Lakhs of rupees earned from fruitful plantation and intercultural farming in 10 acres under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA scheme
Korea January 18, 2021. Under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA scheme, intercultural cultivation of lemongrass with plantation under the supervision of scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra has shown a new path of economic empowerment to the tribal farmers of Korea district. Here five farmers of Ratga Panchayat mixed each part of their land and planted the first fruitful plants. After this, started intercultural cultivation of lemongrass and sweet potato between planted plants. In the beginning, this effort of the farmers paid off and they earned more than two lakh rupees.
The story of this economic empowerment of the farmers was started from the dependent village Dudhania of Gram Panchayat-Ratga in Baikunthpur block of Koriya district. Mr. Basant Singh, who lived here, prepared a chak by mixing his 4 acres, Mr. Ahibaran Singh, 2 acres, Mrs. Iriaro Bai, 1 acre, Mr. Shiv Prasad 2 acres and Mr. Ramnarayan by combining his 1 acre of land and then On the proposal, the work of mass fruit plantation was approved under the land development program in the year 2018-19 under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Under this, mango, pomegranate, jackfruit, guava and lemon plants were planted here. During maintenance of planted plants, the farmers received suggestions from the scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra of the district to make a profit by doing intercultural cultivation between the fruits.
On the request of these five farmers of Ratga village, the team of Krishi Vigyan Kendra prepared a proposal for intercultural cultivation of lemongrass and sweet potato between the mass fruit plantations. Implementation of this proposal started in the month of May 2020 with the support of farmers’ self-confidence and Mahatma Gandhi NREGA. This work started in the midst of Corona Mahāmari provided employment opportunities to these farmers as well as other villagers of the village. In the lockdown period, providing wages of 3076 man-days to 53 MGNREGA workers, wages of 5 lakh 62 thousand 400 were paid.
Senior scientist of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, who provided technical guidance in this project of economic empowerment of these five farmers, said that according to the quality of the land of the farmers, fruitful plants were planted here and the interchange between them Lemongrass (Cauvery species), sweet potato (Indira orange, Indira madhur, Indira Nandani, Bhadra, Ratna species) have been cultivated as a crop.
He further stated that the first harvesting of lemongrass was done in August 2020. Once lemongrass can be cultivated for 4 to 5 years and can be harvested 4 to 5 times at an interval of 60 to 70 days each year. Forming a productive group of farmers in the district, oil extraction units have also been set up through them. Raw materials are being obtained from this unit in the form of essential oils. So far, 60 thousand rupees have been sold in the project from the sale of 60 tonnes of leaves of lemongrass, while Rs. 81 thousand has been earned from selling 1 lakh 8 thousand pieces of slips. Apart from this, by selling 52,500 pieces of sweet potato (sweet potato wine cutting), he got a profit of 91 thousand 875 rupees. In the coming days, this group will be fed with sweet potato crops and planted fruit plants, layering, cutting, There will also be additional income from grafting and selling of new seedlings prepared by seeds of high quality. Today, this project has become an important source of regular income for them.
