Archive for June, 2009

Vedanta University Project facilitates farmers’ exposure trip to Maharastra

Farmers in front of the Ahemadabad Express

Puri, 5^th June 2009: 16 farmers of Gop and Puri Sadar blocks of Puri district are out on a 8-day hands on exposure trip to Maharastra, from 3^rd to 11^th June. This exposure trip has been sponsored by Vedanta University Project, Puri under its livelihood project, ‘SAFAL’ (Sustainable Action for Farmers’ Livelihood), being implemented in collaboration with ACCESS, the specialized NGO partner. These 16 farmers from villages like Chhaitana, Goindol, Utaraswarapada, Paikapada, Kabirajpur and Podotara are accompanied by three project officials. All these farmers are members of various SHGs formed under the SAFAL project.

The group of farmers is expected to gain valuable exposure on cash crop cultivation, micro-irrigation, water management, horticulture, floriculture, dairy etc that will help them to generate a much better yield and more income. Among other things, the team will visit Jain Irrigation System Limited (JISL), Jalgaon, where they will be given training on micro irrigation, water management and horticulture. They will also visit SACRED, a national level NGO at Jalna, Aurangabad, where they will learn about the various aspects of seed production; collective purchase of inputs and marketing; contract farming and watershed development processes. The trip includes a visit to places like Telegaon, where they will interact with the farmers of Abhinav Farmers Club (AFC) which, since 2004, has emerged as a platform of information sharing on all the aspects of farming - what to farm, what to grow, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and marketing of produce. They will be imparted training in Horticulture Training Centre at Telegaon, Pune on floriculture, green house farming and other improved practices. During the trip, they will also be exposed to the Central Research Station of ‘BALF Development Foundation’ in Urulikanchan, Maharastra.

Sending off the farmers’ group at Puri, Mr. P.K.Hota, General Manager, CSR & PR said, “Our farmers will surely benefit from this exposure trip in which they will interact with more successful farmers there. This is part of Vedanta University Project’s developmental efforts that aim to make community life in the region much better than what it is today”.

 It may be noted here that the SAFAL project is expected to benefit about 4000 farmers from 29 villages through cash crop cultivation and allied activities. So far, 799 farmers from 19 villages are already part of the initiative. The main objective of SAFAL is to progressively take the farmers away from the traditional paddy cultivation and introduce them to the more lucrative cash crop cultivation. Under this project, the local farmers have already been trained in marigold, tube-rose and watermelon cultivation. The demo cultivation of marigold, tube-rose, etc has shown quite encouraging results. To take advantage of collective endeavour the farmers have formed as many as 57 SHGs. Cash crop cultivation and allied activities are expected to considerably increase their average family income.

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