Testimonials

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A boy with a firm
determination

In India, one of the much-talked issues during these years, ...

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A boy with a firm
determination

In India, one of the much-talked issues during these years,is the growing lackadaisical attitude of the rural youths towards agriculture. In Assam,of late,many youths have migrated to different states searching for non-farm jobs. Due to pandemic COVID-19 and lock down, many of these youths have to return to their native villages. Most of them are not sure about their future. At the same time they seek to be self-employed with agriculture and allied sources with their existing resources in their own village. Let’s scan a story of a young man Mr. Ramu Medhi, a 29-year old youth from Manaha Kacharigaon under Mayong block of Morigaon district, who against the present trend, is working for non-farm employment. It may be a path-breaking story for those who have the inner zeal to be the master of his own.

Ramu Medhi’s family owned about 30 bighas of cultivable land, where he along with his uncles used to grow paddy in a traditional way of cultivation. But every year he was not able to harvest his produce due to devastating flood that occurred quite frequently in his field. The high investment in paddy field and the risk of flood every year detracted him from farming. For his earnings, just after completing his higher secondary education, he joined an NGO that worked for disaster management in his village.

“I have seen my grandfather’s struggle as a farmer and my heart sank when his smile faded away every year when the flood water entered our field. That made me feel how hard it to become a farmer is. I understood there is great risk in agriculture and I am not ready to carry this risk throughout my life” said Mr. Medhi emotionally.

In 2018, scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK),Morigaon approached the NGO where Mr. Medhi was working, and informed about their plan to organize a training under APART. The NGO with the support from KVK organizedan awareness meetingamong the farmers on submergence-tolerant rice varieties that had been introduced in the state, especially for the flood affected areas like theirs. Personnel from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) attended the training as resource persons and explained about the three newly introducedflood-tolerant varieties viz., Ranjit-Sub1, Bahadur-Sub1 and Swarna-Sub1 that possessed the special quality of survival under complete submergence up to 14 days. The KVK also asked the farmers to take part in demonstrations under APART. In the training, Mr. Medhi also learnt about the high yielding characteristics of these varieties over the traditional varieties that his grandfather had been cultivating since years. This attracted him towards these varieties. With his renewed interest, the KVK on his request provided 30 kg of seed of Bahadur-Sub1 variety to two of his uncle to grow in their fields. He decided to closely monitor his uncle’s fields to see the performance of the variety. During the crop growth stages, they faced few problems related to pests and diseases, which were timely monitored and managed by preventive measures suggested by IRRI and KVK personnel, which helped boosting his confidence. During harvesting, he was amazed to see that the variety gave yield of 15.5mon/bigha(46.5q/ha) at his uncle’s field, whereas the traditional varieties yielded 9 mon/bigha(27 q/ha). The performance of the variety relieved him of all his worries that he carried from his childhood. He decided to grow the variety in his own field in the next season.

In the meantime, he attended IRRI supported training on mechanization in paddy field organized by KVK Morigaon. This drew his interest totry machine transplanting in his field. Looking at his enthusiasm, in Boro season 2020, KVK Morigaon allotted him one IRRI supported MTR demonstration on 1 ha area. He was also provided with seeds of BINA Dhan 11, a high yielding STRV introduced by IRRI. Additionally, he also brought 40kg seed of Tripura Sekon from KVK Morigaon. With the help of KVK and IRRI field staff, he raised mat nursery for 2 ha of land. To encourage him further, on February 27, 2020,IRRIorganized avisit of German Delegates comprising of the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Dr.Gurd Muller, to his field on the day of transplanting. The minister visited his mat-type nursery, interacted and appreciated his efforts and interest, and asked him to engage in the field with more innovative technologies. The paddy in his field is now ready for harvesting. He is expecting a bumper yield this time.

“It’s just startling!I have never thought that a small step will help meto mitigate the biggest challenge that I was afraid of. We have flood problem and labour problem. The varieties can tolerant submergence for two weeks that is more than sufficient for us. At the same time we have agricultural labour problem, which can be effectively solved by using machine for performing different agricultural activities. I have never thought to get sucha strongsupport fromIRRI and KVKin my life. Today I feel the happiness that a farmer carries throughout his life.It’s the need of hour to have more young and enthusiastic farmerswho have the courage to grab every knowledge to take up agriculture as a lucrative profession”said Mr. Medhi.

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Filling the
spatio-temporal gap

In present scenario, development in agricultural ...

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Filling the spatio-temporal gap

In present scenario, development in agricultural mechanization can contribute to the improvement of agricultural practices as well as can help in improving the sustainability of the entire agricultural system. This is amuch needed input in the existing agricultural system of Assam. Every year,many farmers are compelled to keep their fertile land unproductive after harvesting of one crop, mainly the Sali paddy, because of unavailability of labour, time management, climatic challenges, etc. Keeping in mind the problems faced by the farmers of Assam, a great emphasis on usage of agricultural farm mechanization, across all the districts in Assam, was put by the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project, funded by the World Bank. Assam Agricultural University together with the technical knowledge partner International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) identified rice-fallow areas using GIS and remote sensing extrapolation domain maps. Black gram was cultivated in those areas using a seed-cum-fertilizer drill.

Mr. Debojit Kaman, a farmer from Golaghat district is a beneficiary of this demonstration. The black gram variety IPU 02-43 was provided to Mr. Kaman from KVK Golaghat for 2-haarea. This area usually left fallow during the previous Boro seasons but in this year he cultivated the black-gram crop using a seed-cum-fertilizer drill which helped him saving his time and cost of labour. It is quite encouraging for him that he could have a good crop out of antiquated land with a minimum cost. Mr. Kaman was really active in adopting the technology as well as the machinery. He said “I am happy that I got the help from KVK Golaghat and IRRI. I’ll try to disseminate the knowledge that I have gained to my fellow farmers as well so that they can also get the benefit from this. This year, I have cultivated 2ha of land, but next year I’ll try to go for larger area. The variety IPU 02-43 is good and currently the crop is in pod formation stage, I hope to get a good yield as well.”

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Utilizing rice value
chain technology

In 2019, flood showed its devastating effects ...

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Utilizing rice value chain technology

In 2019, flood showed its devastating effects in 7.42 lakhs ha of agricultural land area in 30 districts of the State, and 57,000 ha alone in Kamrup district. Thousands of rice fields were submerged under flooded water for several days. In Assam every year frequent floods have been destroying standing crops, creating water logging, soil erosion and affecting large crop areas and thus threatening the sustainability of the drive towards higher production and productivity of various crops in the State.

Dhrubajyoti Medhi, a small farmer of Amaranga village of Chayani Bordua development block of Kamrup district is the one of the many affected, whose 10-bighas agricultural land was affected by the flood last year. His village is situated at Rani in the foothills of Meghalaya hill. So, whenever there are heavy rains in the mountains, the water moves down to the foothills and inundates the agricultural fields. During the last Sali season, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kamrup provided certified seeds of Ranjit-Sub1 variety for 1 ha area to Mr. Dhrubajyoti and his brother under International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) supported APART demonstrations. He along with his brother Mr. Golok Medhi, transplanted the seedlings on July 13, 2019, but unfortunately three days of continuous rain after transplanting completely submerged the field. It was submerged for 6 days. After the 7th day, the water started receding slowly.

Mr Dhrubajyori visited his field on that very day and observed that some of the seedlings got uprooted which he filled up later on with the seedlings of the same variety. He also observed that the nearby Aijung plot was completely damaged. He applied additional doses of urea and MOP after receding of flood water in the field, as recommended by IRRI.

“I was assuming that all my hard labour and money went in vain and started thinking of alternative sources of new seedlings and arranging money to buy the new seedlings. But, by God’s grace, I was astonished that my field was not damaged to the extent which I had presumed. Then, I memorised the leanings of Quality Seed Production Training, provided by IRRI & KVK experts, that the variety can tolerate submergence up to 14 days and the result of which was experienced with my own eyes. I am very happy with the variety which not only tolerated flood but also gave me a very good yield of 22 mon per bigha” Said Mr Dhrubajyoti.

KVK Kamrup had organized a field day at his demonstration site and also arranged the demonstration of Post Harvest Machineries, where the crop was harvested using a reaper provided by KVK Kamrup. With the reaper he harvested 1 ha of land in one and half days and managed to save 10 man-days @ Rs. 300 per ha with a total saving of about Rs.2500, besides the fuel and other miscellaneous costs.

At the time of harvesting, he had expressed his willingness to keep the seeds of this variety for the next year, as he was very much satisfied with its performance. IRRI experts suggested him to store his seed in Super bags and informed him that the seeds will be protected from any kind of storage pests through super bags. He was also instructed to properly dry his seeds before storing and accordingly he followed the instructions. The KVK provided him five Super bags of 50-kg capacity. Before storing the seeds in bags, moisture percentage was measured by the experts using a moisture meter and it was 15% at the time of storage. He then stored 45 kg of seeds in each bag with the technical guidance of IRRI personnel.

Mr Dhrubajyoti said “This year I had stored 225 kg of Ranjit-Sub1 seed in Super bags vis-a-vis other varieties stored in normal gunny bags. Surprisingly, when I had opened the super bags I saw that not a single seed was damaged and the bag was also free from insects, but when I opened the normal gunny bag, a number of insects flew out of the bag and about 30% of my seeds were damaged by pests. I had a similar experience of seed damage by the traditional methods during previous years and was forced to buy new seeds from the market @ Rs. 40 and sometimes at higher price. From now onward, I will definitely store all my seed in Super bags, and save my expense on seed.”

This Sali season, he has sown those saved seeds in the nursery for his own 10-bighas land and another 26-bighas which he has leased-in. He has already transplanted 30-day old seedlings in the main field and is hoping for a successful crop to harvest.

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Horizontal Expansion of Bina
Dhan 11: A Case Study

Mr. Jatin Bangthai, a progressive farmer belongs ...

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Horizontal Expansion of Bina Dhan 11: A Case Study

JitenBangthai, Barukata

Mr. Jatin Bangthai, a progressive farmer belongs to a flood-prone village, Barukata under Mayong development block of Morigaon district. In Sali 2020, his uncle Mr. Durna Bangthai received 10kgseed of BINA Dhan 11 from District Agriculture Office, Morigaon under IRRI supported ICMD demonstration of Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART).

RamuMedhi, ManahaKachariGaon

In the nursery stage of the crop the rice field was submerged by recurrent flood waters even times consecutively. Each time, the submergence of field lasted for 5-7 days. Since, the water was muddy, due to continuous stress in the nursery stage,70% of his nursery was damaged. He could transplant merely 3 kathas of land from the remnant surviving seedlings. Since BINA Dhan 11 variety was a quite new seed for him, and most of the seedlings were already damaged, he was wavering and not sure about the performance of the variety. Out of frustration, and uncertainty prevailing in his mind, he did not pay any attention or special care to the crop. He was even reluctant to visit the field during its growth stage. But he paid a visit to the field at the time of grain filling, and was surprised to see the field . In his words

“I have given less attention to that plot, thinking that the variety may not perform well. But I was surprised to see the development of panicles. It was developed fully and numbers of grains in the panicle were also quite a lot. There were less chaffy grains, and the grain size is also up to my preference”said Mr. Jatin. By the time the crop was ready to harvest, ATM of Mayong Block, Mr. Chintumoni Bora along with BTM Mr. Pabitra Deori visited his field for crop cutting and recorded ayield of approx. 5.8t/ha. Mr. Jatin informed that he obtained 11 mon from 3 kathas of land that is equivalent to around 5.9t/ha.

Mr Jatin was satisfied with the performance of the variety and he decided to store the saved grains to use as seed in the next Sali season. But, in the meantime, he came to know from Mr. Chintumoni that he can sow the seeds of BINA Dhan 11 even for the succeeding Boro season after properly drying.

“When I came to know that BINA Dhan 11 can be grown in both Sali and Boro seasons, it gave me a great relief, because at that time I was planning to buy some hybrid variety seed to cultivate in the current Boro season. Now I have sown my own saved seeds in 5 bighas of land, and this has saved a lot of my money. I think, we farmers are fortunate to have such a high yielding variety for Boro season which will save a lot of our money that we normally spend only in purchasing seed all these years” said Mr. Jatin.

His field was also visited by his neighbouring fellow farmers when the crop was at maturity stage and harvesting. They enquired Mr. Jatin about the variety and showed their interest towards growing BINA Dhan 11. Four of the farmers asked him for seeds and Mr. Jatin shared about 135 kgs of seed to Mr. Noruttam Deka (20kg), Mr. Aguhna Bangthai (45kg), Mr. Subhen Deka(40kg) and Mr. Keo Deori (30kg). All of the farmers have already sown their seeds, and the nursery is almost ready for transplanting.

The popularity of BINADhan 11 among farmers of Morigaon district and its disseminating for horizontal expansion is also evidentfrom another farmer Mr. Ramu Medhi of Manaha Kachari Gaon under Mayong Block. Mr. Ramu is associated with KVK Morigaon since 2018 and was growing submergence-tolerant rice varieties like Ranjit-Sub1 and Bahadur-Sub 1. During Boro 2019-20, he cultivated 1 ha of BINA Dhan 11, the seeds of which was provided by KVK Morigaon under IRRI-supported demonstration. He transplanted his crop using Mechanical Transplanter and managed to harvest a bumper production. This drew attention of his fellow farmers who were extremely satisfied with the performance of BINA Dhan 11. This year, in Boro 2020-21, he sold about 110kgs of own farm saved seeds of BINA Dhan11 to seven farmers @ Rs.12.50/kg. The farmers who bought seeds from Mr. Medhi are Utpal Deka (20kg), Rafiq Ali (20kg), Deep Deka (10kg), Ramen Das (10kg), Hemanta Fangshu (15kg), Lakheswar Deka(15kg) and Diganta Senapoti (20kg).

Contributors: Dr. Kasturi Goswami, IRRI; Mr. Chintumoni Bora, ATM; Mayong Block, DoA Morigaon

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Disseminating
Technology

The above statement is aptto describe the person ...

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Disseminating Technology

“The farmers who succeed are the ones who are going to incorporate new technologies.” Stan Blade,CBC News, February 10, 2016

The above statement is aptto describe the person named Sri Jugen Bordoloi, a resident of Jurgaon village of Morigaon district and a progressive farmer under Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Morigaon. He was one of the many farmers of the district who got the opportunity to go for an exposure visit cum field day of Boro Paddy organized by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Nagaon. The program was conducted to showcase the performance of BINA Dhan 11 grown as demonstration by KVK Nagaon under the aegis of APART.

During the meeting, it was informed by the IRRI scientists’ that BINA Dhan 11, one of the short duration, high yieldingvariety of rice has many advantages over theother existing prevalent varieties, which are widely cultivated in Assam. This increased the curiosity of the farmer to test the performance of the said variety by growing in his own fields.

He was happy to know that the variety is high yielding in nature and is of shorter duration in comparison to the other varieties. However, the most interesting quality he found is that the harvested seeds of one season can be sown immediately in the next season after proper drying.

During the visithe casually brought 4 to 5 panicles from the field in order to show to his fellow farmers who couldn’t attend the technology showcase. The farmer had sown the seeds of the panicle he brought, and transplanted the seedlings. These seedlings were just sufficient for transplanting 2 and a half rows. However, he was surprised when these two and half lines of crop gave him stupendous resultwith4 kg of harvested seed.

He said“It was a good learning experience at the exposure visit where I first came to know about BINA Dhan11 and its advantages over other varieties. My curiosity for the variety compelled me to grow the available amount of seed to see its performance and the result really satisfied me. I am very happy that being the President of Kalang Kapili SHG, I got the chance to help my fellow farmers by introducing a new variety which I think will be a blessing for our village”.

His successful experiment and results have attracted other interested farmers who have approached KVK Morigaon, in the meantime, to inquire the source of seed. Thus, KVK has planned a series of demonstrations, in view of the interest and enthusiasm of the farmers of Jurgaon village, for the upcoming Boro season.

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Business plan: A key for
success of ...

Mr. Kukheswar Kurmi is a progressive farmer ...

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Business plan: A key for success of service provider

Mr. Kukheswar Kurmi is a progressive farmer from Borgoria village in Golaghat district. Every year during the peak season of rice harvesting, both in Sali and Boro, he had to struggle for laborers for harvesting rice . He was also worried about the losses during harvesting and postharvest handling of the crop. He was in search of technology which could help him reducing the losses as well as solves the problem of labor scarcity.

Last year, from the scientists of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Assam Agricultural University (AAU) he came to know about Combine harvester that can perform harvesting, threshing, and cleaning in a single operation. During 2018-19 he purchased one Combine harvester by taking a loan of amount 6 lacs from the Bank. Immediately after purchasing during Boro season 2018-19 he started harvesting paddy and mustard on hire basis. The combine harvester was new to the area. Most of the farmers were not sure how did it actually work? So, the big challenge for Mr. Kurmi was to create awareness among the farmers so that he could able to start the business and of course return his loan installment. So, he fixed a minimum hiring charge of Rs. 1000 per bigha.

He harvested 108 bighas of land during the Boro season that gave him a gross earning of Rs. 1,08,000.

Though his expectation was higher, what he received gave him a scope of self analysis. He took it as a lesson for him. He realized that proper business plan can only bring a good turn over for the business.

The officials of IRRI after due analysis of the situation provided him a proper business plan for Sali 2019. Mr. Kurmi with the support of IRRI officials prepared a operational plan well before the Sali season.

As his first step he started motivating farmers of his native village by explaining the benefit that the use of combine harvester can make for them. As IRRI official guided the whole process he was very convenient to explain the queries made by the farmers. He made them understand that the total operation cost by the combine harvester is very much cheaper than whatever they have been paying for each operation traditionally. The cost for harvesting, threshing and cleaning in a traditional way is around Rs. 4100/bigha, which is much higher than what they are paying for hiring the combine harvester. It’s only Rs.1200/bigha. This was the game changer. Saving of Rs.2900 per bigha means a lot for the farmers. Mr Kurmi assured the users that he will charge Rs 1200 per bigha for normal crop, irrespective of variety and Rs 2400 per bigha for lodged crop.

It worked like a magic! In the Sali 2019 harvesting season, he served 35 farmers by harvesting 274 bighas for 30 days in Morongi block with total earning of Rs. 3,28,000. Combine harvester consumed total 685 liters of diesel. Total operational cost was around 73,750 (@INR including repairing, lubrication, fuel and labour cost.

“I could save approximately INR 30,000 in my 10 bighas of land by using combine-harvester of Mr. Kurmi. It not only saved my money, it also saved time and the trouble of finding labourers.” A farmer happily said it.

Mr. Kurmi was able to earn a profit of INR 2, 54,250 in the Sali season. From this earning he returned 70% of his loan to the bank.

“It’s a long journey! I planned to purchase the harvester years ago when I first heard about its advantages. It’s now a happy moment for me that I could help my fellow farmers by introducing a new technology. I think it will attract more paddy and mustard farmers on coming day It’s not only becoming an earning source for me but I am sure it will also bring smile to the users for saving their money and time.” Mr Kurmi said.

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Rise of Private
Service Provider

Mechanization has been considered ...

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Rise of Private Service Provider

Mechanization has been considered as an important input to the rice crop cultivation process. As an essential factor/input it enhances the production; reduce human drudgery and cost of cultivation. Mechanization also helps in increasing theefficiency of water and fertilizer, easiness in theagricultural operations, improvement in the quality and value addition/processing of the rice crop. As per the great vision of our Hon’ble Prime Minister making the farm income double by 2022, use of appropriate machinery leads to increase in production and productivity, besides enabling our farmer to go for the second crop or to commercialise agriculture instead of subsistence farming.

In a state like Assam, agriculture sector continues to support more than 75 per cent of the state employment.Assam is far behind in the use of modern agricultural technology, particularly farm mechanization, to improve its agricultural productivity compared to rest of the country. During 2014-15, the availability of farm power in Assam was 1.78 HP per hectare which was less as compared to 2.05 HP per hectare at national level.Use of animal drawn implements like indigenous plough and the traditional practices are commonly adopted by the farmers, and its percentage is quite high for tillage, sowing and intercultural operations, harvesting and threshing etc. Major constraint in mechanization of rice crop includes small and fragmented land holdings, hill agriculture, poor road infrastructure, low purchasing power of the farmers, and easy availability of indigenous bull calves, lack of dealer network and service centers for repair and replacement facilities, and unavailability of spare parts specially in the remote areas,lack of knowledge on the adaptation of different machines and their suitability in specific agro-ecology of various parts of Assam, inadequate training and handholding facilities for farmer-users and local service providers, faulty operation and maintenance at farmers’ level leading to excess recurring cost and increasing safety risks, and lack of proper regulations on custom hiring services.

The Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART) is a Word Bank funded project, andthe ARIAS Society isthe main coordinating agency for the project. Under the scheme with the technical support fromthe International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) various types of machines are being introduced in the state of Assam.

Under the scheme the 10 different types of machines were received by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Barpeta and were demonstrated and used in the farmers’ field from the starting of the project in the year 2018-19. Along with the awareness program, the center has conducted many training programs on-campus and off-campus in association with the IRRI. The training and demonstration program on postharvest machineries under APART, the KVK, Barpeta in collaboration with IRRI, proved to be a source of inspiration for the farmers towards farm mechanization in the district.

A farmer named Thuleswar Kalita of Kolbari village of Bhawanipur block, Barpeta district participated in a 3-day training on postharvest machineries organized under APART by KVK, Barpeta. He got motivated by the harvesting technology that reduces drudgery, labour cost and time. Soon after attending the training programme with the support of IRRI and APART, KVK, Barpeta, he purchased a self-propelled multi-cropreaper. Besides using it for his own field,heoperated it for harvesting the fields of other farmers alsoin the village on hired basis. He is now a private service provider of reaper. In this cropping season, he has harvested 393 bighas of land with the reaper on fee-for-service basis at the rate of rupees 500 per bigha. The details of the module have been formulated below.

  • Cost of the machine:INR 1, 51,000/-
  • Total area harvested: 393 bigha
  • Rate charged/bigha: INR 500
  • A. Total income: INR 1,96,500
  • Labor cost: INR 35,370
  • Oil and other miscellaneous cost: INR 19,320
  • B. Total operational cost:INR 54,690
  • Net income (A-B) =INR 196500-54,690 =1,41,810
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A success story
from the field

At a time when many a farmer in Assam ...

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A success story from the field

TAt a time when many a farmer in Assam is keeping his paddy field fallow owing to losses by using local variety in flood condition, one farmer from Dhubri district is scripting a different story — one of his hard work and perseverance.

For a long time, Riyajuddin Shiekh is a struggling farmer. Riyajuddin lives with her family in Charuabakra village, GP-Tilapara under Chapar block in Dhubri , where many families make a living by farming rice, vegetables, or other crops. Day after day, Riyajuddin and her fellow farmers were working hard in their fields, but could not harvest good produces due to flood, and lack of technical knowledge.

During Boro season Riyajuddin used to grow hybrid rice variety which is locally known as 2017. Like other farmers he used to purchase it from local shop. It is common practice that no farmers ask vendors or shop keepers details of the variety that they are going to grow. Whatever the vendor describes they keep faith on it. They are not at all aware of the seed system or high yielding varieties. Though, they sometimes they discuss about the seed replacement themselves but the system is not favour of them. Nevertheless, the boro paddy cultivation is becoming costlier. The cost of production is increasing day by day due to increase rate of seed, labour and fuel. “We are in need of a short duration, high yielding variety to replace the existing varieties. We also desperately looking for using machine for decreasing cost of production but we were not aware of what kind of machine to be used” said Riyajuddin.

In 2018, he attended a training program on Best Management Practices of paddy that was organized by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Dhubri with the support from International Rice Research Institute ( IRRI) under World bank supported APART. It was his turning point. The training equipped him to see new ways forward for paddy cultivation. He became close to the APART team and came to know that in Boro season they were going to start few demonstrations in their area with a new variety and new technology.

In the mean time IRRI and AAU has started demonstration by mechanical transplanter. Owing the interest and enthusiasm of Riyajuddin, KVK selected him for the demonstration of mechanical transplanting demonstration. Technology was new to them. Riyajuddin told he kept faith not in technology but in people who motivated him. He had total faith on the APART team.

The APART team had provided them Mechanical Transplanting demonstration with the variety, Bina dhan 11, a medium duration ( 130 days) submergence tolerant variety.No doubt, Riyajuddin did not know the proper package and practices of Bina Dhan 11 and the right procedure of MTPR, it’s the IRRI and APART team who supported him each and every step of production process. With great excitement, he started to put what he had learned into practice and whatever the APART team instructed to do.

On 22nd January ,2019 Riyajuddin sowed Bina Dhan-11 in his plot and grew the Mat nursery. He transplanted seeding by using mechanical trans planter (MTPR) on 26th February,2019. Because of its short duration nature Riyajuddin harvested the crop on 21st June, 2019 and got 7.2 ton yield from 1 ha of land which is almost similar to his earlier grown variety. What he achieved is measurable decrease in cost of cultivation that gave him the utmost satisfaction !

“At at a time when a number of farmers remained distraught over serious crop loss in flood water, I was happy that I had raised a variety which can tolerate submergence up to two weeks but luckily this time we did not face flood. Earlier we used to invest Rs.5000- 5500 per bigha for growing paddy in Boro season , but the use of transplanter definitely brought down the cost of production.” he expressed.

Many the farmers in Riyajuddin’s community were sceptical about the new agricultural technology he was using. Could these changes really help them improve their harvests? But Riyajuddin was confident in the new practices and passionate about sharing what he had learned with other farmers.

So he invited farmers to come and visit his field and see his success. When these farmers saw proof of Riyajuddin’s success, they are now inspired to try this new, cost friendly method of cultivation and the new variety.

“By applying what I learned through APART, I could decrease my cost of production in Boro paddy and got a bumper harvest. Unlike traditional method of transplanting of rice, transplanting by machine is cost effective and save time so, I believe and hope that all farmers will use mechanical transplanter for transplanting and adopt Bina Dhan 11 variety their rice field.” he concluded.

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A Step towards New
generation rice farming

Mr. Anjan Nath, Mr. Anjan Mahanta, Mr. Debojit Saikia, ...

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A Step towards New generation rice farming

Mr. Anjan Nath, Mr. Anjan Mahanta, Mr. Debojit Saikia, Mr. Apurba Hazarika, and Mr. Nilotpal Bora, - all progressive farmers had undergone several IRRI supported trainings under KVK Sonitpur, Assam Agricultural University under APART rice objectives of strengthening seed system, resource-efficient crop establishment methods, better management practices in rice, postharvest and rice value-chain technologies etc. from 2019 onwards. They got enlightened and felt delighted to learn practically about climate-resilient technologies.

The group consisting the aforesaid members was entrusted with the responsibility by KVK, Sonitpur for running the custom-hiring center. On Dec 4, 2020 the CHC was inaugurated at Jamuguri, in Sonitpur district. In the current Boro/Early Ahu season the team decided to transplant an area of 14 hectares by using machine (mechanical rice transplanter) and 7 hectares by using wet DSR technology. On Jan 7, 2021 in the presence of Mr. Dibyarishi Bhattacharjya, Junior Researcher, IRRI and Mr. Debojit Bhuyan, Research Technician, KVK, Sonitpur, AAU, they laid the nursery of rice varieties DRR44 and BINA Dhan11. The group has targeted mechanical transplanting of 100 bighas of land. This is just the beginning of adoption of new technologies and to create the new employment avenues for the agricultural youth.

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