Success Stories

Success Stories of Farmers

Wide spread adoption of innovative technologies, packaged as improved technology or a package of practices is said to enhance the productivity and profitability of crops. while R&D institutions provide the proof of concept there is a need to test the same across different agro climatic regions through wide spread demonstrations for creating awareness among growers and subsequent adoption. ICAR, the apex body for all agricultural research and development activities in India, has set up a network of centres for facilitating testing and demonstrating the results of proven technologies across regions for the benefit of growers and hence wider adoption. These networking platforms such as All India Co-ordinated Research Projects (AICRP) have been set up exclusively for fruit crops has effectively helped to test feasibility of different research results across growing regions. Accordingly, the success stories farmers is highlighted hereunder:

Sr. No.	Name of Farmer	Address		Photographs
1.	Shri. Ramakant Janardan Gawade	Village: Anasur, Tahsil: Vengurle, Dist: Sindhudurg
Success Story: I have one hectare under Mango plantation in which the Alphonso, Ratna and Kesar varieties have been planted. Every year, there was heavy crop loss due to attack of Mango hoppers and thrips. Initially, I used to spray insecticides by consulting other farmers but there was no control over the pest. Then I consulted the scientists at the Regional Fruit Research Station, Vengurle and followed the recommendations and spraying schedules that they provided. Because of the use of these recommendations and spraying schedules, there was reduction in the attack of Mango hoppers and thrips in my orchard as compared to other nearby orchards in the village. I have successfully obtained yield up to 33 quintals from my orchard.
2.	Shri. Vijay Krishna Sarmalkar	Village: Anasur, Tahsil: Vengurle, Dist: Sindhudurg
Success Story: I have planted the Alphonso mango variety on my three hectares of land. The trees are 10 years old. Every year, there was an attack of Mango hoppers and thrips in my orchard. This led to reduced yield as well as lower quality of fruits. Despite the insecticide sprays, there was no control over the Mango hoppers and thrips. Then I consulted the scientists at the Regional Fruit Research Station, Vengurle and followed the recommendations and spraying schedules that they provided. The recommendations and spraying schedules enabled effective control of the pest population and resulted in a yield of 90 quintals in my orchard. The spraying schedule that is recommended by the scientists is very effective.
3.	Mr. Dinesh Kumar	Village: Machhi, Tahsil: Muzaffarpur, State: Bihar
The present success story of Shri Dinesh Kumar (Muzaffarpur district) is the beneficiary farmers under ICAR-AICRP (Fruits) Pusa centre. He has shown interest in growing cash crop to increase his livelihood. He has planted Grand Naine variety in an area of about 4.0 ha at a spacing of 1.5 x 1.5m in the month of June, 2013. Sri Kumar adopted banana cultivation as a challenge to prove the villagers that it can be possible to cultivate them with the threat of Neelgai (Blue bulls). He supplemented the fertilizer requirement with vermicomposting and Trichoderma based liquid formulation and farm manures. The entire dried leaves were used as mulch in the orchard. After 12-14 months of planting, he harvested the first-year crop which had an average bunch yield of 40-45 kg / plant. He earned a bumper net income of Rs.6, 50,000/- from this banana crop which he narrated that never seen in life. His investment apart from planting materials was Rs. 2,00,000/- per ha under variable cost. He is now happy that he considered that he could fulfil his long cherished dream of owning a tractor with the money earned from growing banana.
4.	Mr. Biswanath Roy	Village: Bhaluka, Tahsil: 24 Parganas North, State: West Bengal
Mr. Biswanath Roy, a banana grower from district 24 Parganas North, West Bengal has collected planting material of improved Pisang Awak banana – BCB 3 from Mohanpur centre of ICAR-AICRP on Fruits (BCKV). The improved Pisang Awak banana (BCB 3) was developed through clonal selection and recorded higher yield of (25kg bunches) over the conventionally grown banana variety Thonte (15 kg bunches) of Pisang Awak group. Mohanpur centre also provided production technology along with planting materials of BCB 3 to Mr. Roy in the year 2010. Initially, he planted one acre of land and got more return from it compared to the conventional variety Thonte. Other farmers of surrounding villages were also interested to cultivate this improved clone of banana for better return. He could obtain a net profit of Rs. 1,40,000/- from 1 acre of BCB-3, which is double profit when compared to cv. Thonte (Rs. 70,000/- per acre). Presently, Mr. Roy has increased his area of banana cultivation with clone to about one hectare and selling suckers to other interested farmers in regular basis. As Mr. Roy expressed his happiness for this banana clone, “I am happy to cultivate this BCB 3 banana clone and getting more income than earlier and extra income from selling its suckers because of demand”.
5.	Mr. Noren Taid	Village: Danisapori, Tahsil: Golaghat State: Assam
Mr. Taid, a traditional farmer was motivated and trained towards scientific cultivation of banana and started high density planting of banana cv. Jahaji at spacing of 1.0 m x 1.2m x 2.0m (6250plants/ha) in his existing “Bari System”. Following this new technology of banana cultivation Mr. Taid could harvest 40 t/ha as against 10t/ha under his traditional methods. The results were so encouraging that Mr. Taid has prepared his land himself to continue high density planting and has been motivating his neighbours to adopt this technology. The factors contributing to his success were proper selection of planting materials, timely planting with optimum plant population per unit area, application of recommended dose of fertilizers and adoption of cultural practices and pests and disease management. The concerned farmer could earn a net income of Rs. 1,82,917/- per hectare as against traditional past production practices herein he could earn only Rs. 25,000/- per hectare.
6.	Shri Rajeshbhai Ratanchand Shah		Village: Kanadu TQ.-Umargam Dist.-Valsad (Gujarat)
Shri Rajesh bhai Shah used the rejuvenation technology suggested and supported by the ICAR-AICRP team, AES, Paria to make the unproductive plants productive, which include heavy pruning of all dried and diseased branches followed by integrated crop management schedule. First he assigned numbers to each tree and then, identified the branches to be removed. He also identified the branches which were old, attacked by the pest/disease, bend from the trunk to lower side and covered with shadow of the adjustant trees. He marked the branches which are to be kept for future canopy development at approx. 5.5 to 6.0 mt distances above ground. He started heading back in July- August by using sharp cutter as sharp and slant cut is very important for further growth. He cut the branch from underside to avoid risk from bark splitting. After this, he removed all the pruned wood from the orchard to avoid risk of pest infection from the garbage. After these practices, he followed the instructions of scientists of ICAR-AICRP, Paria regarding fertilizer application, irrigation and other plant protection measures.

Success Story of PAU fruit fly traps developed under ICAR-AICRP

The ICAR-AICRP for fruits in this case is demonstrated the usefulness of a cost effective para pheromone fruit fly trap technology developed by one of its centres for the control of fruit fly damage in different fruit crops.

Fruit flies are major pests of several fruit and vegetable crops throughout the tropical and subtropical world. In Punjab, fruit flies, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) and B. zonata (Saunders) are very important pests of fruit crops viz. Citrus spp., guava, peach, pear, ber, plum, mango, loquat, sapota, fig, jamun, wild fig, phalsa, papaya, grapes, ripe bananas, pomegranate and litchi fruits. In Punjab, B. dorsalis and B. zonata causes up to 70-80 per cent in Kinnow mandarin, upto 100 per cent damage in rainy season guava, 30 per cent in mango, 70-80 per cent in peach, 80 per cent in soft pear, 50-60 per cent in hard pear and 30-40 per cent in plum. Besides the direct damage to fruits, indirect loss is associated with quarantine restrictions because infestation and sometimes mere presence of the flies in a country could also restrict the free trade and export of fresh horticultural produce to large lucrative markets.

Application of insecticides further disrupts the ecosystem and causes numerous hazards, which in the present scenario warrants the need for an integrated approach for fruit fly management. Among the various alternate strategies available for the management of fruit flies, the use of methyl eugenol traps stands as the most outstanding alternative. This technique has been successfully used for the eradication and control of several Bactrocera sp. in several parts of the world.

In this direction, the Scientists from Panjab Agricultural University, PAU have developed a fruit fly trap, under ICAR-AICRP on Fruits from 2005 to 2013 in Punjab, for eco-friendly management of fruit flies on Kinnow Mandarin. Under AICRP on Fruits, the trap was recommended in Kinnow mandarin during Group Discussion held at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore in 2008. Research Evaluation Committee of the PAU, Ludhiana has approved the recommendation for fruit growers of Punjab in December 2013 on Kinnow, guava, pear and peach @ 16 traps per acre. In December 2015, PAU has recommended traps for management of fruit flies in mango and plum also.