ISAP Activities- Updates

Project SHARE – Update

Project SHARE, is a comprehensive agri extension programme aimed at increasing the income of corn and cotton growers in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan through sustainable yield enhancement approach. 10,000 farmers are enrolled under the project and are divided in 400 groups across 22 blocks in the above three states. These farmers are given training in groups on pre-sowing practices, Integrated Nutrient Management, Integrated Pest Management, Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and post-harvest technology. They are also being provided hand-holding support for market linkages. In the current financial year, 850 acres of land has been selected for demonstration of cotton and corn crop in target regions.

Monthly update
Under Project SHARE, two Kisan Melas were organized in December at Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh) & Amrawati (Maharashtra), wherein achievements of the project interventions were shared with the farmers.  These events were organized at taluka/ mandal level in both the cotton areas. In Amravati event was organized at the market yard, Chandur Bazar on 17th December 2011 and in Adilabad the event was organized at village Kummaritanda of Utnoor block on 22nd December 2011.  The platform was used for encouraging and motivating the community to adopt improved agriculture practices. They also sensitized farmers on BG II cotton cultivation, Improved Agriculture Practices, Soil Health, Natural Resource Management, farm mechanization, development of alternate income generating resources etc. and motivated them by assuring them to extend their support. Various stalls were put up by fertilizer/ pesticide companies, local dealers, department of agriculture, ICT based companies etc.. Project SHARE SHG also participated and displayed their self made products.

In both the exhibitions, there was active participation from the project farmers and fellow farmers. More than 450 farmers attended each event. The Joint Director of Agriculture was the Chief Guest in Amrawati, while in Adilabad, the Asst Director Agriculture graced the occasion. Other dignitaries present in the meeting included eminent persons from local community and agro input industry.

Ground progress
Both in Adilabad and Amrawati, 4th picking has been completed with the average yield reportedly from field demos at 11 quintals per acre in irrigated area and 8 quintals/ acre in the rainfed area.  This is likely to increase after the ratoon crop is harvested. Sourcing of inputs is a major cause of worry for many farmers in project areas, as prices of DAP, seeds and other inputs have increased significantly. This increases their cost of production and declines their margins.

One of the attractions for most of the farmers is the establishment of a low-cost, portable Vermi-compost Unit at each locations viz. Bundi, Bhilwara, Adilabad & Amravati.

Under Project SHARE in Amravati, Buyer Seller meet was organized under farmers and market stake-holders linkages to help farmers in getting better prices. About 150 farmers participated in this meet and interacted with the buyers on their procurement policies. 48 SHARE Farmer Groups have been linked with stakeholders from trade for marketing of cotton, pulses and sourcing of inputs. Follow up meetings on Market Linkage are continuing in Bundi and Bhilwara for input sourcing and rabi crop produce.

OCP-AES Project, Karnataka

The OCP Agricultural Extension Services (AES) project is primarily aimed at improving the productivity of pigeon-pea in select region of northern Karnataka through promotion of comprehensive crop cultivation and nutrient management techniques. 3,000 farmers from Gulbarga, Bidar and Raichur districts are enrolled under this program out of which, 100 field demonstrations are been carried out. All the farmers under this project are provided with a Soil Health Card (SHC) pertaining to their field and basis this, they are provided regular advisories through all possible modes of ICT and practical demonstrations. 

Monthly update

The OCP team from Morocco visited project areas during the month of December 2011 for monitoring the progress of the project. In the presence of Ms. Hassina Moukhariq, Food Security Program Manager at OCP Foundation Research Centre and Dr. Mohamed El Gharous, Chief of Regional Centre of INRA at Settat,  two dals mills of Farmers Federations were inaugurated – one each at village Ganagapur in Afzalpur taluka of Gulbarga district & Siddeshwar village of Bhalki block of Bidar district. The capacity of double roller dall mill at Bidar district is 500 kg per hour and the one at Gulbarga, which is a single roller dall mill, has a capacity of processing 400 kg per hour.  The events witnessed guests from various Agriculture and allied departments of Karnataka, including the Chairman of the Karnataka Agriculture Mission. The efforts of the farmers were appreciated by the visiting OCP team.  The Government officials assured the farmers of their support and cooperation.

Low Cost Farm Machinery Centre established by OCP farmer group at village Ankalga in Afzalpur taluka of Gulbarga district is running successfully. Apart from Farm implements and machinery other inputs like seed, fertilizer and pesticides will also be made available to farmers from Afzalpur and nearby talukas. Encouraged by this, project farmers of Bidar have expressed their desire to put up such a Unit.

During Kharif 2011, 500 acres demos of Pigeonpea varieties TS3R & BSMR 736 has been successfully harvested under Project SHARE.  Majority of the farmers are happy as they have reportedly achieved good yields and quality produce.  Farmers reported that the size and weight of the grains were better in comparison to last year’s produce.  The average yield reported on the ground was 5 to 8 qtls per acre. Dibbling and transplanting methods of pigeonpea cultivation has been successfully adopted by farmers. Despite inadequate rainfall in most parts, the project farmers reportedly are expecting better yield and thereby, increased incomes as resorted to intercropping and thus minimized their risks.

During Rabi 2011, 50 acres chickpea demos of variety GJ 11 have been successfully set up, and these are reported progressing well.

OCP Farmers participated in the Krishi Mela held at KVK, Bidar. They were exposed to the new technology for redgram production

Exposure Visit of MP farmers to Karnal

Two groups of dairy farmers (20 farmers in each group) from Indore and Shahdol districts of Madhya Pradesh were taken on exposure visit to Karnal by ISAP team under the Capacity building for Adoption of Technology (CAT) programme of NABARD. The programme was conducted by ISAP-Karnal from 12 to 14 December 2011. Both the groups were led by the respective District Development Managers (DDMs) of NABARD. This was the first amongst a series of similar other forthcoming visits from different districts of Madhya Pradesh.

In this programme, the farmers were exposed to modern techniques of dairy farming at NDRI, Karnal and Organic Dairying in Gurukul Dairy farm in Kurukshetra. The programme also had inputs on practical exposure to protected hitech vegetable farming in progressive vegetable farms of Karnal and Indo-Israel Centre for Excellence in Vegetable at Gharaunda, Karnal along with fish breeding and fish farming at the award winning fish farm of Mr. Sultan Singh of Taraori, Karnal.

The visit was very reportedly successful and the farmers were enriched and satisfied by this exposure programme.

Promotion of Farmer Producer Organization under Pulses Scheme

The project on establishing Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) under pulses has been initiated in Bidar (Karnataka), Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh),  Bhilwara, Tonk and Sawai Madhopur (Rajasthan).

In Bidar, 5,ooo farmers have been registered under this project in 5 blocks of Bidar viz., Bidar, Aurad, Bhalki, Humnabad and Basavkalyan blocks. These farmers have been mobilized and have been motivated to work as groups and have been clubbed together as 250 Pulses Producer Groups. These farmers groups have been registered with Department of Agriculture, Karnataka.

During this month, two farmer market linkages meets were organized in Bidar, in which various stakeholders agreed to join hands for effective marketing of pulses.  Farmers groups’ follow up meetings and groups institutional building trainings are in progress. 150 Farmers Producers Groups leaders were mobilized for exposure visit to krishi mela at KVK Bidar and a team of NFSM officials from Agriculture Department, Govt of Karnataka visited the project farmers groups in Bhalki.

In Adilabad, Farmers selection for FPO Pulses projects from Tamsi & Kerameri mandals are underway. In this month, 3200 farmers from 100 villages of Tamsi and Kerameri mandals have been selected and farmers with common interests are forming groups.

In Rajasthan, after the completion of baseline survey in Bhilwara, Tonk and Sawai Madhopur blocks, FPO pulses project work has been initiated in 5 tehsils - Shahpura, Malpura, Peeplu, Sawai Madhopur and Khandar. In all, 5625 pulses producers would be selected from 125 villages and it is envisaged that 250 common interest groups and 5 Farmers Producers Organizations would be organized.
 

Promotion of Farmer Producer Organization under Vegetables Scheme

ISAP has been assigned with the task of promoting FPOs under the Vegetable scheme in Maharashtra and Rajasthan.  This is a joint initiative of the Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium and the respective State Governments. 

In Maharashtra, the project is being implemented in the districts of Nashik and Pune bringing about 4250 farmers together to form farmer groups and subsequently appropriate number of FPOs.  Till date, about 3,000 farmers have been mobilized and motivated to form about 160 groups as per their common interests.

In Rajasthan, the project geography is Jaipur district wherein about 5000 farmers are being targeted.  So far, about 500 farmers have formed groups and FPO and technical trainings are underway.

132 agri-professionals appear in the 4th Open India CCA Examination

The 4th open India CCA exam was held successfully at different locations across India with 132 Agribusiness Professionals from leading Agribusiness Companies participating in the exam.

There was a marked increase of 45% in participation with 132 candidates participating as against 90 candidates in the previous exam. This reflects the increasing importance and popularity of the program. Since the launch of the CCA program in India in 2010, more and more agribusiness professionals from leading agribusiness companies are enrolling to update themselves on the latest in Agriculture. Many companies are using the CCA program as a performance evaluation tool for assessing the performance while deciding the promotion/ incentives to their employees. As regards Talent Acquisition, companies are looking for fresh CCAs as prospective employees therefore making CCA program a highly effective industry recognized certification for the young agribusiness professionals who want to make it big in the Agribusiness industry.

The new companies which have joined the CCA Program are Nuziveedu Seeds Limited, Excel Crop Care, Euro Fruits, Coromandel Retail, Syngenta.

For more details on the program, kindly log on to www.certifiedcropadviser.org or contact Mr. Saveen Randhawa-India CCA Program Manager at Saveen@isapindia.org; indiacca@isapindia.org

Agri-clinic & Agribusiness Program
ISAP is running Entrepreneurship Development Program in 9 states under the aegis of MANAGE. This training is provided to unemployed agriculture and allied sector graduates. After training, ISAP provides active hand-holding support to these trained agripreneurs for the setting up their own business venture. ISAP has so far trained 2181 agripreneurs in Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, J&K, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Punjab. Some of the agripreneurs have established their independent business successfully. We share one such success story with our readers in ISAP newsletters


Success Story (Himachal Pradesh)