Tag: Intercropping

Deepakbhai Bhavanbhai Patel

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Gujarat based farmer fetching good fortune by cultivating diversified mango varieties

Today, if we take a dive in the fact pool of progressive farming and farmers, then there is a clear indication towards technology. Technology has its own supreme role in sculpting the farmer’s success and his farm too. This is the story of a Gujarat based farmer- Deepakbhai Bhavanbhai Patel, he chose to pair modern farming techniques with his optimistic behaviour to obtain better farming productivity. And with his efforts, he overcame all the hurdles that his father and forefathers used to face while practicing agriculture.

Mango is the fruit which made Deepakbhai king of orchards in his village Kachiyawadi of Navsari district in Gujarat. With 20 acres land that Deepakbhai inherited in 1991, from his father, he started mango revolution by planting different varieties of mango like Jumbo Kesar, Langra, Rajapuri, Alphonso, Dasheri, and Totapuri. Slowly with the time, he expanded the farming area and today his mango orchard sit on 125 acres with 3000 to 3200 mango trees, out of which 65 acres land is his own and 70 acres is on the lease.

Earlier farming practices and implementation:

Well, the beginning path was a bit stony for Deepakbhai. He started his farming venture by inter-cropping vegetables and mangoes; but due to labour shortage and decreasing revenue, he decided to give his full attention to mango farming only.

“Deepakbhai Says – I improved my farming practices, wherever I felt that I was wrong. Due to lack of knowledge and experience, I used to over water the mango trees, give fertilizer and pesticide in large amount, and didn’t used insecticides in the orchards. But once I came in contact with the research and agricultural centre, I was enlightened with the knowledge and right farming practices. ”

After receiving the results of following the right farming practices, Deepakbhai honed himself to become the mango farming expert, and that was the time when he decided to make mango farming his main source of income. He started reading books, following instructions and advice that were given by agricultural institutions.

“I took part in various events to increase my knowledge base, some of them were organized by Sugarcane Research Centre of Aurangabad, Delhi Agriculture Research Centre, Jaipur Agriculture University…etc., from these events I captured huge knowledge about the farming practices of different fruits, vegetables and other crops like Banana, Pomegranate, Mango, Chikoo, Guava, Amla, Cereals, Wheat and vegetables.”

Deepak did not only became more organized and informed about his agriculture practices but also with his money management, which is the most important part every farmer has to track. He started keeping the record of his income and expenses and became more economical. Whatever Deepakbhai used to save as an income, was later used for buying new land.

Marketing:

Marketing was a bit difficult in the beginning because Deepakbhai had no market for mango business. Middleman and traders use to give very less price for the mango production which was not acceptable to him. But after some time, Deepak came in contact with Sahakari Mandali and then he decided to tie up with the co-operative federation for packing mango juices. They offered right value of the produce to Deepakbhai which gave a great boost to his income.

Along with mango, Deepakbhai also planted banana, 250 kalipatti chikoo, and coconut trees along the border of the farm, and this gave a good rise in his income.


“Mango tree need great care which includes the right amount of water, fertilizer, and insecticides. Moreover, this time I have planted good quality mango trees, recommended by the university to achieve good production. In order to control the diseases, I follow all the medications instructed by the universities. Timely I also prune the fruit branches to give proper structure to the trees. I also get the water tested and all the defects are reformed.”

After seeing the success of Deepakbhai Patel, many farmers visit his farm to know which modern technology and methods he implements in his farm. Many farmers take guidance from Deepakbhai.

Deepakbhai gives a major credit to Navsari Agriculture Department and Atma Project for their support and guidance. With their help, Deepakbhai has implemented modern and scientific methods of farming on his farm. He has left not even a single source of information to gather farming knowledge.

“Drip irrigation in one of the water-saving farming method that I have established in my farm and it helps in saving water to a greater extent. Now unnecessary expenses are reduced and land has become more fertile and moist.”

During all this time, there also came a down moment in the life of Deepakbhai Patel. In 2013, Deepakbhai came to know that he was suffering from tongue cancer. He underwent an operation to recover from it and during the surgery, his main vocal part, his tongue was removed…he lost his ability to speak.

“But he never let his disability turn into his life’s inability.”

In 2017, he went under second operation in which the cancer was completely removed from his body and today he is a fine healthy man with strong determinations to achieve his dreams.

 Award & Achievements:
In the year 20014- 15, Deepakbhai was awarded as “ATMA Best Farmer of Gujarat”.
Well, this is just one award to mention, his success in the field of horticulture has made him win around 19 awards, certificates, cash prize, and trophies on the state level.

Message
“Horticulture is a good source of income if done by following the right method as suggested by the universities. Farmers must invest in horticulture if they want to have a good future ahead.”

Davinder Singh

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How a farmer made diversified farming his path of success and is inspiring others through it.

One of the successful diversified farmer Davinder Singh from Nakodar (District Jalandhar) discussed with Apni Kheti Team that how he was motivated towards diversified farming and what other inventions he did in the field of farming to reap good profit from it.

Davinder Singh is a firm believer of the thought that – “The work done by self is important only” and today whatever he has achieved is by his hard work and hunger to do more in the field of farming. As coming from a farming background he started farming after completing his 10th and didn’t go for higher studies. He started farming with vegetables like an ordinary farmer. He already had 1.8 hectares land of his own but he also took 1 hectare on rent. The income he was generating from farming was enough to satisfy the present family needs but not that enough to think about the better future for his family.

In 1990-91 he came in contact with Punjab Agriculture University and learned about some new farming techniques which could help in generating good profit from farming without expanding the farming area. And the reason which motivated him to implement those new techniques on his farm was that it doesn’t include any hi-tech machinery or chemicals.

To expand his area of expertise he also took beekeeping training from KVK- Noor Mahal, Jalandhar and started beekeeping. This venture made him good profit and he continued it. By implementing new farming techniques like bed farming and tunnel farming, he started diversified farming.

Well, many people are doing diversified farming in Punjab, but they are limited to few crops only. Davinder Singh let his thought of wild horses run and he experimented by intercropping cabbage and onion together. This initiative of diversified farming gave him a very good yield and he harvested 375 quintals of cabbage and 125 quintals of onion in that season. Many agriculture experts got help from his farming ways in their research. He was also the first one who inter-cropped “onion, tomato, coriander” together and after that, he also inter-cropped “onion, cucumber, capsicum” and “cabbage, marigold” together.

All the crops pairing done by him for diversified farming was a great success and he made a great profit from all these inter-cropping patterns. He also received Jain Adviser State Award for his “Papaya-Eggplant & Cabbage-Onion” inter-cropping patterns.

Education never became a barrier between him and trending new farming techniques. His inquisitive mind always wanted to learn, and to satisfy the needs of his mind, he also fed his mind with appropriate knowledge. He always visited many progressive farmers of Maler Kotla to learn basics of vegetable farming and he also attended every type of meetings and camp organized by Punjab Agriculture University or Horticulture Department.

Davinder Singh’s farming ways were so better and productive that he was also awarded Surjit Singh Dhillon Award by PAU in 2010 for Tunnel Farming. He also became the member of PAU Kisan Club and Agriculture Technology Prabandh Agency- ATMA Governing Body (Jalandhar).

Well, the key to scale success in the field of farming while moving from a beginning stage is to keep your creative/innovative edge alive and Davinder Singh also did the same. He implemented drip irrigation and shower irrigation in his farm better water management. He also started using Tensiometer for paddy farming and Jantar to increase the yield of the soil.

Recently, he has started diversified farming of cucumber and water melon and is expecting great profit returns from it also. Many farmers visit his farm to see and learn from him and he also open-heartedly shares his learning with them. He wants to experiment more with diversified farming and spread his learning with other farmers so that they can also take benefit of it.

Future Plans:
For the future, he has great ideas aligned in his mind and very soon he will be implementing those also. 

Message to Farmers:
“Our land is gold and to cultivate gold out of it we have to do hard work and smart work both. We just need good farming techniques to harvest gold on our own. If we have skills then we should share it with others.”

Raja Ram Jakhar

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The Futuristic Farmer of Rajasthan Bringing Changing Tides in Conventional Farming Trend with Aloe Vera Farming

Even today also Rajasthan is known for its conventional farming methods, and the main crops that are grown there are Bajara, Guar, and Sorghum. Many farmers are progressing but still, many farmers are there who just don’t want to come out of their stereotypical conventional farming trend. One such a person who is trying to do something out of the box and bring a changing tide in agriculture field is Raja Ram Jakhar.

Born and brought up on the land of Rajasthan, Raja Ram Jakhar is a B.Sc. Agriculture Graduate who left his government job just to pursue his passion towards farming. He learned to take advantage of the opportunity and gain profit from it. And today he is a successful aloe-vera farmer in Rajasthan, who is not dependent on anyone for marketing because his produce is sold to the consumers from his farm only.

Rajaram Jakhar’s family was associated with agriculture from the beginning. And all his childhood, he had seen all his family members doing farming only. But after completing his B.Sc. Agriculture degree from the DAV College of Sangaria, Rajasthan in 1980, he got a chance to pursue a different profession (Supervisor at Central State Farm, Suratgarh). However, he wasn’t able to work there more than 3-4 months, because it doesn’t interest him and he chose to come back and continue his ancestral occupation, farming.

He started farming in the same way his ancestors were doing and there was no major profit that he achieved. Slowly it was getting difficult for him to manage his family livelihood, they were just living from hand to mouth. But then he heard about Patanjali brand and its aloe vera products, and to manufacture those products Patanjali needs aloe-vera produce in bulk. So he took advantage of this opportunity and started aloe-vera farming by making minimum Rs. 15000 of investment in 1 bigha of variety “Babie Densis”.

During all this, once his family also went against his decision of aloe-vera farming, because they were unsure of what he was doing, and at that time he was the first one to start aloe-vera farming in his area (Ganganagar District). But he never changed his mind, because he was confident of himself. After one year, when finally aloe-vera plants were ready, few buyers contacted him for buying his produce, and since then he is selling his produce without making any extra effort from his farm only and is earning 1 Lakh from 1 Bigha in 1 Year.

As there are many factories in Rajasthan for Aloe-Vera processing, so every after 50 days two trucks are sent to his farm by the buyers to purchase his produce and he just has to load the produce in the truck with the help of the workers. Now he has started inter-cropping and has planted moringa tree in the aloe-vera field to take advantage in a better way.

Currently, he is living happily with his family (wife, three daughters and one son) and is managing the whole farm on his own. He has one tube well and tractor for framing. He strictly follows organic farming in his farm for aloe-vera, moringa, and cotton. Along with aloe-vera, moringa and cotton he has also planted vegetables like okra, ridge gourd, cucumber, bottle gourd, guar beans and other seasonal vegetables for home use.

Rajaram Jakhar chose Moringa for inter-cropping because of its medicinal properties and it is easy to grow with little care. Now he has also started selling plants and giving free training to farmers who want to start aloe-vera farming. Rajaram Jakhar with his futuristic views is trying to bring a new revolution in the agriculture field. Till now he has taken no help from government or any other source, he has done everything on his own. His upcoming plans are to expand his work and make more farmers aware to start aloe-vera farming.

MESSAGE TO FARMERS
“Before starting any new thing, a farmer should search the market first and then start farming. There are many opportunities from which farmers can take advantage and they should never miss that.”