By Prashant Shukla and Shashank Devra
Jameel is a farmer in village Ranyaki, Tauru block of Nuh district. He has been practicing traditional agriculture on five acres of his land for over two decades. Jameel cultivates mustard, millets, wheat, coriander, and other vegetables.
Under a CSR-supported project implemented by S M Sehgal Foundation since April 2022, one primary initiative is to set up two Farmers Field Schools (FFS). FFS promote sustainable agricultural practices for growing crops and vegetables while conserving water.
During a farmers’ meeting in October 2022, the FFS initiative was discussed. The FFS strategy is to provide modern agriculture training to farmers in a practical way, through implementing demonstrations in the fields of progressive farmers. The other farmers learn and adopt methods from these demonstrations.
At this meeting, Jameel, being a progressive farmer, expressed his interest to become an FFS demonstrator. For conducting the demonstration on one acre of his land, Jameel was provided with farming tools, including wire fencing to secure the demonstration plot, drip irrigation, mulching, staking, polyhouse, seedling trays, coco peat, perlite, and vermiculite. A capital investment of roughly INR 4,00,000 was needed for this demonstration, of which the farmer provided about 25 percent.
Jameel decided to grow tomatoes in his demonstration plot. He planted the tomato seeds in seedling trays with coco peat, perlite, and vermiculite, which provided the plants with essential nutrients early on. The seeds were kept in the warm environment of polyhouse during the cold season. Once the plantlets had grown sufficiently and were no longer so vulnerable, they were transplanted using mulching sheets, and staking was applied. Due to these interventions, Jameel noticed a significant increase in germination, flowering, and fruitsetting, compared to his tomato crop the previous year when he had only followed the staking method. Based on these physiological observations during the plant growth, he infers that there will be about a 50 percent increase in tomato yield this time during the harvest in May–June 2023, compared to last year’s crop.
Jameel says, “Cultivation with the equipment provided by the FFS is indicating an improved quality and quantity of my tomato crop, which will increase my profit. The interventions in my plot are being closely observed by the other farmers in Ranyaki, and they too are likely to adopt these methods.”
(Prashant is agriculture specialist and Shashank is project lead with S M Sehgal Foundation)
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