India: Ishikha Pat strikes gold as potato farming flourishes

A joint venture of the farmers of Ishikha in Imphal east, state agriculture department and a NGO, Social Elevation for Human Resources and Environmental Management Organization, Manipur, SEHREMOM has proved that choice of right crops suitable to the kind of soil available is a must for the efforts of the farmers bearing fruit.

As per the choice of crop for cultivation at their fields at Ishikha pat, farmers were till now in the dark as their experiments with different kinds of crops like wheat, mustard, peas etc. for the last more than 20 years, as an alternative to paddy failed to yield any results.

"We have been in the search for a suitable crop for our fields for the last around 15 to 20 years as we could not produce rice. It was only last year that we started cultivating potato which gave better yields than other crops," a farmer said with a sigh of relief.

The farmers were lucky as the officials of SEHREMOM and state agriculture department extended help with modern methods of application of manure and pesticides.

Around 30 hectares of land at Ishikha pat located some 20 kms away from Imphal in Imphal east district is now no more useless and unproductive as this year they produced potatoes higher than the farmers expectation.

"Our target was to produce around 500 metric tonnes of potatoes from this field extended over 30 hectares but now it is in the position of producing around 700 metric tonnes," farmers, officials of agriculture department and SEHREMOM said.

Concerted efforts of the farmers, the state agriculture department and SEHREMOM who collectively decided to grow potatoes in Ishikha pat with scientific know how has brought success for the farmers after a long wait.

The state agriculture department authorities tested the soil at the Ishikha fields located in a low lying area and trained the farmers in latest scientific methods of using macro nutrients and organic manures which are eco-friendly and have less effect on the health.

Ph Rajen, agriculture officer (chemistry), department of agriculture department said that the department in collaboration with the officials of the SEHREMOM (an NGO working for the welfare of the farmers in the area) conducted training for the farmers of the area on the application of semi-organic manure and organic manure to replace the artificial fertilizers and methods of application of pesticides before the start of cultivation of potatoes.

Before potatoes was chosen for cultivation at the field at Ishikha, they conducted soil testing after collecting soil samples of the area and imparted training to the farmers on how to apply manure suitably and control the pesticides, Rajen went on to say.

"I myself even went to the fields and demonstrated to the farmers the application of manure and pesticides physically. They followed the instructions and controlled any outbreak of diseases during the course of cultivation of the potatoes," he told journalists who paid a visit to the potato farm on Sunday with officials of the agriculture department and concerned NGO.

Y Kiran, chairman of SEHREMOM while talking to the journalists said, "We have been taking initiative to give awareness to the farmers on the need for growing vegetables in the fields lying vacant after harvesting paddy." The organization has taken up cultivation of various kinds of crops in the fields of the state during the "off season" after harvesting.

The organization while taking up such steps first held consultations with various experts in the field at the concerned departments, the chairman said.

He said that they expected a total production of 400 to 500 metric tonnes but when harvesting was midway through "we were sure that the production would reach upto 700 metric tones."

He also expected increased production of 2000 metric tonnes in season as they in collaboration with the farmers and co-operation from the concerned departments, like agriculture and horticulture department, were considering expansion of the area of cultivation and double cropping by improving the drainage system of the fields.

The production would have been far higher if the drainage system was good as rain came in February this year and destroyed some of the fields, a farmer said.

The potato seeds were supplied by the NGO after collecting from various potato production centres, like Mao potato farm. They even bought seeds from the market.

The farmers have to return the quantity of potato equivalent to the seeds provided by the NGO.

The NGO officials on the other hand said that they will preserve the potato collected from the farmers for supplying in the next season so as to avoid difficulties to be faced when the season comes.

Source: kanglaonline.com