Success Stories of Our Farmers.

Shri Ranjit Das is an inhabitant of Rongkhelan, Diphu located at a distance of 3 km from the KVK, Karbi Anglong. The family has leased in 1.6 hectares of land from a Karbi landlord for sustaining their livelihood. Ranjit’s father Mr. Pijush Das is a farmer doing agriculture in the piece of land where he cultivated only rice and little bit of vegetables in the homestead. The farm produce had been shared with the landlord who took away a considerable fraction of his income as a part of the lease agreement and not much were left for meeting the family’s petty demands. Ranjit although was a mediocre student and passed his HS Examination (10+2) in the Arts stream but could not pursue his education further because of financial support which his father was unable to afford. Ranjit’s father who was gradually finding field works more tiring due to his advancing age and therefore, wanted Ranjit to extend his help so that they can look for diversification of agricultural activities and afford a better living. Thus, Ranjit was left with no option other than participating in field activities with his father. However, being a young blood Ranjit started disliking the activities of agriculture and started looking for a job even if it is lowly paid, and was absorbed by the proprietor of a pharmacy as a salesman for a meagre salary of Rs. 1000.00 per month. As time progressed, his burden started increasing day by day. He was put into a dilemma whether to continue with the low paid job or to choose his father’s profession or look for other venture. After spending few idle days on father’s income he proposed to try his luck as a grocer. His father denied his proposal and asked him to help in field activities until an alternative could be arranged. Not having any alternative Ranjit reluctantly agreed to go with his father and both started with new zeal and dedicated on rice farming.

Ranjit’s father Mr. Pijush Das although understood his son but was undone as opening up a business of respect needs a considerable investment. Not finding any way out for to settling down his son Mr. Das brought Ranjit to KVK, Karbi Anglong in 2011 with a hope that institution might be able to pacify the restlessness in the young man and strikes his root deep in agriculture and allied business. The KVK scientists persuaded Ranjit to go with his father’s profession and diversify his farm enterprise and include vegetable in the system at a commercial level to his capacity so that they could earn higher income. Both father and son realised the importance of vegetable cultivation for extra income as well as to meet the family’s dietary requirements. After a few days of the duos visit, staff of the KVK accompanied by the Programme Coordinator set out on a diagnostic visit to the village of Mr. Pijush Das. During the course of the visit the KVK team made a special visit to Mr. Das’s household. During discussion on his plan to become a business man and establishment of his shop he seemed trying to evade the matter but the programme coordinator started asking his activities in the farm and his contribution towards the family farm. The father expressed his satisfaction on gradual change in attitude of his son on farm activities. The KVK team enquired on the selling price of various items to the whole seller at Diphu market. The KVK staff was astonished that the vegetable vendors in Diphu town market situated a distance of about 2 km from his farm are making a profit of Rs. 10 to 15 a kg on various vegetable items. Learning about the facts KVK team boldly suggested the boy to start vegetable vending at the street corner to his village and meet the vegetable needs of the two thousand odd population of the locality at a lower price. However, they had to wait for another year to gather confidence in vegetable vending as a means of livelihood. During the Rabi season of year 2012 Mr. Ranjit guided by the KVK, Karbi Anglong, started cultivation of winter vegetables mainly Broccoli, Knolkhol, Cauliflower, Brinjal etc., at a larger scale. Looking into his crop health and the produce quality the Programme Coordinator of the Kendra persuaded Mr. Ranjit to participate in the vegetable competition in the North East Agricultural Fair 2012 a joint venture of Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat and Department of Agriculture, Assam held at Khanapara. In that competition the exhibits of Ranjit Das were able to snatch first prize in Brinjal, Knolkhol and second position in Broccoli. Following year he extended his vegetable area so that he could have enough surplus from his farm and gather the produce of his fellow farmers to support his vegetable shop as proposed. Meanwhile, his father looked for a suitable place and arranged for a space on rental and they started selling vegetables. Gradually Ranjit changed himself to a dedicated farmer cum businessman and is now earning a good living from vegetable farming round the year.

Mr. Ali Marak alias Md. Abdul Hasmat was born in Goalpara, an underprivileged village of Nalbari district of Assam. Like many other children from his neighborhood, he had to face the inadequacy in fulfilling the childhood dreams of petty requirements. His poor parents to their ability, tried to provide the boy the minimum requirements for his schooling to pursue his studies beyond primary level and the boy was admitted in the nearby Jagara High School. Mr. Marak took his studies seriously and while devoting to his studies did not forget to help his poor parents in household chores during his spare time. This helped him to learn lessons seriously in the school and train himself to perform the essential works of a day to day life in a rural environment.

He grew interest to try his luck in mushroom cultivation on an experimental basis and gathered necessary information from KVK Karbi Anglong. He managed to purchase the required spawn and started with 250 beds of mushroom under the technical guidance of KVK Karbi Anglong. Unfortunately, due to some faulty practices the first batch of his beds became contaminated and the crop was a complete failure. He immediately informed his situation to the KVK Karbi Anglong scientists about the development. After diagnosing the problem the concerned scientist suggested to thoroughly sterilize the bedding materials before bed making. He was also encouraged to continue with his mushroom cultivation as there is good market opportunity nearby Sarihajan market from where vendors from Dimapur, Nagaland procures mushrooms and other vegetables to cater the demand of food savvy tribals inhabiting in the city. Confiding to the suggestion and practical demonstration in second round of training by KVK Karbi Anglong, Mr. Marak got into mushroom cultivation with a new zeal. He purchased the required spawn from the Department of Agriculture, Karbi Anglong and raised his second batch of Mushroom successfully and marketed with ease to the vendors from Dimapur. One batch of the crop producing 500 kg mushroom fetched Marak Rs. 37000.00 in cash which become a huge thrust to excel in mushroom cultivation. The constant monitoring and strong technical backstopping from KVK, Karbi Anglong immensely helped him to continue with the enterprise.

Mr. Rajesh Rongpi of Kania Enghi village, Karbi Anglong, an unemployed youth is involved in traditional farming. He cultivated ginger in traditional way with little profit and also reared local poultry and pigs in a small scale where the productivity and profit was very less. He could not start commercial farming due to lack of knowledge as well as financial weakness.