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Profile |
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Resham Patto - The Silk Band |
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Alidada Abhvani is known in his village for his vast experience in farming, gained through trial and error over a life-long learning process. Father of eleven children, Alidada is now in his seventies, and has become some sort of consultant in the small, 2500- inhabitant, farming village of Sarmat. Aided by three of his sons, Alidada has a farm of 40 hectares, and a systematic record of every crop he has ever planted on his land since 1976. It includes details like dates of sowing and harvesting, fertilisers used, management practices, yield, profit obtained, etc. It became a common practice for Alidada and his sons to study the loopholes of the previous year before planning for the next season. By far the most experienced farmer in his region, Alidada is more than qualified to give recommendations to the neighbouring farmers who approach him for advice.
Tribulations and Success
In 1980, after the misfortune caused by a cyclone and the groundnut diseases that had ruined their plantations, the Abhvani family decided to invest in a crop that could fetch them more money. They spotted a chilli variety in the market and bought five kg to experiment. Unaware of the details of cultivating chilli, Alidada and his sons tried for three years to grow it in a small piece of land. Without much success, they decided to seek advice from farmers in Dwarka. The seeds they brought from the farmers were mixed with various other types and sown. They felt that the resulting crop could be profitable if they cultivated it properly.
They realised that they had sown the crop a little too early. The nursery was prepared in May and after the first rain the seedlings were transplanted. The result was vigorous plants that bore fruit early, but the fruit rot rate was high. In 1983, they decided to conduct a study on different sowing times. The field was divided into three plots. In the first plot the seeds were sown early, a little later in the next plot and much later in the last one. The best results in terms of yield were observed when the nursery was taken in July and the seedlings transplanted in August. At that time they had sown chilli in six acres of land and had a profit of Rs 1.5 lakh. Today, Alidada and his sons produce 25 lakh-rupees worth chillies.
Double harvest
According to their schedule, August is the month to transplant the seedlings followed by the harvesting period in Jan-Feb. Being preoccupied with other tasks, once the Abhvani family failed to harvest the crop in time. And while irrigating an adjacent plot of bajra, water seeped into the chilli field. After a while, they noticed that the plants started to flower again and so they allowed them to fruit. With the new set of chillies being ready for harvesting in March-April – when green chillies are not so commonly available in the market – they made lot of profit. By harvesting the same crop twice, Alidada and his sons increased their productivity and also their profit.
It took them three years to select the new variety and even today the process of selection is on as they look out for better fruits. Healthy plants with thick skin and black veins are selected and their seeds sown again. This year they have taken up a new experiment. They have selected the best plant and planted a single row of it. The results are expected and hopefully they will bring some more improvements in the production of chilli. |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 12(3):2, 2001 |
