At a time when farmer suicides continue unabated in Telangana State, a
62-year-old farmer, Gudivada Nagaratnam Naidu, defies the second
consecutive drought season, setting national records in paddy and
groundnut yields, and showing the way to prosperity with innovative
methods and intelligent farming.
“There is even a flourishing apple tree on my farm,” declares G.N.
Naidu – the altitude and rainfall demanding apple tree being symbolic of
what he has achieved on his 17-acre farm on what was once parched land
in Taramathipet village, about 25 km from Hyderabad.
Apart from the five acres set aside for paddy, Naidu grows papaya on
three acres – stacking up to 45 tonnes of this fruit seasonally –
besides flowers of 20 regular and exotic varieties which are transported
to Bengaluru every day, and a range of vegetables including brinjal,
okra, beans, tomato and green leafy veggies.
Add to that list: guava, banana, five varieties of mango, coconut,
almond, jamun and sapodilla, and you know why today, apart from
providing salaries to 12 employees in a massively debt-trapped
population, every month Naidu takes home close to a lakh rupees – along
with the coffee, pepper and cardamom he grows for personal use.
On this February morning he has just arrived at his farm at 8:30 a.m.
from his modern duplex home in Dilsukhnagar in Hyderabad. Usually he
takes the State-run bus, as does his 93-year-old mother Muni Ratnamma.
All along the way, through the Himayatnagar mandal of Ranga Reddy
district, the landscape is the barren and rocky land synonymous with the
Deccan plateau. Not a patch of green, or even a shrub. Certainly no
apple tree!
This was where it started in 1989. Naidu, a service engineer, along
with his wife Satyavathy, an office assistant, both working in
Associated Marketing Agencies, an electronic goods firm in Hyderabad,
resigned and made their way back to their roots.
Born in Balakrishnapuram village in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, Naidu had
followed the conventional trail of school, studying electronics in a
polytechnic, and finding work in the capital city. But it was farming
that called to him.
“When I first went with friends to survey the land, everyone discouraged
me,” Naidu says. “They said it was impossible to till in this rocky
terrain.” His friends were right, but Naidu was determined.
For want of money, men and machinery, he along with his wife and his
mother – just the three of them –pulled out rocks, weeds and shrubs, and
enriched the land with cow dung. It took all of six years and 300
lorries of rocks removed for the resolute trio to get the farm in shape.
Initially an acre was made fertile and the first investment was the
purchase of two cows – now they have 12. The rocks still persevere. So
does the gritty threesome. Satyavathy says, “Even now we keep removing
rocks that sprout from nowhere!”
The turnaround came when Naidu read about SRI cultivation in a journal.
SRI or the ‘System of Rice Intensification’ is an agro-ecological
methodology for increasing the productivity of irrigated rice by
managing plants, soil, water and nutrients.
A man of science, Naidu decide to adopt it, and learnt that
long-standing misconceptions are responsible for low yield of crops,
such as paddy. According to him, paddy requires water but is not a water
plant as is generally believed; secondly, farmers plant too deep in the
soil with their fingers. It works better to just place the plant on top
of the soil and allow the roots to search for water.
Precise distances between two plants and rows, and comparatively less
water ensures that “the root will search for water and absorb
micronutrients in the surrounding areas.”
Importantly, the number of seeds used per acre is far less in the SRI
method of cultivation than traditional ways; while conventional farmers
use 30 kg of seeds per acre, only 2 kg of seeds is required in the SRI
method.
“If one could collect the seeds wasted every year, we could feed the
nation for 22 days,” says Naidu in a rough but insightful and amazing
estimation. Naidu had made a good decision with SRI. It doubled his
yield of paddy. If 35 bags per acre is the maximum yield that a farmer
gets, Naidu managed 92 bags!.
This was in 2004. And there was no looking back.
News of Naidu’s farm and its golden harvest spread far and wide.
Accolades started pouring in from Chief Ministers and Union ministers.
In the process thanks to the spotlight on it, Taramathipet village got
good tar roads when the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Late Y.S.
Rajasekhara Reddy, visited Naidu’s farm.
Agricultural scientists thronged to the farm – more than 40 scientists
from as many countries. Not just that, in 2006 the State government
chose Naidu to interact with US President, George W. Bush, who visited
the then united Andhra Pradesh, where Naidu explained SRI cultivation to
him.
This season, for want of water and electricity, Naidu is not
cultivating paddy; instead he is relying on the fruit, vegetables and
floriculture to assure him and his team of a dozen workers financial
stability.
“Mixed cropping assures farmers a continuous income,” Naidu says. “If I
were to depend on just paddy, I too would have been in trouble.” His
use of mixed cropping, organic farming and dry-land water saving
technologies has paid off. Naidu does not use pesticides and
fertilizers; cow dung and neem cakes are enough to replenish the soil.
Naidu’s agricultural philosophy and methods have become an inspiration.
He is most sought after to share his rich experiences at agricultural
universities and research centres. Till date he has trained more than
50,000 students across India in the farming practices he employs.
In India he has delivered lectures in farming communities in Gujarat,
Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh and
Haryana, to name a few, and also in South Africa, Ethiopia, Bangladesh,
Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and China, among other countries.
He has bagged nearly 300 awards in the State and in the country,
besides international honours such as a certificate of appreciation from
the Association of Land Reforms and Development, Dhaka, Bangladesh in
2007, a letter of honour from ICRISAT (International Crops Research
Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) in 2008 for implementing organic
farming practices in groundnut cultivation and generating a record yield
of 95-110 kg pods from 2 kg seeds, and the best SRI farmer award from
WWF Netherlands.
In an agriculturally bleak State where 2,000 farmer suicides were
reported in the last two years, Naidu stands as an affirmation of life
and accomplishment, grit and determination. “I want to make impossible
possible,” Naidu says. And he has.
The three-foot apple tree bears testimony to this.
Article and image courtesy : .theweekendleader.com
No comments:
Post a Comment