| 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.
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