Experiences of Farmers in India Experiences of Farmers in ... - AgSri

Kerala
A. Sasidharan Pillai
Nellanad
P.O, Vamanapuram,
Thiruvananthapuram.
Contact: Mr. John Jo Varghese,
Subject Matter Specialist (Agronomy),
Mitraniketan Krishi Vigyan Kendra,
Thiruvananthapuram.
Ph: 9447010474
Age: 53
Education: 10 th class
Family size: Four
Occupation(s): Agriculture
No. of years in farming: 15
Paddy cultivation
He has an agriculture land of 6 acres in which paddy is cultivated in 3.5 acres. His
is an irrigated land, where he applies inputs like green leaf manure, FYM, fertilizers,
plant protection chemicals etc. He gets an yield of 3-3.5 t/acre in flooding method.
SRI adoption
He attended a training programme organized by Department of Agriculture at
Kazhakkuttom Regional Agriculture Training Centre in 2003. The training programme
was handled by Mr. John Jo Varghese, Subject Matter Specialist (Agronomy),
Mitraniketan Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Thiruvananthapuram. After the lecture,
he was much inspired by the new system of cultivation and tried SRI in one acre of
his paddy field on a trial basis during rabi, 2003. He took up SRI in all the 6 acres
and practiced for the past 9 seasons. He used varieties like Uma, Jaya, Harsha,
Pavizhom, MTU-1, Aiswarya etc.
All the practices under SRI were followed, except strict water control during vegetative
growth stage, as water in his plot cannot be easily controlled. He used implements
like Rotary Marker and Rotary Weeder provided by Mitraniketan KVK.
With regard to pest incidence, it was relatively less in his SRI field. The spacing
between plants provided enough space for monitoring, which helped in the
management of Leaf folders. Pseudomonas fluorescence, an effective bio control
agent, was used while seed treatment, nursery, and in the field also. Because of
this, fungal and bacterial diseases were controlled. Application of Pseudomonas
fluorescence was practically easier to adopt, as SRI required less seeds, less
nursery area and enough spacing between plants for the spraying.
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