Twenty seven year old Achyutananda Naik of Village Balichhada joined hands with his father Sanatana into their two-acre family farm after Class IX. Members of his family, including the women, worked hard in the fields but were barely able to make a living out of it, as they were not exposed to the advanced techniques of cultivation or improved varieties to raise the productivity. Achyutananda came to know about KARRTABYA's agriculture development project and started attending its farmers workshops.

As he learned about some of the advantages of scientific agricultural practices and improved varieties, he became interested in trying out some of these at his own farm. After the farmers' meeting, he consulted Jishaya Tandia - KARRTABYA's extension coordinator and Messers Janmejaya Nayak and Suresh Chandra Mallik of District Agriculture Office, Dharamgarh and as per their advice, took up to the cultivation of cauliflower, cabbage, tomato, eggplant (brinjal), hot pepper, yard bean, capsicum, maize and cucumber. He chose the hybrids and varieties recommended by them and tried to follow the fertilizer and crop protection schedules as advised from time to time.

The results that he achieved in his very first attempt, were remarkable. From hardly Rs 15,000/- that they used to earn in a year before, it rose to Rs 45,000/-. Initially, Achyutananda was somewhat cautious about spending money on inputs but after seeing such results, his trust in scientific agriculture is now fully reposed and he will go at it more intensively in the coming season.