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Case Study -Horticultural Development of Ber/Ziziphus Mauritiana
Mr.Sopan Nivrutti Irle, Arda Tolaji
Tal- Mantha, Dist- Jalna, Maharashtra
Ber Orchard of farmer Mr. Sopan N. Irle, Arda Tolaji, Block-Mantha, Dist-Jalana.
Pre Intervention Condition of Mr. Irle
Mr. Sopan Irle, is a young marginal farmer of 31 years of age, from Arda Tolaji village. He has a family of 5 persons with parents, wife and two sons as its members. Until recently he was no different than his fellow farmers engaged in agriculture with age old traditional approach and mono cropping of cotton and cops like pigeon pea, Gram and wheat in his entire 6.25 acres of land. Traditional approach, mono-cropping, rain fed nature of agriculture and no considerations for the soil health used to produce less provide him low income from the agriculture. Ever increasing cost of cultivation, repetitive crop diseases, frequent crop failures, mounting crop loans, increasing indebtedness and fluctuating market prices were other factors that used decide the profit from agriculture. The low income used to compel the family to prioritize their needs based on the most necessary and most urgent for them. The family was compelled to look for alternate and additional income sources to meet the family need. from where they could get additional income. The adult members of the family used to go for the daily wage work in and around the village based on the availability. This also used to have the adverse impact on the children. His family continued to suffer and restricted their needs to the basic survival needs. Consistent low income from agriculture and almost complete absence of alternative and effective alternative sources of income they remain indebted. This resulted in the fact that he and his family has to depend on the loan which they could not repay fully and it continued to pile up.
Identification of the Beneficiary
During discussions with the farmers group for various agricultural project interventions that are related to the agriculture, the project team realized that Mr. Erle is looking for the sustained income from his agriculture land, for this he is open to change the cultivation approach, try out new crops, put in extra effort (hard work) and spare time for learning new methods and put in his contribution also. He also participated in the exposure visits to KVKs and other developed project villages. During input sessions at exposure visits he realized that ber horticulture cultivation is a crop which can be very suitable for his conditions, expectations and he decided to try this out. He also participated in the farmers input sessions and try to get the information he is in need of. So he was identified as a beneficiary farmer for horticulture cultivation for ber cultivation experiment. All other participating farmers supported his selection as they know he can do a lot of hard work and put in all the necessary efforts.
Project Intervention -:
After his final selection for the horticulture plantation of ber, he was provided the basic information about the requirement for ber cultivation. He on his own also gathered information and decided to have apple ber cultivation which was one of most preferred ber variety by consumers in the market. So project team helped him for all the information that he was looking for.
For this intervention project has provided technical information about the apple ber cultivation. The land requirements, water requirements, likely paste and diseases, control measures, planting method, training and pruning of plants, harvesting of crop, grading, packaging and marketing to the market. Among the important inputs provide is 400 apple ber plants to the farmers. Mr. Irle also contributed Rs.10/plant from whatever his family has saved from the daily wage work. All the manual labor, cultivation cost, irrigation cost, weeding, earthing up, Ber picking, transportation etc. was all his own contribution apart from above mentioned. The initial demonstration plot was developed in June, 2018 on 1.25 acres of land. This was successfully completed by all means. In the same year he earned a net income of Rs. 63000/- from this piece of land. Successful experience of demo plot and most importantly the income which he has got from a small piece of land encouraged him and built his confidence to expand further on his own. It is evident in the fact that he has replicated the horticulture with custard apple in another 0.5 acre area with the technical support and guidance from the project.
The change due to the Project Intervention of Ber Horticulture
After the intervention, economic condition of Mr. Irle’s family has improved significantly. The main reason for this is the net profit he has earned from the horticultural crop (Ber). This profit from ber horticulture is 3 to 4 times more than his earlier conventional crops and farming methods for the same size of land. Due to the cash flow and increased income he installed drip irrigation for better water management and to increase the water use efficiency over a 2 acre of land and also started making use of organic fertilizers on this land so the soil health could be improved further. His debt level has come down significantly. Encouraged by the results he has also developed the second plot of horticulture which is for the custard apple.
Graph below presents a comparative analysis of the production, input cost and profit per care of a land.
Comparison of income from traditional crops and horticulture per acre -:
Income from Ber Crop for last 3 Years-:
Encouraged by the income from the horticulture plot of ber, Mr. Sopan Irle also planted custard apple in the year 2019. As custard apple takes 3 years to have the expected fruit production, to have some interim income, he has also cultivated inter crops like soya bean and wheat during the different cropping seasons. After having seen and learnt the immediate and sustained economic benefit he has got, other 3 farmers also have started cultivating apple ber plots. Mr. Sopan Irle is also very supportive and helpful to other farmers in sharing information, experiences, technical information and also visiting their farms to advise them on field. Around 50 farmers have so far turned to the horticulture cultivation to have the sustained and increased income like Mr. Sopan Irle.
Qualitative improvement in the life of family-:
The significantly increased income from the apple ber cultivation as compared to the traditional and routine crop cultivations has helped the family in a great way. The family started making use of the increased income in a wiser way which could further boost their income and improve the quality of life for the family members. Mr. Sopan leveled his land which will help in increasing the crop production besides he could irrigate it with reduced efforts. He completed a pipeline for irrigation purpose which is 2000 feet. What is really a commendable thing is that he chose to make use of the renewable energy and installed a 2 solar powered water pumps of 3 HP capacity each to irrigate his fields. Now he doesn’t need the electricity from the grid for irrigation purpose. He is saving on the electricity bills. He installed a drip irrigation for ber and for custard apple which is helping to increase water use efficiency besides improved quality and quantity of fruits. He also purchased a LPG gas cylinder for the family. On his wife’s inputs and suggestions he renovated his house and also constructed a toilet for his family. His wife also told him to have a cow so that children could get milk regularly and as such he has purchased an indigenous cow (khilari ) which remains healthy and fit even with changing climatic conditions. Now the family and most importantly children have regular and sufficient milk daily. He constructed a cattle shade for cow and bulls he has.
His mother and wife are very happy as as they have a LPG cooking gas which has made the cooking easy and no more smoke in the home. The entire family is happy as they now have a toilet and a renovated house. His children are happy as they have regular cow milk and also a timely availability of the educational material. Sopan and his father are happy as they have increased income at their disposal on regular basis which helps them a lot. They repaid all their outstanding dues of banks and now don’t have any loan and they are now absolutely debt free. The family now can afford better education, better clothing, nutritious food, needed health expense and they are sure that they can provide a quality education to their children. Mr. Sopan did not forget the hard time they faced and he regularly make savings for the better future for the children. Sopan told us that he want to save money when he have enough so that he can use savings if tough times comes out of factors beyond his control.