A decade ago, Ram Bahadur Yadav, 48, a resident of Chhaprey village in Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh was a depressed man. He was not unable to clear the civil services entrance exam and was struggling for a good job. But at present, he is one of the farmers engaged in stevia cultivation in the state and doing well from it. Bahadur( Farmer ) grows stevia on 5 acres of land and earns a net income of around Rs 2 lakh/acre per crop. The plant is very much sweet and has a natural calorie-free extract, which is used as an organic sweetener. He told “Its herbs get ready for harvesting in 3 months. This way, I get 3 to 4 crops every year”.