Background Information:
Name of the Farmer: Mr. Prabhat Das
Education: H.S.L.C
Livelihood: Agril. Entrepreneurship
Village: Meda, Sorbhog
Meda and adjoining areas in Sorbhog is one of the vegetable belts of the district. Farmers of that locality grow traditional varieties of rabi vegetables and non-descript winter paddy varieties in a substantial manner.
Journey in Time Line:
Mr. Prabhat Das, a young and energetic farmer approached KVK Barpeta to find out ways to increase farm income. In no time, Scientists from KVK Barpeta visited his farm and advised Mr. Das to go for year round farming with 3 crops per year in paddy-lentil/oilseeds-summer vegetable sequence. The scientists also suggested to go for high yielding varieties of paddy and lentil/oilseeds and hybrid varieties of summer vegetables. Accordingly, he showed his interest in diversifying his farming in 2.2 ha of land. He adopted the crop varieties in diversified manner under the guidance of KVK Scientists. This was his turning point to be a successful entrepreneur in the locality.
Impact of intervention:
In the first phase, during 2015-16 under the guidance of KVK, he started with KVK introduced lentil var. HUL-57 after winter paddy var. Ranjit. During 2016-17, Mr. Das showed his interest for high valued special rice in his farm and KVK supplied him seeds of high yielding rice variety Shrabani for 0.4 ha of land during Kharif. By adopting all scientific methods of cultivation, he got the yield to the tune of 5 t/ha. Because of high market demand he earned a profit of Rs. 10,000/- per bigha (Rs. 75,000/- per ha) from selling of paddy. With the guidance of KVK he went for lentil var. HUL-57 after paddy followed by hybrid varieties of summer vegetables namely, cucumber, ashgourd, pumpkin and okra. Now, Mr. Das has been earning Rs. 25,000/- per month after adopting the crop diversification.
Of late, he has started one areacanut based multi-storeyed cropping system in 0.4 ha of land. By now he has completed the plantation of arecanut and has chosen pineapple, ginger and banana as intercrop. Moreover, farm pond of 0.6 ha of water area is also renovated for composite fish farming.
In 2018, Mr. Das also cultivated different varieties of potato in 1 ha area under APART scheme. From potato cultivation he was able to produce 175 q and earned Rs.1,05,000/-. By this scheme, he has been encouraged to cultivate potato. After withdrawal of APART scheme benefits from him he still continues potato cultivation.
Lessons for the fellow farmers:
Presently, many farmers from his village and from nearby villages use to come for taking seeds, planting materials and suggestions for agricultural activities from Mr. Das. Mr. Das is also invited by many organizations to create awareness about scientific farming among the farmers.
Conclusion:
In near future, Mr. Prabhat Das is also planning to introduce high value crops like strawberry, flower plants and off season vegetable crops in his farm. He says that he has seen major changes in his income from farm after diversifying crops.
His motto now is to convert the mono-cropping system of farming to multiple and diversified farming by motivating more and more fellow farmers of his locality. With recent reforms, Mr. Das in consultation with KVK Barpeta is trying to create a Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) on Assam Lemon cultivation and marketing. The project has been submitted and is under process.
