The Indian agriculure - Whats new

I got married into a very conservative family which hails from one of the villages on the banks of Cauvery.  Our family had good land holdings which they were cultivating on their own + giving it for lease to people.  Over the years, I have seen that somehow or other, we have been only loosing our money and it is not that much profitable.  Our family has been growing Sugarcane, banana and Paddy.  Each one had its own story about profitability.  Even today India weather spins the fortune wheel so your can have a fortune or deep loss.  The cost of cultivation has been going up, but the remuneration for the land owners is not that every attractive in this traditional method though nowadays I see a lot of machinery being used in cutting, thrashing, etc in the village sides.

So anything that brings a profit for the farmers always used to be hearting for me, so when I got this link, I wanted to share it with my readers so that the word can spread as much as possible.  If only, every farmer in India, takes his or her cue we will have a very robust economy in villages where it matters most.  

Precision Farming


SCIENTISTS AT the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, have developed a technology called precision farming, said to be a first of its kind in India.The technology is being presently implemented in several major areas of Tamil Nadu.  At present precision technology is implemented in about 200 hectares in Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu. More than 100 farmers have been benefited by this project.  Under this farming concept, the University gives technical advice to farmers on soil and water conditions, weather mapping, forewarning of pest attacks and also supplies water soluble fertilizers to be applied along with drip irrigation.

Mr. P.M. Chinnasamy, is one such beneficiary farmer in Dharmapuri, who has harvested about 135 tonnes of tomato from his one hectare field in nine months using this technology.The yield is almost triple that of the farmers growing tomato under the conventional system of planting.The first harvest was done on the 65th day after planting. The fruits were uniform in size and the skin colour was deep red. The fruits were sold at the rate of Rs.10-20 per kg. Mr. Chinnasamy, has earned a net income of about Rs. 5 lakhs from tomato cultivation in nine months.


The next news item is: 


Mr. C. Boopathy, a farmer of the precision farming technology (PFT) in Morappur village of Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu has grown musk melon in his one hectare farm.

“I had spent about Rs. 90,000 as cultivation cost and was able to get a gross income of Rs. 3,60,000. Deducting the expense I have earned a net profit of Rs. 2,70,000 solely from musk melon,” he says.I was able to harvest two fruits from a single vine he said. Each fruit weighed 1.25 - 1.5 kg. About 45 tonnes of fruit was harvested from a hectare and sold at Rs. 5 to 12 a kg,” said Mr. Boopathy.Though it is mainly a summer crop it is now being cultivated throughout the year in Tamil Nadu.


Thank you Scientist at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University for all the innovation and taking the concept to the field - The lab to field Success is very very heartening.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Giving back to Society

When I joined Rotary Club of Chennai Thiruvanmiyur , I didnt understand what changes a club can make to somebody unknown. Our club had taken up Adult Literacy program in a very remote village near Pondi , which is quite far away from our city. While the project objectives were good, the distance and the way the then President had taken this project unilaterally, made all of us not to think too much of it. But a Project is a Project done with a Goodness. This is a such a remote village, where the main occupation of the people is fishing in the nearby Pondi reservoir . That is also halted when the Krishna waters comes into the reservoir . When the program was started it was with reluctance that the people joined. The President came up with the idea to give one kg of rice to the people who are attending the program, whenever he visited them. That became the great motivator as for people who dont know when their next meal will be or where it will come from - it became a boon
Read more

IT SME FORUM

About 7 months back a group of Entrepreneurs from Chennai who had a common thread of running their software companies got togehter to form a cohesive group - The IT SME FORUM - as a Strategy to accelerate their individual growth through synergy. Each one of these entrepreneurs are successfully running their software companies fighting individual battles to keep the company up and running, maintain a steady growth rate, increase their customer base, etc. Running a company in India is not a easy task - it is literally getting pulled in thousands of direction and believe me - A business leader is supposed to concentrate only on Growth - Marketing - Sales. But I have found that typically in the Indian environ, we get pulled into operations and managing to spend some time for the most crucial aspect of the business. This gave rise to the idea - why not have a platform to share the best practices, to learn how to tackle problems, get a better voice and get a big bandwidth in terms of out rea
Read more
Thanks to Aravind who wanted me to write about the Temple at thiruvotriyur in chennai. that was one of those days when you get up early in morning and the whole world looks very frustrating and you dont know what to do. it became a God send message to me. So started my preparation to go the temple. I reside in the south chennai and the the Temple is at Thiruvotriyur in North Chennai. and the travel time will be more than 1.30 hours. So we started at 10.30 and reached around 11.45. The temple closes at 12 noon after the mid day pooja. What a divine visit it was. I came back so calm and filled with energy. This is a Shiva temple and the God is known as Tyagarajar, Adipureeswarar and Padampakka Nathar. The main deity is said be in the form of Lingam formed of Mud which is covered with Golden cover sheet. Once a year during Karthik Poornima, the Gold cover is removed and the necessary abishekam is performed and the once again the Lingam is covered with all the medicinal materials. His conc
Read more