“Success is not a big step in the future, rather a small step taken right now.”
The Chhala village is located in Gandhinagar Tehsil of Gandhinagar block. Total households are 1741 and total population is 8182 as per census 2001. Agriculture and animal husbandry are their livelihood activities. The average rain fall of district is 744mm/year. The ground water level of village ranges from 700 to 800 fts. This village has enough irrigation facility through ground water. They cultivate three types of crops per annum. Vegetables and wheat are the major crops. The farmers who don’t have a bore well gets water on paid basis from bore well owners. Thus farmers over here do not have much concern about saving water. They use flood irrigation technique. It leads to wastage of water and in the long run will lower the ground water table.
On other side weed and pesticide attacks increases the labour cost and pesticide cost. Because of weeding, the crop plants do not get enough nutrients to grow and results in low yield. Ultimately the more input cost and low yield at the end makes the farming less profitable.
Thus, to promote new technologies in farming Navrachna Trust has mobilized VDC (Village Development Committee) of panchayat to take small inititative of mulching unit in the village with purpose to save water. It will also help the farmer because of the less weed growth and low pest attacks reducing the input cost. The crop plant gets sufficient nutrients and grows well. This leads to good yield. Ultimately lower input cost and better yield will make agriculture more profitable for farmer.
The meeting was held with farmers of Chala village. According to criteria Mr. Yogeshwar Chaudhary was selected as a beneficiary for mulching intervention by farmers in the meeting. Once the beneficiary was finalized in the meeting by farmers, we started working with him. The mulching installation was done in half acre and another half-acre was kept as a control plot as shown in image It will be useful for impact analysis once the intervention is done. And also it will set the practical example for the farmers to adopt new technologies to save water, reduce cost and increase yield.
The package of practices was demonstrated over field to farmer. A land preparation was done like ploughing and furrow making. The farmer got demonstration for making lines, holes in mulching sheet for irrigation and seeding with mulching unit and the farmer carried on in rest of half acre land by his own. The training for seed root treatment was given before transplant. For next stage he was facilitated for fertilizer application, irrigation and pesticide management for mulching plot.
| Comparison of input cost in control plot and demo plot | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sr. No |
Particular |
Cost for control Plot in Rs. |
Cost for demo plot in Rs. |
Difference in Rs. |
Remark |
| 1 |
Seed |
12500 | 10100 |
2400 | • 25,000 seedling/half acre*50 paisa = Rs.12,500 , Morbidity 10 to 15% • (25,000 seedling *40 paisa)+Rs.100 root treatment cost= 10100 , Morbidity 2 to 5% |
| 2 |
Fertilizer and manure |
6000 |
2000 |
4000 | Farm yard manure is used in demo plot |
| 3 |
pesticide |
3000 | 600 |
2400 | |
| 4 | Labour cost |
4000 |
1000 |
3000 | Labour cost for Weeding became zero |
| 5 | Irrigation cost | 3000 | 3000 | 0 | Farmer Adopted drip irrigation instead of flood irrigation in demo plot. But the bore well owner charges as per land size. Thus cost remains same. |
| Total | 28500 | 16,700 | 11,800 | ||
As shown in table, the farmer saved Rs.11, 800/- from input cost. The difference in growth rate of plant in demo plot and control plot is crystal clear visible.
The moisture content is significant in demo plot compare to control plot. The seed root treatment was done which reduces morbidity rate from 10 to 15% to 2 to 5%.
The farm yard manure was used for demo plot. The drip system was installed in demo plot against the flood irrigation technique in control plot.
It leads to water saving. The weed was not observed in the mulching plot which reduces the labour cost of weeding. The farmer estimates more yield with good quality from demo plot than control plot at harvesting time.