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Saturday, July 23, 2011

Hybrid maize wins Dalapchand endorsement

45 HECTARE EXPERIMENT LINES UP 200 HECTARE EXPANSE

AMEET OBEROI
DALAPCHAND, 22 July: C-1415, a hybrid, composite and high yielding variety of maize is being grown on a 45 hectare area in the Dalapchand Gram Panchayat Unit [GPU] as an area expansion programme by the Food Security and Agriculture Development Department. This hybrid variety yields 2,500 kg per hectare as compared to 900 kg of the local maize and its seeds can be stored for a longer period of time.
Khorlo Bhutia, Director, Agriculture Department, along with other department officials visited the area to inspect how the crop was faring and also to interact with the concerned farmers and to inform them of other schemes that can be availed by the farmers.

The Director, while speaking to NOW!, informed that the farmers were provided with the seeds by the department along with organic manure, and after the crop was ready, the department had worked a buy-back guarantee through SIMFED at Rs. 50 per kg. This, he stated, was being done to keep the farmers interested in agriculture and supplementing their income. “If you want to become a Lakhpati in 80-90 days, then go in for agriculture,” he said.
He further informed that once the crop had been harvested, the seeds from the same variety were kept for the next season. This, he said, was being done to cut costs of importing seeds from outside and now the seeds will be available in the State, itself.
One of the progressive farmers of the area, Sanjeev Kumar Rai, who owns a 0.5 hectare plot said that this was the first time he was trying this variety of maize and was very happy with the outcome.
“This is a good policy of the government and works well for the farmer too as everything is being provided by the department and the farmer only has to look after the crop and then the department has a buy-back policy which guarantees income at the end,” he said.
This is also better than the local variety because the local maize crop grows too tall and when there are strong winds in the area, the crops get destroyed, thereby causing loss for the farmers. The hybrid are of the right size, he further informed and added that since the hybrid crop required a little bit of more hard work, he has 14 people of the area working with him.
The Deputy Director also informed that Mr. Rai was one of the most progressive of the 27 farmers of the area.
In his address to the farmers, the Director informed them of the other projects for the area and asked them to increase the area of production to at least 200 hectares from the existing 45. He also informed them that the GPU would be made the seed production hub for hybrid maize and also for Rajma, which were the two crops being grown in the GPU. “Individual farmers and self help group of the area will also be awarded under the Agriculture Technology Management Agency [ATMA],” he said.

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