It was a cold morning of September 14 . We, twelve member group comprising journos and officials of Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) left the city at 5.45 am to the farm land of P Abdul Nabeel at Addolippura in Chamarajanagar district in Karnataka. The filed visit was organised by the IISR as part of its National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP) Sub- project on mobilising mass media support for sharing agro- information.
After more than five hours of tiring jounery we reached there around 11 am. Though the Chamarajanagar municipal administration has constructed roads, the bullock-cart was a common site in the sleepy village. The yellow and green fields on either sides of roads, muddy narrow pocket roads, shadow tress planted in between cultivation lands added picturesque charm to the entire place.
Nabeel cultivated banana, yarm, and turmeric on 17-acres of land. He not even left an inch of land in his farm . He even planted chilly and tomato plants in between his four acre turmeric field and 10 acres of banana field.
Nabeel an innovative farmer and a native of Meyppayur village in Koyilandy Taluq of Kozhikode has succeeded in cultivating `Prathiba turmeric' variety of IISR in a traditional Kerala agriculture method in Karnataka. He is one among farmers in the region who made optimum use of water leakage from the Swarnavathy dam for the farming. Nabeel , a post graduate in Hindi, Calicut University left his teacher job to become a full time farmer last year.
The profit from turmeric cultivation lured him to take up its farming in a larger scale. Nabeel who is into farming for the past six years is expecting a bumper harvest of 130 tonnes from 17 acres of land.
Though his first attempt of tapioca cultivation incurred him huge loss he decided to concentrate on turmeric cultivation when he happened to come across an article on improved ginger and turmeric varieties developed by IISR , Kozhikode. He then approached the Experimental Farm of IISR at Peruvannamuzhi for seed rhizomes of turmeric and ginger.
In 2004 he procured 100 kg of Prathiba variety of turmeric and 50 kg of Varatha variety of ginger from IISR and cultivated on a lease of 1.5 acres of land at Mepayur. The harvest he got from the cultivation encouraged him to sow all his two tonnes of turmeric and one tonne of ginger produce and got an yield of 25 tones of turmeric and two tones of ginger from the next harvest.
That was just the beginning of his journey and his association with IISR created good rapport with scientists of the institute. The advice of scientist in using manures and fertilizers and visit to field of farmers helped hom to grow as a successful farmer. His association with IISR also helped him to find a market for seed rhizomes in Kudumbasree units and government organisations.
Considerably less investment in farming , fertility of land and less labour charge made him to move to Karnataka to take up turmeric cultivation in a larger scale last year. He spend Rs.15 lakh to take up farming in Karnataka.
He has already received order of seedlings from National Horticulture Research Development (NHRD) for the turmeric growing in Karnataka.
In future he is planning to expand the turmeric cultivation. He has already bought 25-acres of lease land at Basappura to grow the turmeric on 10 acres and banana on 15 acres land.
The trip has gifted a rejuvenated feeling and energy of Nabeel has also flown to us giving a wonderful day that gifted new friends.
After more than five hours of tiring jounery we reached there around 11 am. Though the Chamarajanagar municipal administration has constructed roads, the bullock-cart was a common site in the sleepy village. The yellow and green fields on either sides of roads, muddy narrow pocket roads, shadow tress planted in between cultivation lands added picturesque charm to the entire place.
Nabeel cultivated banana, yarm, and turmeric on 17-acres of land. He not even left an inch of land in his farm . He even planted chilly and tomato plants in between his four acre turmeric field and 10 acres of banana field.
Nabeel an innovative farmer and a native of Meyppayur village in Koyilandy Taluq of Kozhikode has succeeded in cultivating `Prathiba turmeric' variety of IISR in a traditional Kerala agriculture method in Karnataka. He is one among farmers in the region who made optimum use of water leakage from the Swarnavathy dam for the farming. Nabeel , a post graduate in Hindi, Calicut University left his teacher job to become a full time farmer last year.
The profit from turmeric cultivation lured him to take up its farming in a larger scale. Nabeel who is into farming for the past six years is expecting a bumper harvest of 130 tonnes from 17 acres of land.
Though his first attempt of tapioca cultivation incurred him huge loss he decided to concentrate on turmeric cultivation when he happened to come across an article on improved ginger and turmeric varieties developed by IISR , Kozhikode. He then approached the Experimental Farm of IISR at Peruvannamuzhi for seed rhizomes of turmeric and ginger.
In 2004 he procured 100 kg of Prathiba variety of turmeric and 50 kg of Varatha variety of ginger from IISR and cultivated on a lease of 1.5 acres of land at Mepayur. The harvest he got from the cultivation encouraged him to sow all his two tonnes of turmeric and one tonne of ginger produce and got an yield of 25 tones of turmeric and two tones of ginger from the next harvest.
That was just the beginning of his journey and his association with IISR created good rapport with scientists of the institute. The advice of scientist in using manures and fertilizers and visit to field of farmers helped hom to grow as a successful farmer. His association with IISR also helped him to find a market for seed rhizomes in Kudumbasree units and government organisations.
Considerably less investment in farming , fertility of land and less labour charge made him to move to Karnataka to take up turmeric cultivation in a larger scale last year. He spend Rs.15 lakh to take up farming in Karnataka.
He has already received order of seedlings from National Horticulture Research Development (NHRD) for the turmeric growing in Karnataka.
In future he is planning to expand the turmeric cultivation. He has already bought 25-acres of lease land at Basappura to grow the turmeric on 10 acres and banana on 15 acres land.
The trip has gifted a rejuvenated feeling and energy of Nabeel has also flown to us giving a wonderful day that gifted new friends.
