Achievements

ACHIEVEMENTS/IMPACT OF KVK

Achievements -2011-2019-I

Achievements -2011-2019-II

 Because of the continuous efforts through training programmes, on farm/adaptive trials, demonstrations, consultancy service and other extension activities, the impact of this KVK is visible in district Kullu as:

1.        In the beginning except potato crop, very few farmers were growing vegetables in the district. The emphasis was mainly on cereals, pulses and horticultural crops. However, now the situation has gone sea change especially in the lower areas of the district.  In lower area farmers have shifted to the commercial cultivation of vegetable crops and more than 80% of the change in cropping pattern is there.

2.        In the cereals and pulses also farmers are now using latest high yielding varieties and technologies evolved by the ICAR and SAUs.

3.        The Impact of vocational trainings in bee keeping, vegetable cultivation, home science, rabbitry and mushroom cultivation, which were provided by this Kendra is also visible in the district as:

a)        In bee keeping after getting training, the farmers are now keeping bees in the hives in a scientific manner as compared to old practice of domestication. On commercial scale about 30 farmers have adopted bee keeping as part time avocation.

b)        In vegetables, techniques for raising disease free seedlings in poly-tunnels have been made popular and about 45 farmers are earning their part time livelihood from the nursery raising.  In addition the technology provided by this KVK for cultivation of hybrids in vegetables and off-season vegetable cultivation in crops like tomato, cauliflower, cabbage, capsicum, brinjal, peas, cucumber and frenchbean is bringing very high returns to the farmers.

c)        In home science, out of 96 farm women trained in cutting and tailoring, 20 have adopted it as a profession, in which they are stitching their own and family garments and are also meeting the demands of their neighbours and nearby villagers.  They are earning about Rs. 1000-1500 per month as an extra income, whereas five of them have become professional tailors and are imparting further trainings to the farm ladies.

d)        About 15 rabbitry units have come up in the valley with the help of KVK, which are giving handsome income to the farmers.

e)        Many mushroom units have come up with the motivation of this KVK.

4.        Prior to the establishment of this Kendra farmers were only using nitrogenous fertilizer urea/CAN in small quantities. But now a majority of the farmers are well aware of the balanced fertilizer use in cereals, pulses and vegetable crop cultivation.

5.        In plant protection measures such as treatment of seed with recommended dose of fungicide has been adopted by the majority of farmers.  Chemical weed control in maize, wheat, tomato, peas and frenchbean is catching up with the farmers. Majority of farmers are following judicious use of insecticides especially in vegetables. Orchardists have become aware of the recommended plant protection schedule.

6.       This Krishi Vigyan Kendra has helped farmers in constructing water-harvesting tanks, due to which they have shifted cereal based cropping pattern to vegetable system. Gravity-flow-sprinkler-irrigation has also been adopted by many farmers in the Kullu valley.

7.       In animal management farmers have become well aware of artificial insemination (A.I), vaccination, preparation of balanced animal ration, importance of mineral mixture and the use of urea molasses block (UMB) etc.

8.       New fruits like strawberry, kiwi, pomegranate, stone fruits and high density plantation in apple has become popular.

9.        Through FLD programmes, farmers have become aware of Gobhi Sarson crop which they are sowing upto 20^th January if winter rains are delayed.

10.      Kullu Krishi Patrika a quarterly magazine published by this Kendra is being appreciated by many departments and farmers of the Kullu valley.

Significant achievements of KVK, Kullu during last 4 years

Diversification through Off-season Vegetable production

Introduction:

      Owing to diverse agro-ecological situations, Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh is endowed with comparative advantage for growing various off-season vegetables. Vegetables play a significant role in quality food, nutritional security as well as poverty alleviation. The vegetables are embedded with vitamins, proteins, minerals, carbohydrates and fibers. The consumption of vegetables is ever increasing and to meet this increasing demand, more and more emphasis is required on off-season vegetable production for higher income and employment generation in the rural sector. In hills, where job opportunities in other sectors are very less, off-season vegetable growing is the only option to attract more and more rural youth to adopt agriculture as vocation (means of self employment), halt migration to cities and achieve agriculture growth over 4 %. Further, global warming has resulted in the shift of apple to higher altitudes, off-season vegetables is the only remunerative alternative for livelihood. Keeping in view, KVK, Kullu initiated its endeavour for the diversification of agriculture through off-season vegetable cultivation.

Methodology /Approach /Strategy:

During early nineties awareness campaigns were initiated by KVK, Kullu to popularize the off-season vegetable cultivation with the formation of many Kisan clubs. Simultaneously, about 100 rural youth were trained at KVK, Kullu in collaboration with the department of agriculture for meeting the input requirements of off-season vegetables.

            In the present scenario, when there is strong network of various stake holders throughout the district through various SHGs and farmers clubs etc., KVK has established itself as the knowledge hub to increase outreach to every nook and corner of the district by taking advantage of this strong network. Acknowledging KVK as knowledge hub, all the stake holders   working for the enhancement of livelihood options to the farmers like departments namely, Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal husbandry, Mid-Himalayan Watershed Project (Forest), Great Himalayan National Park, District Youth Services and Sports, SHGs, NGOs, NYK etc. are seeking our services.

            KVK has assessed and refined various technologies and also prepared technology modules based on recommendation domains for different agro-ecological situations. To popularize these technologies, off and on campus training programmes based on “learning by doing” and large scale demonstrations based on “seeing is believing” were organized.  In one of the ambitious programme “Pt. Deen Dyal Kisan Bagwan Samridhi Yojna” of the State, it has been made mandatory for polyhouse owners to get training  from KVK. Similarly, Krishak Mitras from each and every panchayat are also being trained at KVK.  Literature pertaining to these technologies was developed and distributed to the farmers and extension officers. Kullu Krishi Patrika, a quarterly magazine of Krishi Vigyan Kendra played a significant role in dissemination of aforesaid technologies.

Major vegetable based sequences

Training programmes and demonstrations on off season vegetables (Last 4 years):

For the quality production of vegetables, availability of healthy nursery is kingpin. Therefore, KVK has established large number of the farmers as entrepreneurs for nursery raising. Other interventions like water conservation, harvesting and efficient management were also taken up simultaneously.  Regular services are also provided to the farmers to solve their day to day problems and have feedback and monitoring. Now regulars SMSs are also being sent to the farmers for timely operations.

Quantitative and qualitative Impact of the Technology including vertical and horizontal spread

     Our efforts have resulted in considerable increase in area under vegetables in the district which is however very difficult in fragile eco-system of hills. The total area under off-season vegetables in the district has increased from 301 ha in 1995-96 to 4709 ha in 2009-10.  The productivity of the vegetables as a whole has also increased almost two folds from the last 15 years reaching to 199.2 q/ha in 2009-10.  With the adoption of various vegetable cultivation technologies as suggested by KVK, Kullu, the net income of the farmers in the district has increased to many fold (1.5 to 2 lakhs/acre-average land holding of farmers) and subsequently their standard of living has improved.

Area (Ha) under different vegetables

II. Scientific Training and Pruning in Apple

In Himachal Pradesh the productivity of apple varies between 6-7 tonnes per hectare as compared to 25-30 tonnes per hectare in the developed countries like USA, Australia and Canada. The causes of low productivity of apple are many, but training and pruning is also one of the major factors contributing optimum yield with quality produce. Scientific training and pruning helps in development of strong framework of the plants and maintenance of optimum C : N ratio crucial for better yield.

In Himachal Pradesh apple trees on seedling rootstocks are trained in modified central leader system. Twig in the centre is allowed to develop as leader in the young trees until it attains the height of 3.0 m. In this way growth is restricted and the scaffold branches are developed all around the periphery of the tree at the angle of 45⁰. Lower most branch is selected at 30-45 cm height above ground level. In this way a strong and good framework of the tree is developed for early and regular future bearing.

Keeping in view the bearing habit of the fruit, pruning may be done in a way to get the regular and higher yield of good quality fruits. Since, apple bears on spur, spur thinning is required to be maintained for regular cropping.  In apple pruning, thinning cuts and heading back is must for maintaining the balance between vegetative and reproductive growth. It helps in giving regular good crop of quality fruits without any effect on the tree growth.

Therefore, KVK Kullu tried its best to educate the rural youth about scientific training and pruning in apple by conducting training programmes and organizing demonstrations to enhance their skills about canopy management.

Training programmes (Last 4 years):

 Front line Demonstrations:

Eleven FLDs (each of 0.16 ha) were conducted for the last 4 years throughout the district. Average yield in FLDs over locations and years was 10.79 t/ha as against 9.27 t/ha under farmers’ practice.

Horizontal & Vertical spread:

Out of present 23000 ha area under apple in the district, scientific pruning is being practiced in about 13500 ha (59 % area). Similarly, the productivity has also increased from about 6-7 t/ha to 9-10 t/ha.

III.  Scientific management of dairy animals

Livestock farming is the most important source of livelihood, after agriculture, in Himachal Pradesh. Nearly 91.39% households have milch animals in varying numbers. The scenario in Kullu district is same and there is production of 30.41 tonnes of milk per year. In the absence of scientific management practices and lack of knowledge among farmers, the productivity of these animals is low (Indigenous cows-1.603 litre/day, Cross bred cows- 4.242 litre/ day). Poor nutrition is the single largest cause of the poor performance of these animals. Non availability of the balanced concentrate ration, scarcity of green fodder for about 4-5 months in a year, lack of knowledge about the prophylactic measures against various diseases and parasites prevalent results in low milk yield.

            Keeping these constraints in view, KVK Bajaura introduced scientific management practices in dairy animals under small holder’s management condition through awareness programmes, training programmes and demonstrations.

During the last four years the Kendra conducted the following trainings on dairy

·         These programmes resulted in wide spread adoption of improved practices like balanced feeding, regular use of mineral mixture, use of UMB in lean months, control of ecto and endo parasites and regular vaccination against, FMD, HS and BQ. The large scale adoption is also reflected by the ever increasing demand of mineral mixture and UMB sold by the KVK through its sale centre.

·         Self help groups to promote dairy as an avocation are being adopted by the Kendra regularly. During the last four years, KVK adopted three women self help groups of different villages. Regular meetings were conducted to impart training on all aspects of dairy farming. Demonstration on preparation of balanced feed using locally available ingredients, importance of feeding mineral mixture, benefits of feeding UMB, cultivation of improved fodder cultivars, fodder trees, first aid to the animals, value addition of milk etc were given to the women farmers.

Ø  The root slips of Napier Bajra and Setaria were planted in 0.5 ha area in each adopted village and 70-100 trees of thorn less Robinia and mulberry were planted in each village. As a result the fodder scarcity is likely to reduce to 10% from the existing 35-40%.

Ø  Adoption of practices like nutritional enrichment of straws, mineral mixture, UMB has led to improvement in milk production up to 11% as well as better reproductive health of the animals.

Ø  The women have started preparing concentrate ration on their own which is cost effective and best in quality.

Ø  There is 100% adoption of prophylactic measures like deworming, vaccination etc. in the groups.

Ø  The women of the groups are selling the value added products of milk (Paneer) at comparatively better price than milk.

·         There is widespread prevalence of haematuria in the animals particularly in the high hill villages of the Nagar and Banjar blocks of the Kullu district. In some villages 80-90% population is affected. Bracken fern poisoning has been confirmed as one of the causative agent of the disease and now a wide spread awareness campaign has been launched by the Kendra in collaboration with Department of Animal health and breeding Kullu to create awareness among farmers to control this disease.