Bees for Development Journal
75
ONE HECTARE OF LAND
ONE HECTARE OF LAND Gives 1,000,000 Indian Rupees per annum For all those who doubt these figures, a visit to Ramesh Chander Dagar's farmland is a must. It will change the
way you perceive agriculture and farming. Located in Akbarpur Barota village of Sonipat District in Haryana, India, the farmland is like the laboratory of an agricultural scientist. As a result of his research Dagar has arrived at the calculation above. "I am a simple farmer, who has studied only up to 10th standard. used to keep hearing claims by the government that small land holdings are not viable for agriculture, which set me thinking. About four years back, set aside a part of my agriculture field (1 ha) and started experimenting. Today am confident that ha land can give a minimum income of Rs 10 lakh (1,000,000 Indian Rupees) per annum," he says. |
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Dagar follows integrated organic farming. "Organic farming does not mean just not using pesticides. It is a whole lot of other things, such as beekeeping, dairy management, biogas production, water harvesting and composting. When a combination of these practices is followed, organic farming is sure to be successful, both ecologically and financially," he adds. Dagar is already busy spreading the seeds of integrated organic farming in his home State.
He has garnered support of other farmers and set up at state level, Haryana Kisan Welfare Club, with branches at each District. Close to 5,000 farmers are active members of this Club and are fast spreading the word around. Learning by doing
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Dagar started farming with only 1.6 ha land in 1971 and today owns close to 44 ha, all farmed by integrated organic methods. A clear understanding of three issues helped him succeed in life: how produce will be marketed; what natural resources are available; maintaining the quality of produce.
Marketing is the most important feature, as most organic farmers fail when they are unable to sell their produce. "Before sowing any new crop, used to first survey the market and understand the demand. It is only when was 60% sure of the returns, that used to take 40% risk,' says Dagar. And in most cases it worked for his good. |
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44 ha, Dagar grows organically almost all seasonal vegetables, fruits, paddy, wheat, in his
mushrooms and flowers. He has also started growing exotic vegetables and fruits, like lettuce, baby corn and strawberry, for export. It is out of this 44 ha, that he has set aside one hectare for research purposes: Dagar's ‘research lab’. "Through this 1 ha, want to prove to all those who think that organic farming is not |
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profitable.
Source of income
Annual income (Rs)
500,000 100,000 300,000 400,000 30,000
Vermicompost
Dairy Mushroom
Honey Fishery
Total Rs 1,330,000
Approximately €7,300 or US$9,200
Dagar's Research Lab Dagar's ha ‘research lab' is a visual extravaganza. Composting is taking place at one end, flowers growing at the other end, a farm pond with fishes, biogas plant, and solar panels. And all these processes are interlinked through various agrocycles that together create an annual income of around Rs 13 lakh. (See currency counter page 9). This income increases further if one takes into account energy saved due to use of biogas and solar power. Let us understand the agro-cycle of vermicomposting. "99.9% of Indian farmers burn the left over of paddy crop, locally known as pawal. This pawal is an excellent raw material for vermicompost (compost made using earthworms). Using it, am producing annually 300 tonnes of vermicompost, a part of which use on my fields and the rest is sold at a rate of Rs 3 per kg", says Dagar. Apart from vermicompost, Dagar also produces normal compost. Hence the total annual generation of compost is about 600 tonnes. Dagar aims to produce 1,000 tonnes by the end of 2004. All from a 'waste' resource. He claims vermicompost is the best because it helps maintain moisture in the soils and reduces water consumption by almost 25%. He is already providing 2 kg earthworms free of cost to farmers, who pledge to go in for organic farming. The most important part of integrated organic farming is beekeeping; which increases the output of crops by 10-30% because 1
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bees are very effective in natural pollination. Also the honey
