A Journey from a piece of barren land to smiling face of a Dairy Farmer- A success story
Livestock are valuable assets of the rural poor and are critical in supporting their livelihoods particularly in a tribal district like Koraput. Mr. Rama Bhatra of Jamunda village of Jeypore block is a small tribal farmer along with his father for many years. Earlier in his native village Khairamundi his father has 2.5 ac of land which was not sufficient to feed the family. A meager income from agriculture was not supporting the livelihood of the family. Then his father purchased a land of 4 acre in jamunda village in 2007 which was not suitable for any cultivation purpose. Mr Rama Bhatra a few 9th class pass from his tribe also an ITI holder in fitter trade thinks up to start some thing new to earn and leap his next generation towards prosperity.
Looking at the dry and barren land that his father had brought, he started cultivating eucaly potash (Nilagiri) which would be sold to nearby paper mill. People of the village discourage him not to go for Nilagiri cultivation as the land was high and dry. Mr Bhatra was determined to taste success through hardwork and perseverance thus started plantation of Nilagiri in the land. Fingers were crossed for the outcome and after three and half years he got very good plants for sell. In between the plantation he cultivated horse gram , seasamun and turmaric which gave a good yield to support the lean period.
A thought of rearing dairy cows strike the mind of Mr. Bhatra to cater the local milk needs of the area. He approached the bank to startup dairy business. Looking at his hard work and perseverance which had turned a dry and high infertile land to a productive one, bank had agreed to support him. Mr Bhatra had taken consultation of the ARD department and applied for dairy farm of 20 cows under CAE scheme. The CDVO had extended all his support for Mr Bhatra for the establishment of dairy farm. finally his dreams took its shape proudly declaring him as an innovative and progressive farmer of his area.
The farm of mr bhatra has 20 dairy cows with 13 calves .The production of the farm is now 120 liters per day which he sells to OMFED after meeting the local needs. Seven of his cows are now pregnant through AI. He has cultivated 3ac of fodder with hybrid nappier, stilo, maize etc. He is the 1st one to have a silage pit in the area to cater feed needs of the cows in the lean period. Also he possess one mechanized chaff cutter .This is an innovation in which he has utilized a power tiller to make one mechanized chaff cutter from a manual one. Also he possess a milking machine of 40 liter capacity for safe and clean milking. Income from the farm now meets his entire financial requirement and makes him stand proudly in the locality.
SUCCESS STORY OF K. RATHNA REDDY
I shri Rathna Reddy, S/O-Nagi Reddy of village- Somdasput, GP/PO-Anta under Jeypore block of Koraput District have passed matriculation and was closely involved with agricultural and farming activities. In the due couse of time I was interested for intensive pisciculture and therefore I have contacted to the block level fisheries officer of jeypore block and interacted with him regarding my willingness to venture into the pisciculture activities. I was very much interested for pisciculture activities as earlier I had some old derelict tank in which I was previously doing pisciculture in very small scale. After contacting with the Asst. fisheries officer, I get motivated and decided to renovate my derelict tank and started my journey of pisciculture afresh.
Then I have applied for renovation under the FFDA tank renovation scheme of Fisheries department. I have started the scientific pisciculture project in total of 3.67 ha @ Rs 458750.00 project cost on my own source out of which I got 45% of Govt subsidy which was around Rs 206438.00. I have started my pisciculture activities under the proper guidance and scientific Advice of Fisheries department which helped me a lot in improving my knowledge and my skill development. I finished my tank renovation project in the stipulated time period and started the pisciculture subsequently. During this period I along with my wife who is also involved in pisciculture activities have attended numerous training programme on pisciculture and skill developments which helped in improving our knowledge base on scientific fish farming
I have stocked advance fingerlings and yearlings in the tank for higher production and used the hi-tech equipments like aerator machines and balanced floating feeds for higher production which in turn resulted in higher profit. In the first year of my fish farming, I got net income of around Rs 7.00lakh which motivated me for adopting pisciculture as my prime livelihood. After watching my huge progress and success in pisciculture sector, lots of nearby villagers get inspired and subsequently started the pisciculture as their livelihood. As I not only become a successful fish farmer in my locality but also become the media for developments of other new and marginal fish farmers, I feel very proud and I remain very thankful to the fisheries department for their warm and uninterrupted support to me which in turn helps me growing my farm production and hence making our state self-reliance in the field of fish production.
