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

During Kharif 2011, 4th picking of cotton in Adilabad and Amravati has been completed. This year, the highest yield obtained is reported to have been 14 quintals / acre from Amravati and 13 quintals/ acre from Adilabad under Paras Brahma BG-II hybrid. The Average yield obtained was reportedly 8.6 qtl/acre (150 demos) and 7.9 q/acre (200 demos) in Amravati and Adilabad respectively. Winter crop demos under maize are also progressing well in Rajasthan.

One of the major highlights of this month is the conferring of the ‘Best Innovative Farmer Award’ to a SHARE farmer of Adilabad district. On the eve of its Foundation Day on 28th January 2012, the Acharya N.G Ranga Agriculture University, DATT Centre, presented the BEST INNOVATIVE FARMER AWARD toProject SHARE farmer Mr K. Manik Rao from Ponna village in Echoda block of Adilabad district.

His innovation was towards adoption of improved technologies as well as Adoption of indigenous techniques with better Crop Management. He introduced Good Agriculture Practices on his farm. He reduced the cost of production by maintaining plant geometry, timely and adequate use of inputs/ resources, intercrops etc. While receiving this award, Mr K.Manik Rao happily acknowledged contribution of Project SHARE for his achievements, which helped him bagging this award. He has been able to earn more than Rs 2 lakh from his 4 acre farm continuously for the last two years. While receiving the award, Mr Manik commented “Project SHARE helped me a lot in the farm and my life has changed”. He has increased his investment in developing agriculture infrastructure and sent his son to pursue higher education.

In all project locations, Kisan Gosthis were organised to sensitise and motivate farmers for inculcating latest agricultural technologies. Farmer Group Meetings for capacity building and sustenance are also being regularly organised for all 400 project farmers groups.

A buyer seller Meet was also organized for Project SHARE farmers at Utnoor Mandal of Adilabad district. Also, a follow-up market linkage meeting was organised, where farmers were taken to a ginning factory at Indervelly block of Adilabad district. During these meets, SHARE farmer groups were linked with cotton buyers to help them secure better prices for their superior quality cotton.  During this exposure visit, the farmers also learned the process of cotton ginning and value addition. Stakeholders from input suppliers industry were introduced to the farmer groups.

Also, exposure visits for corn farmers were organised wherein farmers were taken to winter corn crop demos and other SHARE interventions sites. Cotton farmers were also taken for exposure visits to Agriculture Research Station at Karimnagar.

 

Kisan Gosthi- Ranipura village, Bundi block, Raj. 20/01/2012

Buyer seller meet at Utnoor block, Adilabad distt

Project SHARE Farmer K.Manik Rao Awarded as BEST INNOVATIVE FARMER by ANGRAU DAATT Center Adilabad on 28.01.2012.

Project SHARE Farmer K. Manik Rao with the Award Certificate

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

After the successful completion of two years of OCP AES Project, the project has been extended for additional two years. Farmer Groups’ meeting for bringing in sustainability for all 100 groups was organized during last month. A workshop for federating farmers as Farmers Producer Organisation was organised for all the lead farmers of Aland taluka.

500 redgram demo plots under OCP AES Project have been successfully harvested. The highest yield obtained is reported at 11.25 quintals per acre and the average yield in 500 acres obtained is reported at 6.52 quintals per acre as against 3.71 quintals per acre obtained in control plot. Farmers who had grown moong, urad and soyabean as intercrop have also received good yield from these intercrops.  

The project farmers are preparing well in advance for Kharif 2012 by placing their orders (for their groups) for input sourcing.

Soil sample collection for preparing soil health cards for all the 3000 farmers has been initiated in this month from all the talukas.

One Dall Mill at Afzalpur taluk of Gulbarga Gulbarga and Siddeshwar in Bidar district (under the project) have started its operations. This is a modest effort by project farmers towards value addition. Project farmers in other regions were also linked with the potential buyers to help them getting better prices for their produce. Farmers in Bhalki are able to avail the benefits of these linkages directly as pulses’ players from Bidar are buying redgram from their door step at better market prices.

 

Farmer Group Meeting at Vill. Marched, Raichur block of Raichur district

Farmer harvesting Redgram at Aland, Gulbarga

 

Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) –Project in Karnataka & Rajasthan

Bidar, Karnataka – Select FPO project farmers from Bidar were taken for exposure visits to Bengal gram demo plots in Bhalki & Basavakalyan blocks of Bidar district.

250 Farmer Groups Trainings were organised in all 5 talukas of Bidar district. About 5500 farmers were trained on Group functioning and Farmers Producer Orgaisations. In Bhalki and Baswkalayan FIGs have selected their promoters and in next month they will start the process of produce company formation by getting its share capital from the members.

In the district, potential buyers have been identified and 3 Market Linkage Meetings were organised wherein farmers interacted with pulses processors/ millers and input suppliers for developing linkages.

Siddeshwar Farmers Group, with the help of OCP Project has established a Dall Mill in Bhalki block of Bidar district. The group is disseminating the information and extending dall mill facility to project farmers. According to farmer Sangmesh, one of the Lead farmer of Siddeshwar Group, the project farmers and other fellow farmers are taking keen interest utilising the dall mill facility for their benefit.

In Adilabad, most of the farmers have been selected and common interest groups are also being formed. Initial Group meetings of these groups are being conducted simultaneously.

Similarly in Rajasthan the grounding of the project has completed. Project Villages and farmers are being identified and their registration process is on.

 

FPO, Farmer Group Training at  Sideshwar vill., Bhalki block, Bidar

Stakeholders meet (held on 13.01.2012) at Byalhalli vill., Bidar block of Bidar district

Farmers group meeting at Basavakalyan block of Bidar district

 

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. Beside its regular progress on mobilization and formation of FIGs, ISAP is planning to conduct training on Good Production Practices and on Protected Cultivation of Vegetables in February month. These trainings will be conducted at 7 locations namely Jakhori (Nashik block), Ruee (Niphad block), Akarale (Dindori), Khadak Malegaon (Niphad), Chatori (Niphad), Dhakambe (Dindori), Girnnare (Nashik).

In Rajasthan, the project geography is Jaipur district wherein about 5000 farmers are being targeted.  So far, formation of about 250 FIGs and 5 FPOs and technical trainings are underway.

 

ISAP ACABC nodal training inaugurated at Dehradoon

Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP), New Delhi, under the guidance of MANAGE, Hyderabad has started a Nodal Training Centre in Dehradoon for implementation of the Central Govt. Scheme of Agri Clinics and Agri Business Centres (ACABC) in the state of Uttarakhand on January 18, 2012. Followed by a puja at the new training facility, the Nodal Training Centre was inaugurated by Chief Guest Mr. MK Dwivedi, LDM-Punjab National Bank. The other dignitaries present on the occasion were Mr Rajeev Dar, Chairman-ISAP, Mr Malkit Singh, AGM-NABARD, Mr Pandey, Jail Superitendent, Dehradoon, Mr Pathak, DFO, Dehradoon and Mr Shaibal Chatterjee, Senior Project Manager, ISAP-New Delhi.   

Speaking on the occasion Mr Dwivedi, congratulated ISAP and MANAGE for starting the premier agri-entrepreneurship development programme in the state of Uttarakhand which will help in providing quality extension services to the farmers of this progressive hill state in addition to generating employment for many unemployed youth through business ventures. He discussed the bankers’ perspective of the ACABC scheme with the participants. He explained in detail about the expectations of the banking system from the detailed project reports (DPRs) submitted in banks for availing loan and subsidy facility by the agripreneurs. He also assured them of the bank’s cooperation and urged them to take advantage of this scheme.

Mr. Rajeev Dar explained in detail the achievements of ISAP in implementing ACABC scheme for the past 6 years in 9 states of India through its 10 Nodal Centres in Guwhati, Amritsar, Srinagar, Jammu, Karnal, Solan, Bhopal, Bokaro, Nagaland and Mizoram. Till date ISAP has trained more than 2500 trainees out of which more than 700 trainees have established their agri-ventures and are running them successfully. ISAP has also helped a majority of them in obtaining bank loans by providing them handholding support in preparation of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs). He opined that the new Dehradoon (the eleventh) ACABC Centre of ISAP will uphold the highest traditions of ISAP in providing technology-driven grass-root level extension services to the farmers of India.

 

Mr. Malkit Singh interacted with the trainees on one-to-one basis about their aspirations and future business plans. He also explained the trainees of the first batch about the finer details of ACABC projects such as emphasis on extension activities to farmers. He also briefed them about the entrepreneur friendly schemes of NABARD which complement the efforts being done in the field of agriculture extension and urged the participants to take benefit of those schemes. The other distinguished officials present on the occasion also assured the participants of their support and cooperation in this direction.

 

Mr. Shaibal Chatterjee explained about the importance of the ACABC scheme in light of the revised guidelines where the eligibility criteria is relaxed to accommodate Diploma and 10+2 agriculture students, the candidates have a wider range of approved agri-ventures and also a revised eligibility of getting a loan upto Rs. 20 lakhs which is subsidized at a special rate of 44% for hill area candidates.

The inauguration function, organized at the ISAP Dehradoon Office, Kunja Guest House, Balanwala, ended with a vote of thanks extended by Mr. Anuj Sood, Nodal Officer-ACABC, ISAP-Amritsar.

 

Inauguration Puja at the new Dehradoon Centre

Dehradoon centre being formally inaugurated by ISAP Chairman, LDM and DFO

Chairman ISAP introducing ISAP to the dignitaries and trainees

AGM NABARD interacting with trainees one on one

 

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 (Madhya Pradesh)

Mr Kamlesh Bhamoriya is an Agriculture graduate from Indira Gandhi Krishi Visvavidhyalya, Chattisgarh. He graduated in the year 2007 and worked in private companies for about 2 years thereafter. But, he was not satisfied with his profile and growth in these jobs. He had strong urge of starting his own business. But due to lack of appropriate experience and entrepreneur skills, he could not muster courage to start his business.

Then, he heard about ISAP training centre from his colleagues in Bhopal. He undertook the 2-months training at ISAP Bhopal centre in 2009. Post his EDP training at ISAP Bhopal centre, Mr Bhamoriya started his own agri-clinic, which he named ‘Jai Kisan Seeds’. He is now connected with almost 500 farmers. He is catering to the farmers of Barwah tehsil of Khargaun district and provides quality seeds from his enterprise. Mr Barwah is of the view that providing quality seeds on time to farmers will help them in enhancing their crop production significantly. We wish Mr Bhamoriya all success in his venture!

Mr Kamlesh Bhamoriya in his seed production unit