Page 54 - Annual Report

All’s well that

starts with a well!

Like all the other villages of Maharashtra’s
Dhadgaon block, agriculture in Kharda village has
always suffered from a severe lack of irrigation
water, which made it impossible to cultivate crops
in the Rabi season. The farmers in the village were
unwilling to change to high-value farming practices
for reasons like lack of technical knowledge,
unavailability of market channels, fear of failure in
production, input costs and dependence on rainfall.
But it only took a handful of brave farmers from
Povti Pada hamlet to start a new green revolution
in Kharda.
Agriculture is the major component of Lakhpati
Kisan program in Maharashtra since inception in Vijaya and Bodhi Bai with their crops
2015. The main focus is to increase the productivity
of main cereal crops - maize, sorghum, soybean, Emboldened by this success, 2 of the farmers with What’s more, Vijaya and Bodhibai’s success story is
gram, pigeon pea, etc. as well as to diversify the support from the CInI team went a step further and inspiring other farmers in the region to adopt
crop basket by promoting commercial production decided to adopt high-value farming practices by high-value farming practices like Drip & Mulching.
of suitable vegetables and spices in the project area installing a Drip & Mulching unit, as was encouraged So Kharda village may soon have many more
like garlic, coriander, chilli, brinjal, tomato, etc. New in the village level Groups. Lakhpati Kisans, thanks to the group well that
production technologies like Trellis system of sowed seeds of hope and the 2 pioneers who
farming, mulching with drip are also getting piloted Vijaya Suresh Valvi and Bodhibai Kutrya Valvi reaped the rewards.
along with initiatives to promote healthy seedling purchased a total of 6,600 chilli saplings from a
through hi-tech poly house nurseries which is nearby nursey and sowed them in 2 plots of land in
being managed by Agri – entrepreneurs in a July. They followed the guidance of the agriculture
business mode. experts from CInI who had explained crop 1 NO
protection by using fertilizers and pesticides. POWERTY
CInI (an associate organization of Tata Trusts) started PROJECT ALIGNS
its operations in 21 villages of Dhadgaon block in By mid-September, their chilli crop was ready to be WITH SDG
Nandurbar, initially in 2015 and later in 2018, it has harvested. Their family members picked and
been scaled up to 20 additional villages. The newly packed the produce, then took it to the nearby
added villagers were very well aware of the Dhadgaon and Molgi markets and sold 60 kgs of
successful interventions being carried out in their chilli at one go. earning around `50,000.
nearby villages. A group of 5 farmers in 2018 Vijaya and Bodhibai are now all set to earn `1 lakh in
approached a village level meeting being a couple of weeks, after which they will dry and
conducted by the CInI team with the proposal to store the surplus chillies for self-consumption.
construct a new group well.
Thrilled at the prospect of becoming ‘Lakhpati
Accordingly, after site verification, the Mogimata Kisans’, the 2 courageous farmers share: “We’ve
Well User Group (WUG) was formed, funds were never earned so much from traditional crops in our
collected through community contribution, and the area before. We’re so glad we changed our farming
well was ready by April 2019, providing irrigation to practices and started growing chillies
the command area of 8.06 acres. And for the first and vegetables!”
time, the farmers were able to cultivate a Rabi crop!

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