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Success Stories

A. System of Rice Intensification

Mr.Loganathan is a progressive farmer cultivating paddy for the last 15 years.  He has been cultivating white ponni  in Kharif season regularly. He is owning 10 acres of land.  He used to spend more money in nursery preparation, seed rate, pulling out, transplanting and weeding operations.  But, he was not satisfied with the economic returns.  This is a common phenomenon for the past 3-5 years.

In this situation, he on the advice of KVK followed SRI method of paddy planting to the extent of 10 acres. He raised the pai nursery for this purpose. He used just 8 kg of seeds per hectare. The  area and the seed rate have been considerably reduced in this method when compared to conventional method.

Transplanting has been taken up using 14 days older seedlings following prescribed roll marker method of  planting. He carried out the weeding operations using rotary weeder as per the requirement.
He applied the fertilizers as per the soil test. The required quantity of  nitrogen has been applied using leaf colour chart ( LCC). Application of N in split doses resulted in effective management of pest and diseases.
Finally,  he got 3500 kg of yield which was 15 % more than he practiced earlier. He spent just 4500 Rs/ha in SRI method, where as he used to spent 7500 rupees per hectare in the conventional method. The fertilizer requirement has been minimized considerably in this method. The cost of planting, weeding, seed, nursery land preparation and labour have been reduced considerably. Now  SRI method is gaining momentum in Vandavasi and Cheyyar taluk of our district.

B. Hi-tech vegetable seedling production in protrays

Entrepreneur name                         :           Mr. Chandravaradhan, Chief Volunteer, Melpallipattu Farmers club

Address                                              :           S/O Raja, Melpallipattu, Chengam taluk, Thiruvannamalai district – 606 703

Background  of  entrepreneur :

Melpallipattu is one of the villages in Chengam block known for vegetable cultivation.    A farmers club with 15 progressive vegetable growers as members was started in the village with the financial assistance of NABARD.  The technical guidance has been provided by the Vedapuri KVK, Kilnelli. Mr. Chandavaradhan is the chief volunteer of the farmers club. He felt that availability of quality vegetable seedlings was a major problem in the village, as many farmers were bringing seedlings from Krishnagiri. He approached KVK for the technical help.

Intervention of KVK :

With a view to supply quality vegetable seedlings to the Melpallipattu farmers, the KVK had selected Mr.Chandravaradhan for the technical training on horticulture cum exposure visit under the RSVY programme. During the training, he had been exposed to technical and practical aspects of protray vegetable seedling production. Immediately after the training, he had started a protray nursery. The KVK provides regular technical support for the better maintenance of nursery as well as productivity improvement of vegetable crops in the village.

Background of enterprise:

The protray nursery was started by Mr.Chandravaradhan with a financial assistance of Rs.1.5 lakhs from Indian Bank. The shade net house had been constructed in an area of 4000 sqft.  Total number of 1200 protrays had been accommodated in the shade net house with a capacity to produce one lakh seventeen thousand and six hundred seedlings at a time.
Totally, three batches of seedling production were completed within a period of 150 days. Total number of 3 lakhs 52 thousand and eight hundred seedlings were  produced and sold. The vegetable seedlings were sold  @ Rs. 0.3 to 0.50 based on the seed and maintenance cost.  On an average Rs. 0.10 had been obtained as net income per seedling. An amount of Rs.35,280.00 was obtained as net income from aforesaid 3 batches of seedlings.
As the seedling production is a continuous process, Mr.Chandravaradhan has been getting a net income of  Rs. 11,760.00 ( on an average) from the portray nursery for every 40 days of duration tentatively.  Tomato, brinjal, chillies and watermelon seedlings have been produced in his nursery. He is very much happy that his nursery has been utilized as a model nursery by other farmers of the district. He has also been invited to many trainings to share his experience with trainees.

C.  Masalapowder preparation

Ms. Ponni (Good luck), Ms. Susila (Chevanthi), Ms.Rama (Thentral), Ms. Kamatchi (Kaliyamaman), Ms. Saraswathi (Thulukanathamman) and Ms. Manju (Om sakthi) are the active self help group members in Vandavsi block of Thiruvannamalai district.

They under went a training on preparation of Masala powders in KVK, during the month of April 2006.            

During the training, method of preparation for more than 20 varieties of masala powders had been explained with practical exposure. Immediately after the training they  started a masala powder unit during the month of July 2006.

The have been successfully producing and marketing Turmeric, Idly and Dosai powders under the brand name VASANTHAM. They are preparing about 50 kg of masala powders  (2 varieties) per day.

The raw materials are purchased from Chennai and packing materials from Sivakasi.          On an average the production cost comes around 1500 rupees for 25 kg of masala powder. The usual size of the  packing is 50 gms. The selling price is Rs. 8/50gm for the dosai powder and Rs. 4/50gm for the Turmeric powder. They have been earning an amount of Rs. 6000/- per month as net income from their small masala powder unit. Now, they registered their unit in DIC. They have also formed a marketing team consists of 30 progressive women representatives from  various SHGs in Vandavasi Taluk for the successful marketing of their products. They have become a role model for others in the area of masala powder production in Vandavasi block of Thiruvannamalai district.   

D. Japanese Quail rearing

Entrepreneur name :   Mangani SHG,Udayam SHG,Chevanam,SHG,Kamatchi amman SHG,Thulasi SHG.

Address                       :           Dusi Nathakollai,  Vempakkam block

Background of entrepreneur       :

The following 5 SHG members are living in  Dusinathakollai village of Vembakkam block.  They started SHG 3 years back. However for the past 3 years they engaged in agriculture   they started suitable enterprises for their lively hood they attended NABARD sponsored training conducted by SMS, Animal Science, Vedapuri KVK, Kilnelli during ’2007.

 Intervention of the KVK :

 The above 22 members of 5 SHG’s  attended a 5 days NABARD sponsored training on Japanese quail and Giriraja bird rearing conducted by SMS (Animal science), Organized by Home NGO.  Among the two  enterprises discussed during the training,  they selected Japanese  quail  rearing for  income generation  due to less initial  investment,  low space  requirement,  higher  disease  resistance   and  good  demand  in the area.
They have been supported through

Initially, they  started  rearing  200  Japanese  quail  with  an  investment  of  Rs.2600 (Chick cost,  Feed  cost  and  Medicine  etc., ) They constructed quail shed  with help of bank loan. They are selling the quails @ Rs. 18 /bird after 35 days. The mortality rate has been 15% in the 1st batch due to lack of enough experience.

Japanese  quail – Economic analysis

Presently they are rearing 800 quails / batch. They are also planning to increase the number of quails with the help of bank assistance.

System of Rice Intensification (SRI)-A Boon to Paddy Farmers

Agriculture is the main occupation of Thiruvannamalai district and paddy is the predominantly cultivated crop. The important problems in paddy cultivation in Thiruvanamalai district are low productivity, improper planting method, improper nursery management, indiscriminate use of chemicals and availability and cost of labour.

SRI as a potential solution to the problems of paddy farmers
Despite fluctuation in paddy yield in the Thiruvannamalai District, the farmers have been continuing the paddy cultivation as there is no  suitable alternate crop to replace the paddy. In this context the system of Rice Intensification (SRI) came as a boon to increase the productivity of paddy.

Spread of SRI Technology
SRI is a method of increasing the yield of paddy production by using less water, low seed rate, wider spacing and younger seedlings. The KVK has implemented various programme to popularize SRI technology among the farmers of Thiruvannamalai district.

SRI demonstration at KVK farm
In KVK an experiment on SRI was started in an area of 5 acres during Kharif 2004. Seedlings of different ages ranging from 12 to 20 days were transplanted with different spacing ie 25 x 25, 20 x 20, 40 x 40 cm on test basis. At the beginning, planting was done with ropes. Transplanting of 12 days seedlings at 25 x 25 spacing  was found to be the best with an yield of 8.25 tonnes/ha.

Steps taken by KVK to disseminate SRI technology 

After several experiments conducted in our KVK farm, our scientists made various modifications in the SRI cultivation to suit the local condition. Instead of rope, rotary marker has been suggested for square planting which is more suited for SRI method. Trainings and field days have been conducted in our farm for its popularization.

During the Rabi 2005-06, KVK conducted SRI technology demonstrations in 10 farmers’ fields. KVK scientists provided technical guidance and conducted regular field visits, training programmes, video shows and field days. The result was satisfactory for the farmers. 

In Rabi 2006-07, another 10 demonstrations have been conducted in Kayanallur village of Vandavasi block, KVK distributed Cono weeders and Rotary markers to the farmers. KVK is the pioneer in introducing Rotary marker in the district  with a view to  popularize the SRI technology.

KVK scientists are also regularly participating in various activities conducted by the line departments ie seminars, farmers interest group meetings, ATMA activities, FFS etc., and encouraging the adoption of SRI technology.

Details on the Spread of SRI technology in Thiruvannamalai  District

KVK has documented the spread of SRI technology along with State department of agriculture in our district.
 
The KVK Thiruvannamalai has  played a major role in popularizing SRI technology through various extension methods like trainings, demonstrations and exposure visits etc., in Thiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu.  Overall 37,896 farmers have been cultivating paddy in SRI method in an area of  26,300 ha in this district. The productivity of the paddy has been increased to 7.59 t/ha instead of 5.61 t/ha under conventional method. The paddy cultivation has become more remunerative for many farmers in the district.

Japanese quail rearing – An alternative income source

Mr.Murugan S/o  Venkatesan  is an unemployed  rural youth who has been supporting his  father in agriculture after  completion of his higher secondary  education.  His  family  consists of seven members.  They  have  four acres of rain fed land in which paddy , groundnut  and brinjal has been cultivated.

However, for the past four years he didn’t get good yield from the crops due to water scarcity in the area.  As a result, he found it difficult to meet out  his family requirements.  He  has   done painting to earn  additional income, but he could not continue  the profession.

He started searching for the alternate income source.  He  met   subject matter specialists (Animal science) of KVK and discussed the various agri allied  activities for the income generation  during the year 2004 .

Intervention of the KVK

Among the various enterprises discussed,  he was interested in Japanese  quail  rearing for his income generation  due to less initial  investment,  low space  requirement,  higher  disease  resistance   and  good  demand  in the area.
He  has  been supported  through

Background of enterprise

Initially, he  started  rearing  100  Japanese  quail  with  an  investment  of  Rs. 700 ( Chick  cost,  Feed  cost  and  Medicine  etc., )  He  simply  converted  terrace  of his house as  quail shed using locally available materials.  He sold the quails @ Rs. 13 /bird after  35 to 45 days.  He earned  Rs. 379 as net income from the 1st  batch of 100 birds.  The mortality rate has been  17 %  in the 1st batch  due to chill  atmospheric condition.

At  present  he  is getting a net income of Rs. 3025/batch from quail  rearing.  He has been rearing 500 quails /batch and he is maintaining 15 days interval between 2 batches.

Watering to Quails
He is also planning to increase the number of quails with the help of bank assistance.  He has successfully completed 16 batches. Presently he is rearing 17th batch of quails.

An  unemployed  rural youth has become self reliant and economic status of his family improved.

He  has  been called by others  as  Quail  Murugan.  It  shows an identity in surrounding  villages.

Several other farmers/youth of the area are trying to start the business  and approaching the KVK.