed to this crop,its name became Saragsuti here. It is the part of historian to verify my hypothesis.
A few days back I went to Dumurdihi again. I raised the question of Saragsuti. My hands were hold back by a stout young guy..he is Jiban Mahata.
" come with me ..see my farm..it is a walking distance".
I came with him to his farm. It is by default a natural organic farm. The boundary was made of date-palm trees..There were heaps of cow dung collected from elsewhere.. there is no source of water.. land is too high..red lateritic. outside is barren.. no green is being seen. Surprisingly, I looked into the farm.. Green is everywhere..lust green crops were heading... i was pointed to the sagarsuti0shrubs.. these are one month old.. by this time there are pods on the branches of the crop..
" Sir see it.. last week I sold 2 kgs, in the market and got 50 rupees.. Gradually its price will decline but would never fall below Rs.15.00. "
" What are uses apart from selling or consuming green pod"?
" Sir these are excellent cattle food. I use it as pulses during off-season. Last year it saved me. It was drought but my sagarsuti grew".
I did not talk about its export potential but shared the views that it could withstand drought and temperature. It is not an alien crop to them. With minimum efforts and costs it thrives well in the worst land. It has wide domestic market.
We are talking about drought in Purulia. It would be incomplete without out Guar baean.a seasoned crop in Paschimanchal.
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