NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

As the business gathers force, a side benefit for social development grows in parallel, due to the high profits for the producers and the great number of workers needed to tend to the crop.

Fischer explained that the Chamber suggests planting 50,000 to 60,000 plants in every half-hectare. That size of a plot provides permanent work for four people in controlling weeds and pests, which must be done by hand because agrochemicals and insecticides are not used.

The small farmer can take in up to 1,600 dollars a year for each half-hectare cultivated, “six times more than soybeans and three times more than manioc,” he said.

By 2007, the sector’s leaders calculate there will be around 15,000 peasant farming families working in the stevia production programmes.
Story found here.