The capacity-building programme makes farmers self-reliant by reducing production costs and increasing harvest yields, thus encouraging transition to organic farming

MSSRF has been building a cadre of men and women farmers as Plant Health Monitors (PHM) with the financial support of The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) since 2020. The project is stationed in four blocks in the Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu namely Reddiyarchatram, Ottanchatram, Nilakottai and Natham. The farmers’ knowledge and skills on the preparation of various organic inputs have been improved, particularly with plant health protectors among 100 farmers (25 from each block) of which women farmers make 40 percent.

How does this benefit farmers?

The capacity-building programmes enable farmers to become self-reliant in on-farm input preparation helping to eliminate complete or partial chemical inputs while reducing production costs by 15-30 percent. This new capacity gives farmers the incentive to take up organic farming. Moreover, practical, hands-on sessions are conducted on disease and pest management, nutrition deficiency management, soil health improvement and preparation of organic pesticides, and fertilisers, among other things.

Farmers are trained to prepare and maintain stock solutions of an Effective Microorganism (EM) Mixture – a Japanese technology that improves soil health by growing and applying beneficial microorganisms to the soil. A ready-made EM mixture is available from input dealers for around Rs 450. Costs are inexpensive for farmers preparing their mixture through our training.

Vasanthamary, a woman farmer, is a regular NABARD-PHM trainee. She expressed that the use of Panchakavya (a plant growth promoting product) in Jasmine (Gundumalli), a commercial flower crop, has improved the flower yield and its quality.

“In the NABARD-PHM training, I learnt the step-by-step process of preparing Panchakavya. Later, I prepared and used it on the Jasmine crop, both as soil drenching and foliar application for four weeks continuously. The results were very visible. Normally during this season (December 2021-January 2022) flower yield and duration of harvest is less (0.5 to 1.5 kg yield per day for less than ten days, but after using Panchakavya, I harvested a higher yield and the  for more days (4 kg per day for 18 days). Fortunately, the average Jasmine cost was also high (Rs. 3000 per kilo). The technology is very simple and more profitable, and I encourage other farmers to also adopt this method.”