Is it a HOAX or FACT that Stevia can be cultivated and the leafs sold as all those
who approach for selling the saplings appear very suspicious as they are interesed in
grabbing the money than show their fields extra
Why the government horticulture department is not coming out with seeds or saplings
The details in Wikipedia shows mixed details and few studies shows that the possibility of presence of Cancer causing elements. Better to avoid as we have long history of wasting money in suspicious agriculture. It is nothing but a Sweetener and many might have used for different purpose.
There are many ways we can do cultivation and earn money with lot of satisfaction. From Flowers, Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs, Medicinal Plants we have many options available to explore.
Few years back I visited a functional, organic, 100-acres stevia farm in Punjab just to check the facts. It is absolutely true that the person was making a lot of money from stevia - both from his own farm and also through contract-farming in the surrounding areas. At that time stevia had not yet picked up in the domestic market. It was mainly being exported. This farm had in-house processing setup too. In fact more than 50% of the sugar used in Japan is made from Stevia. I think it will take a long time to really tell the side effects of stevia sugar, but one thing we can be sure is that it can’t be as bad as the white sugar that we are used to. That is the reason for which it is grabbing attention world-wide.
Having said that, unless you have substantial quantity growing, it will be difficult to sell it or process it. There is not much market for unprocessed leaves.