Success Story
Title of Success Story : Bee Keeping
Name of the Farmers : Ashok Maurya
Location : Village – Akbarpur
Block – Ranipur
District – Mau (UP)
Size of Holding : One Bigha
Component of Farming System
Agriculture+ :
Live Stock :
Vegetable +Rice, Rice + Mustard
Goat
Sri Ashok Maura aged 38 year is one of the poor resource farmer he living with his 6 number of family. Previously he was practicing agricultural crop with goat farming. He could not able to manage feed and essential house hold commodities for his family. He lived in thatch house.
Where he was enlightened
Sri Maurya came in contact with SMS (Plant Protection) during need based survey of the village for the purpose of conducting training programme for the practicing farmers in year 2005. It was found that the village covered by forest and vicinity farmers grown oilseed and vegetable crops. Due to small size of land holding, resource poor and ecological situation, Sri Maurya was advised for adopting bee keeping to utilize very precious forest area and agricultural crops. Initially he refused to start beekeeping due to fear with rearing of honey bee. After continuous persuasion and training given to him on bee keeping he agreed to adopt this venture. Then a bee box with honey bees also given to him under FLD. After one year he satisfied and taken 20 bee box on finance with the help of KVK. He earn Rs 3200.00 from each box/ year. Now he has 700 bee box. From this now he has able given good education to his children in spite of manages house hold commodities to his family. At present he has a brick house of two rooms.
Regular Feature of Rearing
After getting good return from bee keeping he added in farming system. These enterprises are not only the good source of good income but also generating the employment to the farmers.
Motivation to Farmers
Sri Maurya is an example for other resource poor farmers in village. Many farmers are visited his bee keeping unit and start the bee keeping. Inspired from this venture all the villagers of his village engaged in bee keeping and always contracted to KVK’ scientist about bee keeping.
Success Stories 2
Title of Success Story : Organic farming in paddy resist pest attack
Name of the Farmers : Maharaj Rai
Location : Village – Thalaipur
Block – Ratanpura
District – Mau (UP)
Size of Holding : 4.0 ha
Component of Farming System
Agriculture+ :
Live Stock :
Vegetable +Rice, Rice + Mustard
Cow
Mr. Maharaj Rai is an organic farmer living in village Thalaipur of Mau district, in state of Uttar Pradesh. His farm escaped unaffected while his neighbours’ fields suffered total crop losses as a result of the attack of the brown plant hoppers (Nilaparvata lugens, or BPH) in 2008-09.
For several years, Mr. Rai has been interested in organic farming, with the assistance of KVK, Pilkhi, Mau, he tried following the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method. He transplanted his seedlings (variety: HUR-105) in July, 2008, paying special attention to the spacing between them. He added 5 tons of farmyard manures to his one acre field, and 200kg of azolla after 15 days of transplantation. He also sprayed Amrit Jal, organic input traditionally used by the Mr. Rai from several year, prepared by fermenting of cow urine, sugarcane’s juice, neem leaves and curds in earthen pot.. These inputs proved their value by providing strength and greater resistance to the crop. This was clear after heavy rains and floods of first fortnight, September 2008, in addition everyone in the village witnessed with curiosity and surprise how all adjacent fields became severely affected by the brown plant hopper, while they were hardly visible in the SRI plot.
Mr. Rai decided to document the difference between his and his neighbours’ fields, receiving help of SMS plant Protection of KVK, Mau. The first observation referred to the spacing between seedlings: planted at 10X15 cm distance, there was no spacing between row and hills when the conventional crop reached its maximum tillering phase. Furthermore, the liberal application of urea favoured a lush vegetative growth. This not only encourage the incidence of brown plant hopper, but it also contributed to the crop’s lodging after the heavy rains. Concerned with the attack of BPH, and following advice of a pesticides dealer, Mr Rai’s neighbours sprayed a synthetic pyrethroid, to no avail.
There were no clear difference in the populations of the natural enemies of BPH and other pest recorded in the SRI plot and in the conventional farms. While the first one reported spider, myrid bugs, beetles and wasps, the conventional farms were devoid of natural enemies. The wider spacing adopted during transplantation (25 cm X 20 cm) and the consequent free air movement between two hills and rows, even after the maximum tillering phase, together with the presence of natural enemies, helped the plant resist the invasion and multiplication of BPH. Furthermore, the use of organic inputs such as azolla and amrit jal clearly meant the plant could offer greater resistance.
All village farmers were surprised to see the extraordinary tolerance of SRI rice plants, while the rice grown all around it succumbed to the pest. While the conventional could not harvest a single grain from their fields, the organic farmer, despite his field being flooded by the rains, harvested an equivalent of 30qt/ha. This made the farmers nearby clearly aware of the advantage of SRI and of organic farming when facing a severe pest incidence and unfavourable weather conditions. During the 2009-10 seasons, naturally more than 25 farmers decided to try a different approach.
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