Looking for success stories

By Jagdish Jamwal When in Nagrota at the Corps Headquarters we used to fly over the place to get to the Rajaori and Poonch by Helicopter.

I used to feel sorry for the people of the area because the area was most rugged and barren.

I used to wonder how the people must be living without water and source of income.

For the technology mission for Horticulture some people suggested the village of Jakh to "Look for success Stories".

One could not believe it because even on the Map there was hardly any level place for farming and the area is shown as 'Fairly Dense Scrub'.

One could hardly expect any profitable farming or horticulture development.

Curiosity goaded us to see the place.

The reports that came to us said that one ex-serviceman has created a good fruit orchard in the village.

We were late in starting from Jammu because of many other commitments and were hoping to be back by six in the evening at the latest but eventually we were back at 9 p.m.

Developments by IWDP This area is at the moment with the IWDP and they are doing a fairly good job.

Our guides were two officers of IWDP, Mr.

Pradeep Gupta, Sector Officer Horticulture of IWDP and Mr.

Kishori Lal Technician Horticulture 1.

We turned off from the National Highway No 1 between Kilometer Stones five and six from Akhnoor on the Akhnoor Sundarbani Road.

Passing through Sangani, Barola, Trodian, Maira, Mandheria, and Nor we reached Jakh at a distance of about fifteen kilometers from the National Highway and twenty Kilometers from Akhnoor.

We were surprised to see a Well on the roadside with a predominantly Mango orchard.

The total land is about twenty-five kanals owned by Lance Naik Mela Ram where he planted about two hundred and fifty plants out of which he still has two, hundred of them.

He has about twenty-five orange plants, two litchi and five Nimbu plants.

One of the most enterprising persons he takes his produce by mules to the road between Riasi-Paoni and sends these by buses to Rajouri for better income.

He says he planted these trees in 1993-94 and started getting the fruit on commercial scale after five years the first crop was sold for about 2000-2500 rupees; there after there was an increase of 1000 to 2000 every year.

He claims that he got 35000 to 40000 rupees last year but according to people who know him well he does not earn any thing less than sixty thousand rupees per year from these Mango plants.

Effort for Horticulture Technology We were very glad to see such a big orchard in this area.

He claims all the area that he has planted was full of stones and evidence is there to prove his point.

He dug up the place and started stacking huge stones on the edges.

Evidence is there to prove that when he started the land was not fit for cultivation or for planting orchards.

One can imagine the effort he has put in.

Unfortunately he has planted his trees too close.

He could have got from his orchard double the produce he gets now if he had planted the trees at a little greater distance.

He says he did not have that knowledge at the time of planting.

The first action of his was to shoot a goat that came to his garden when the plants were still young.

That action of his saved his plants because after that there never was an occasion to protect the orchard from any cattle or domesticated animals.

The people of the area used to make sure that no cattle or animals enter his area of plantation.

Visit to Village Mandheria Our next stop was on the return journey to Mandheria.

We met Retired Havaldar Sardari Lal who has eighty-five mango plants out of which twenty-five are fruit bearing.

These plants provide him an income of fifteen thousand because the plants are still young.

Tarlochan Dutt from the same village has sixty plants and he earns 60,000 rupees from his orchard.

Verinda Ban has twenty six plants and he earns about twenty five thousand from it.

His brother Ratan Lal has about 35-40 plants.

In between we met Milkhi Ram who also has a good orchard.

Mandheria is a village of orchards and has about 3000 mango plants.

Some of them take their produce to Ranbir Singh Pura South of Jammu city for sale at a higher price.

Credentials of the Villagers Proved Having seen just two villages one was convinced that supported by infrastructure and provided plants or plant material in the form of Bud Wood the whole area can produce thousands of kilos of mango and Ber.

The requirement is to train them to Top Work on the wild plants so that they can themselves graft the variety they want to cultivate.

Majority of the people should learn grafting of all plants but particularly they should learn Top Working on Mangoes and Ber.

This is the best way of income generation for the area.

The Government does not have to provide them plants or graft for them on the wild plants.

There cannot be an easier way of providing employment to the villagers of the area.

One has however to make sure that the training is provided to people by experts so that they learn the art of grafting and looking after the plants.

Just proper training can double their income in the case of existing gardens if proper distances are maintained and methods are taught to them of providing proper manure to their plants.

They could be taught mulching of the plants and proper preparation of compost and farmyard manure, organic farming through use of crop residue, crop rotation, use of vermin-compost, and bio-fertilizer.

The credentials of these villagers as hard working farmers are proved by what they have been able to achieve without much assistance.

With the Horticulture Technology Mission having been introduced in the State, this area deserves maximum attention.

Most of the farmers who are taking to hard work required for planting fruit orchards are Ex-Servicemen.

They are attuned to produce the best from the hardy land of our Kandi Area.

They should be provided the facilities of Drip Irrigation so that water shortage does not affect them, Green Houses and Integrated Pest Management.

Centers of Excellence for Horticulture This area should produce the centers of Excellence which should motivate other farmers to copy their methods and techniques to produce the maximum from their marginal holdings and degraded lands.

To develop their lands in a scientific manner should be the aim.

We as an organization would be able to help these people to formulate their requirements in an organized manner so that they get all that they require.

Havildar Sardari Lal was keen to start a unit of AWARE in his village.

We requested him to collect the whole village and in the meeting form a managing committee of the organization for the village.

He promised to do that and further promised to rope in the neighboring villages so that the whole Panchayat is a member of the AWARE and are able to function in an established manner to develop the area in Horticulture and other fields of Animal Husbandry, Agriculture, Bee-Keeping and other allied subjects.