The farmers of this insurgency infested region have found considerable success with growing vegetables and fruits apart from their traditional crop paddy. The efforts made by State Horticulture Department have turned out to be effective for the farmers, officials said here on Monday.
According to officials of District Horticulture Department, production of vegetables at local level has brought down prices of vegetables in the region and has provided much needed relief to the residents of Gariaband district. Currently, farmers are taking vegetable crops on over 750 hectares of land. Suresh Kumar of Ravansinghi village, while outlining the efforts of the Horticulture Department officials to boost vegetable and fruit cultivation in the region, informed that he owns two acres of farmland.
After consulting with Horticulture Department officials, he began to cultivate banana in one acre while vegetables in the remaining part. “In less investment I am taking 30 to 35 kg of banana from each plant in my farm. This has increased my earning considerably,” Suresh said. Early this month, the Panchayat body of the insurgency-infested Dantewada district in Bastar took up the task of promoting organic farming among the cultivators of the region.
In a meeting of the General Administration Committee held here, District Panchayat President Kamla Vinay Nag has asked the Panchayat members to massively promote organic farming in the region. On the occasion, Dantewada District Collector KC Devsenapati also stated that the farmers should be encouraged to adopt organic farming methods and shun use of chemical fertilizers.
He said that considering a huge cow population in the country, the farmers can easily source organic manure for their crops. In Dantewada district , organic farming has already altered the direction and way of 2,000-year-old traditional agricultural practices of farmers residing in villages such as Bhusaras, Hiranaar and Surnaar of Bastar region.
With their unique way of farming, without using hybrid seeds, fertilizer, insecticides, and modern and costly farm implements, the farmers of these villages have produced 4-5 times more crops. Because of the agricultural practice here, the Central government has declared Dantewada district a ‘Model for organic farming,’ officials stated.
The district administration, through forest produce committees, has purchased paddy produced grown using organic farming methods at a higher price than the support price. The success of this practice which started with 300 farmers has highly attracted other farmers of the district towards organic farming.
Encouraged with the result, the district administration last year was considering establishing a company of bio paddy producing farmers, so that the farmers do not depend on the market power and decide the price of their produce on their own.