Syngenta Foundation program in India

Phadvale leads the way

Santosh Kakdya Phadvale lives in Village Shiroshi of Jawhar Taluka with his wife, three children and widowed mother - family of six. Out of the five acres land that the family owned, a small portion was suitable for growing rice. On the rest, he grew nagli / ragi (finger millet) as a rainfed upland crop. As the returns from such marginal farming were not enough to run his household, he had to work as unskilled labour in various government-funded schemes of the Panchayat and Agriculture and Forest departments. When SFI's agricultural development project was initiated jointly with Pragati Pratisthan, Santosh for the first time, was exposed to scientific agricultural techniques. He got interested in these and readily participated in some of its programs viz, using Certified seeds for cultivation of rice and undertaking multiplication of Foundationseed into truthfully labelled (TL) seed in his own field.

He followed the guidance of the project extension coordinator (PEC) and could clearly see the advantages coming. The productivity of his rice crop increased by planting of Certified seed and part of the TL seed he produced, was sold to other farmers for a profit. As his enthusiasm grew higher, he wanted to try out some high-value vegetable growing in the rabi season using water from a small perennial stream flowing near his field. He got seeds of hybrid varieties of brinjal and chilli from the project, raised seedlings in the way told by PEC and planted these in small plots of 4 are (400 sq m) and 2 are (200 sq m), respectively. He used the inputs and tried to follow the cultural practices as recommended by PEC and from these two plots, sold 400 kg brinjal for Rs 6400/- and 100 kg chillies for Rs 2000/-. Against a total cost of cultivation of Rs 1900/-, he thus earned a net income of Rs 6500/- - a kind of cash earning he had never had before.

This was a real turning point. In the immediately following summer season, he took up to cultivation of hybrid okra OH 152 on one acre of land and in spite of harsh weather conditions, was able to earn a net income of Rs 13000/- from it. Santosh Phadvale is determined to further improve his agronomy under the guidance of PEC and try out other income generating crops and practices in the coming seasons, one of these being growing of marigold for cut flower to be planted on 1.5 acres in August next. Needless to say, when the agriculture becomes so rewarding, there is simply no chance for him or his family members to go and work as manual labour somewhere else, ever again.