PADDY CULTIVATION- NECESSITY BRINGS INVENTIONS
PADDY CULTIVATION- NECESSITY BRINGS INVENTIONS
In Delta area wet lands , one can grow annually 2 crops of paddy followed by paddy, paddy followed by maize or pulses or single crop of sugarcane. When paddy transplanting, harvesting etc were manual, some farmers were preferring cane cultivation. With change in cultivation practices and increased harvesting problems in cane, in wetlands cane cultivation almost came to an end.
In krishna Delta , when the irrigation was not available on time, farmers out of necessity moved from paddy nursery and transplanting to direct sowing method. Direct Sowing resulted in huge reduction of cost particularly manpower requirements which is scarce in present situation. Due to direct sowing and better drainage facilities, paddy yields increased by 20 to 30% ( 30 bags to 40 bags of 75 kg each). When scientists used to prefer and advocate for direct sowing farmers were not in a mood to listen.
With limited options available farmers shifted to direct sowing and met with great success. Now even if water is available on time, farmers are reluctant to go back to rising nursery and transplanting.
Similarly there was resistance for using harvesters,as farmers feel that dry fodder from harvesters is not useful to cattle. Again with increased shortage of harvesting labour and also due to abnormal increases in manual harvesting labour cost, farmers shifted to harvesters and in no time they found solution for using fodder from harvester for feeding cattle.
With this two interventions, now paddy cultivation became so easy and enterprising farmers are able to cultivate even 100 acres by employing less than 10 people that too in intervals.
The cost of cultivation of paddy is around Rs 15000/acre excluding land lease. The cost of cultivation includes 20 kg seed Rs 600/-, sowing - Rs 1000/-, FYM 2 trucks- Rs 3000/-, 2 times fertiliser application ( DAP+ Urea 1 bag each) , (20:20, urea 1 bag each) Rs 5000/-, herbicides 1 time Rs 500/-, Pesticides 2 times Rs 3000/- , harvesting Rs 2200/- and collection and transport Rs 1000/- .
With land lease of Rs 25000/- per acre total cost of cultivation comes to Rs 41,500/- acre .
With yield of 40 bags (3 MT ) @ Rs 13000/- MT the realisation is Rs 39000, adding the fodder value of Rs 4000/- , the net profit to farmer from first crop is Rs 1500/- per acre.
In second crop of Maize the net realisation is around Rs 6 to 7000 /acre. Hence yearly realization per acre is around Rs 8000/- .
If we calculate farmer time and interest on capital etc it will be hand to mouth situation. Five to six years back with maize yields were ave 4 mt and rates are above msp farmers were happy. With current paddy and maize prices coupled with huge reduction in maize yields particularly small farmers sustenance is becoming big issue.
Enterprising farmers are in a position to look at it as an opportunity and cultivating large chunks and surviving on scale of operation.
Joint farming may be one solution for present crisis other than trying combination of natural farming to reduce cost of production without much compromise on yields.
WET LAND CULTIVATION WILL NOT ALLOW FARMERS TO FLOURISH OR PERISH
BGR
In Delta area wet lands , one can grow annually 2 crops of paddy followed by paddy, paddy followed by maize or pulses or single crop of sugarcane. When paddy transplanting, harvesting etc were manual, some farmers were preferring cane cultivation. With change in cultivation practices and increased harvesting problems in cane, in wetlands cane cultivation almost came to an end.
In krishna Delta , when the irrigation was not available on time, farmers out of necessity moved from paddy nursery and transplanting to direct sowing method. Direct Sowing resulted in huge reduction of cost particularly manpower requirements which is scarce in present situation. Due to direct sowing and better drainage facilities, paddy yields increased by 20 to 30% ( 30 bags to 40 bags of 75 kg each). When scientists used to prefer and advocate for direct sowing farmers were not in a mood to listen.
With limited options available farmers shifted to direct sowing and met with great success. Now even if water is available on time, farmers are reluctant to go back to rising nursery and transplanting.
Similarly there was resistance for using harvesters,as farmers feel that dry fodder from harvesters is not useful to cattle. Again with increased shortage of harvesting labour and also due to abnormal increases in manual harvesting labour cost, farmers shifted to harvesters and in no time they found solution for using fodder from harvester for feeding cattle.
With this two interventions, now paddy cultivation became so easy and enterprising farmers are able to cultivate even 100 acres by employing less than 10 people that too in intervals.
The cost of cultivation of paddy is around Rs 15000/acre excluding land lease. The cost of cultivation includes 20 kg seed Rs 600/-, sowing - Rs 1000/-, FYM 2 trucks- Rs 3000/-, 2 times fertiliser application ( DAP+ Urea 1 bag each) , (20:20, urea 1 bag each) Rs 5000/-, herbicides 1 time Rs 500/-, Pesticides 2 times Rs 3000/- , harvesting Rs 2200/- and collection and transport Rs 1000/- .
With land lease of Rs 25000/- per acre total cost of cultivation comes to Rs 41,500/- acre .
With yield of 40 bags (3 MT ) @ Rs 13000/- MT the realisation is Rs 39000, adding the fodder value of Rs 4000/- , the net profit to farmer from first crop is Rs 1500/- per acre.
In second crop of Maize the net realisation is around Rs 6 to 7000 /acre. Hence yearly realization per acre is around Rs 8000/- .
If we calculate farmer time and interest on capital etc it will be hand to mouth situation. Five to six years back with maize yields were ave 4 mt and rates are above msp farmers were happy. With current paddy and maize prices coupled with huge reduction in maize yields particularly small farmers sustenance is becoming big issue.
Enterprising farmers are in a position to look at it as an opportunity and cultivating large chunks and surviving on scale of operation.
Joint farming may be one solution for present crisis other than trying combination of natural farming to reduce cost of production without much compromise on yields.
WET LAND CULTIVATION WILL NOT ALLOW FARMERS TO FLOURISH OR PERISH
BGR
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