Success Stories

Hi - Tech Nursery Entrepreneur

Shri.B.Thamilsekaran (41 years), dwelling at Chinnasunaiyakadu, is owning 5 acres of garden land and 3 acres of dry land. With a strong desire for learning the latest propagation techniques in forestry and horticulture, he has attended one month vocational training programme on improved nursery technologies of forest and horticultural tree Species conducted at KVK, Pudukkottai. With a view to translate the skill and knowledge gained during the training programme, he improved the nursery which he has already established in order to supply quality planting material.

In pursuit of this, he constructed a Polyhouse in his farm and started propagation of Eucalyptus and Casuarina through macro vegetative propagation using cuttings collected from the selected superior Plus Trees to cater the needs of current market demand situations. Meanwhile, he was also approached by farmers of nearby villages for seedling / grafts of forest as well as fruit trees. Grafting and layering skill learnt through KVK intervention had sown the seeds of self confidence and he had started commercial sale of seedlings particularly Sapota, Guava, Cashew and Jack. He is also producing and distributing the premium cashew grafts (VRI 1, 2 & 3 varieties) to the farmers to fulfill the Government sponsored waste land development scheme at Pudukkottai district. Besides, he is also producing saplings of forest trees like Neem, Silk cotton, Red Sanders, Pungam, Teak etc through seeds obtained from the reputed Government agencies.

At present because of the knowledge acquired from KVK, he has successfully come out with a scheme on Wasteland Afforestation of farm land conceptualized by his own ideas. The scheme envisages  the activities like land preparation for planting, producing the quality planting material and planting the same on the farm land owned by the farmer. All this activities are vested with this nursery man and the after care measures as well as cultural operations which are to be carried out up to the final felling will be looked after by the farmer himself. The income realized during final felling will be shared by the nursery man and the farmer to the tune of 50% each. The total geographical area of Pudukkottai district is 4,66,329 ha. Net area sown is only 26%. The total area comes under forest is about 5.2 per cent. The current fallows and other fallows account for 23 per cent and 9 per cent respectively. Cultivable waste accounts for 4.6 per cent in the district.  More over, uncertain and uneven distribution of rainfall also one of the main causes for the extent of uncultivable wastelands in this district. Because of the above said facts the scheme developed by the nursery man has been appreciated and accepted by the farmers and gained greater momentum at present. The above feat earned him a name and fame among the Government Officials and farmers and today he is one of the trusted and famous nursery men in Pudukkottai district.

The socio-economic status of Shri. B.Thamilsekaran has been improved after he entered into the commercial nursery venture. Tremendous improvement in the standard of living is seen i.e. family dietary, sartorial, entertainment, children education and social status.  From the start of the nursery he has sold more than one lakh seedlings and earned a net profit of Rs. 3,50,000 and bought a new truck for transporting the seedlings. He is motivating and imparting nursery skills to the interested rural youths also. In short, Shri. B.Thamilsekaran has empowered the unemployed school dropouts. The surplus earning is being used for expanding the nursery and constructing a new house.  He has become a role model for several new nursery entrepreneurs who are looking forward to take up this new economical and more beneficial venture of the modern era. 

Mushroom Value Added Products

Tmt.R.Pragathambal, 38 years old, residing in Kothakkottai village of Alangudi Taluk, Pudukkottai district with his husband and two children. Her husband is working in a government office in a lower cadre .She was finding it very difficult to run the family due to less income.  She was working in a private farm as farm labourer on daily wages basis. This minimum income was not sufficient to meet her family requirements and feels very difficult to meet especially the expenses of her children’s education.      

Under this circumstances, she joined as member of the self-help group in Pudukkottai district. Pudukkottai KVK used  to impart training programmes, farm advisory services to improve the socio-economic status of the self-help group members. She was very active member in self-help group activities. She attended job oriented training programmes at this Kendra. She has underwent the training programme on “Mushroom production and its value addition” at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pudukkottai. After attending the programme, she has decided to take up self-employment to generate more income. She has decided to start “Value added mushroom products preparation” on small-scale level. Her husband has also supported her to establish the business and helped her in preparing products out of office hours and during the holidays.

She prepared various mushroom products which she learned in the training programme she faced problems in selling mushroom products, as she was new to the business. She also tried to sell the products in depart mental stores and petty shops available in and around Pudukkottai.  But she finds it difficult to sell the products within a specified period of time. She came to know about the shop run by the trust for helping self help group members in the Pudukkottai DRDA office premises. A separate shop is being maintained there especially to sell the fresh mushrooms and value added mushroom products. Now she is selling all her products in the shop, because of the hygienic preparation and high quality, the products are popular among the people. Apart from this she is also selling the products in the nearby residences during leisure time. She is preparing the products in her own house without any additional investment.
Based on the requirement of the mushroom for products preparation, cost of the mushroom, demand during the summer season and depending on others for mushroom for processing, she also decided to start a Mushroom production unit along with other self help group members. The knowledge gained in the “Mushroom production” training programme provided by KVK helped her to avail the loan facilities provided by the Nationalised Bank along with 4 other self-help group members she started a mushroom production unit near her residence. The mushroom production is fully maintained by SHG members. Now they are producing mushroom required for their need. Since her family members are looking after the products preparation, there is no additional cost for labour.

From this unit, on an average she gets a net profit of more than Rs 3,000/- per month. The income earned from this business is helping her for running the family  comfortably. Now she is also planning to extend this business to some more areas. She always remembers the help rendered by Krishi Vigyan Kendra for her life upliftment.

Commodity Group Approach for Higher Returns

Thiru.S.Veerasamy son of Thiru.Subbaiah residing at Venkitakulam village, Thiruvarnkulam block, Alangudi taluk, Pudukottai district is a small farmer having garden land of four acres with a borewell for irrigation.

He is a contact farmer, convener and also scientific advisory committee member of the Krishi Vgyan Kendra, Vamban. He was involving in training programmes, method demonstrations and group discussion. As a knowledgeable, innovative farmer with forward thinking to adopt new technologies, he had training on “Alternative Agricultural Crops” with KVK, Vamban during March, 2008. CoHM5 hybrid was demonstrated in his field in an area of 1.25 acres during 2008 by KVK, Vamban adopting all modern technologies.

He convinced the fellow farmers for maize production in his village on Compact Block basis, facilitated KVK scientists in formation of “Maize Commodity Group” consisting of 16 likeminded farmers. The group approach is most beneficial, in accessing facilities available in the department of Agricultural Marketing. The Commodity Group has joint bank account in Canara bank, Venkitakulam for transaction. Monthly Rs.50/member is being collected and deposited in the bank account as similar to save capital. After sometime the members were assured on getting credit from the bank.

After the harvest, the KVK scientists facilitated the transport available exclusively for agricultural produce  at Agri Business Centre with Rs.1000/ day of 24 hours. The produce were stored in the godown provided by Agri Business Centre, Department of Agricultural Marketing free of cost and till the group members sell their produce to obtain the maximum price in the market. The farmers also utilize the drying yard available with Agri Business Centre without any cost.

The Commodity Group was linked with DEMIC, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University by KVK, Vamban for receiving the daily state level prices of maize through SMS in their cell phones. Green Peace, an NGO at Pudukottai permitted by Govt of Tamil Nadu procured the produce at Agri Business Centre on the basis of DEMIC-TNAU.

The commodity group members are happy as the total family income has raised and other farmers in the village are now having stinging eyes on Maize Commodity Group either to formulate new groups or to become a member of the existing Maize Commodity Group. Possibilities of establishing Agribusiness Centre in their village itself is being examined by the department of Agriculture.

In the changing scenario of agribusiness world, Thiru. S.Veerasamy – Farmer friendly – Innovative farmer reflects on KVK values – Training, Adoption of new technology and Empowering the Farmers’ through Commodity Group -Social Capital Mobilization in Pudukottai district.

Women Empowerment through Rural Enterprise

Mrs. R.Pragathambal completed her school turned to be a women entrepreneur, in Manjanviduthi village of Pudukottai district.  Her husband is a small farmer owning one acre land and was growing crops during north east monsoon season (October to December) as rainfed crops. Mrs. R. Pragathambal got the awareness of training on “Mushroom Production for Rural Entrepreneurship” through mass media news of KVK, Pudukottai.

Mrs. R.Pragathambal was trained at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pudukottai in “Hands on training for three days on Mushroom Production”. She learned the art of business and skill, starting from erection of growing shed, raw materials to be used, processing of raw material, preparation of beds, maintenance of beds, maintaining temperature and humidity, controlling pests and diseases and harvesting methods. She erected one new thatched shed near the house by availing loan facility of self help group fund facilitated by KVK,Vamban. She collected the information regarding the availability of spawn bottle, its price, etc.,

After six months she learned the skill of spawn production and purchased the laminar air flow chamber and autoclave. Later on she started producing spawn on her own and planned for cyclic production. She was trained to assess the market potential of the district headquarters through the intervention of KVK. It was found that the mushroom available in the district headquarters was supplied from hilly districts. The price of one kilo gram was Rs.150/- (Button mushroom).

She started the mushroom production (Oyster and button mushroom) in her shed with a capacity of 5kg per day. The marketing was done by the self help group stall located in the district head quarter. The mushroom was sold @ Rs. 80/kg and the total gross income touched to Rs.10000/- per month with 25 harvesting days. The expenditure on spawn and other production cost including depreciation and interest was Rs.5000/- per month and a net profit of  Rs.5000/- per month  was realized.

Her production unit provides employment to her husband and three women labourers regularly. Mrs. R. Pragathambal not only concentrates on her own production unit but is instrumental in motivating other young rural women to setup their own enterprises. She provides startup facilities for the budding entrepreneurs on the lines of support and motivation provided by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pudukottai. Mrs R. Pragathambal strongly feels that entrepreneurship should be given sincere attention in marketing sector. The Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pudukottai had a very pivotal play in inculcating the seeds of entrepreneurship she opines.

Mrs.R.Pragathambal, a rural women who struggled in her family in the early years of her life is a “Role Model for Lady Entrepreneur-Women Empowerment”