The Chhattisgarh Government has derived positive results even in the geographically difficult areas such as densely forested Abujhmad region of the district in developing agricultural facilities, claim officials.
Earlier Abujhmad was infamous for the Maoist related violence, but now with implementation of various schemes under the leadership of Chief Minister Raman Singh, the image of Abujhmad has transformed with farmers of the tribal dominated region countering insurgency with ‘peaceful green revolution.’
The latest example of the same is Tulsi Bai Patel, a woman farmer of Orchha Headquarters of Abujhmad block, who has been awarded with the title of ‘Best Farmer’ along with a certificate and honour fund of Rs25,000 under ‘Atma’ Yojana of State Government’s Agriculture Department.
Collector TS Sonwani gave away the certificate and incentive to Tulsi Bai Patel. Moreover, Tulsi Bai was also felicitated by District Administration as the most progressive farmer, at ‘Krishak Chaupal’ programme organized yesterday at village Mahimagwadi of Narayanpur district.
Agriculture Department officials informed that Tulsi Bai Patel is a role model for farmers of Abujhmad as she adopted advanced techniques through various schemes of Agriculture Department to cultivate paddy and vegetables in her 8 acres of land and thereby made her family financially independent and prosperous.
Tulsi Bai utilizes 4 acres of land for cultivation of paddy and remaining for vegetables.Tulsi Bai has 10 members in her family and her sons and daughter-in-laws are also engaged in agriculture. Her both the sons earn about Rs 3000-4000 every week by selling vegetables at weekly markets of Orchha and Chhote Dongar.
She has also planted saplings of mango, jackfruit and pomegranate near fence of her farm and has taken up fisheries profession as well.
The Orchha village is situated nearly 65 km away from District Headquarters Narayanpur. Before the schemes such as Drip Irrigation reached her village and farm, her economic condition was very weak. She used to grow paddy on four acres of farmland and in spare time she used to work as labourer to support her family and make both ends meet.
Nearly three years back, Horticulture officers of Agriculture Department contacted her and advised her to take benefit of department schemes for cultivation of vegetables. Initially, Tulsi Patel began to grow vegetables on 2 acres of land. With the profit so earned, she got a tube-well dug at her farm.
In 2013-14,under the guidance of Horticulture officers, she installed drip irrigation system at her farms. For this, she received government subsidy of Rs75,000 for one hectare area. On advice of Horticulture Officers, she deployed advanced seeds and balanced fertilizers for cultivation of vegetables and now the positive results of the same have begun to show up.
Acknowledging the hard work and achievement of Tulsi Patel and her family, Horticulture officers have provided her subsidy of Rs 2 lakh, on behalf of the State government, for a pre-cooling chamber. This pre-cooling chamber helps in retaining quality of vegetables keeping it fresh for a week.