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 Rs.15,000 to around Rs.50,000 daily. Harpreet, who got a state award from Panjab Agricultural University in January this year, says he earns nearly Rs.1 crore in a six-month season. He credits his success to technical training and tools recommended by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) to check sugarcane quality before harvesting. He sells his produce throughout the state and in Haryana. According to him, he has buyers even in the US and Canada. He uses homegrown sugarcane of his 15-acre farmland and has employed more than 20 people at his unit. Karamjit Singh, 48, from the same village has a similar unit, employing 30 workers. A recently launched beetroot-infused jaggery at PAU is among the 20 varieties he produces. Apart from Punjab, he has customers in Rajasthan and Haryana. About eight or nine years ago, he began diversifying his production by creating various flavoured products, including fennel (saunf), carom seeds (ajwain), cardamom (elaichi), mango, carrot and peanut flavours besides some herbal products. The farmer now generates approximately Rs.7 lakh to Rs.8 lakh per month. In Barnala, Amrit Singh of Wahegurupura village has been producing a variety of flavoured jaggery. "I have been into organic farming since 2015. The difference between the earnings from standard jaggery and flavoured jaggery is noticeable," says Amrit, a B.Sc-computer science graduate....