Indian farmer get appreciation for innovation with aromatic rice

29 Dec 2011

GANGTOK (Commodity Online): India's Directorate of Rice Research has appreciated Kailash Rana Manger, a progressive farmer from Sikkim, for innovations in rice cultivation and he was called as the rice innovator of Sikkim during the ‘Innovative Rice Farmers Meet 2011’ held in August at Hyderabad.

Manger had been appreciated for his innovative replacement of ‘Kalo Nuniya Dhaan’ in place of local scented variety for a high yield, fragrance and fixed black coloured grants.

‘Kalo Nuniya Dhaan’ is known as the “prince of rice” and is considered the best tiny aromatic rice in the world, a substitute for basmati rice.

With 20 years of experience in farming, Mangar gave his presentation on ‘Kalo Nuniya Dhaan’ during the meet at Hyderabad.

Acccording to Manger, a scented rice cultivar was first brought from a progressive farmer of Maal Bazaar, Jalpaiguri and is capable replacing of local rice variety Dudha and Tulsi.

He does farming in 3 acres land on lease basis of Rs. 20,000 per annum and had introduced this new variety of rice last year by obtaining 3 kgs of seed from a progressive farmer of Jalpaiguri and sowed the seeds using the System of Rice Intensification technique with guidance from Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Saramsa under Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).

The production was 4 quintals of rice which surprised him as it was four times more as compared to the other local varieties.

Mangar sold the produce at Rs. 8000 per quintal. He used to sale local variety at Rs. 2200-2500 per quintal. This year, Mangar is expecting a harvest of 16 quintals of rice from 6 kgs of seed.

He explained that the ‘Kalo Nuniya Dhaan’ plant has 25-28 tillers per hill with panicles of 20-20 cm and 156 grains per panicle. Not only the rice, even the straw of this variety is highly demanded as it has good nutritious value and is used as fodder for cattle.

Mangar pointed out that many farmers have given up agriculture due to increasing labour costs. Farmers who have small holdings can go for this variety of rice which is much profitable.

This package of practices is standardized by the farmers and the cultivar is being adopted by farmers of different villages of the East District. The demand of Kalo Nuniya Rice is very high in other States as the farmers from Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad already demanded him for seeds, he revealed.

Mangar’s hard work is not only limited to agriculture as he also does horticulture cultivating cabbage, cauliflower, Broccoli, Baby Corn and other vegetables. He has been able to sellproduce worth Rs. 11,000. He is earning Rs. 1.5 lakhs per annum through farming.

The farmer is also a beneficiary of Department of Biotechnology Project of the KVK.

Source : http://www.commodityonline.com/news/indian-farmer-get-appreciation-for-innovation-with-aromatic-rice-44757-3-44758.html

NEWs: From farmer to retailer, he sows seeds of change in Bangalore market

December 19, 2011

INDIAN EXPRESS
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/from-farmer-to-retailer-he-sows-seeds-of-change-in-bangalore-market/889481/

Forty-year-old K H Krishnamurthy has been a farmer all his life. But one day, eight months ago, the Class X dropout from Kolathur village in Hoskote taluk outside Bangalore city decided he could do better.
“For 11 years, I had been supplying vegetables to supermarkets in Bangalore like Reliance, Food World, Nilgiri’s and Namdhari. I thought I should open a supermarket of my own, where I could sell produce from my farm and that of other farmers known to me,” he says.
His dream came true two months ago, when A1 Fresh World, Bangalore’s first farmer-owned supermarket, opened in Kadugodi, near upscale Whitefield. Hundreds of shoppers flocked to the store — located strategically in the midst of several high-rise apartment buildings — on its opening day, raking up Rs 2.5 lakh in sales. The farm-fresh vegetables and competitively priced groceries were an instant hit and the store began to draw shoppers from several kilometres away.

“I took a bank loan of Rs 18 lakh and invested in this store. It was a big gamble and I am glad it has paid off,” says Krishnamurthy.
A single-storey building, the 4,000-sq ft store stocks everything from groceries to steel utensils to baby food. Fifteen employees manage stocks, man the three billing counters and sort and pack groceries in the small warehouse attached to the store. Five others pick up fruits and vegetables from farms in Hoskote and deliver them, morning and evening, to the store, 15-20 km away. Groceries and exotic fruits are sourced from wholesale markets in Bangalore.
“Every day, we sell 1.5 tonnes of vegetables and fruits. On an average, we get 452 customers a day and make Rs 1 lakh-1.5 lakh in sales, depending on the day of the week,” Krishnamurthy says. His monthly expenses add up to Rs 2.5 lakh, which, he says, is half of what a corporate-owned supermarket spends.
With sales looking up, Krishnamurthy hopes to break even soon and open five more stores in the city in a year. “Now I get 50 per cent of the produce from my farm. But I want to buy more from other farmers. If I can buy 12-13 tonnes of vegetables and fruits from them everyday, I will get a good price,” he says.
He has a habit of thinking ahead. Six months ago, when he zeroed in on this plot of land that he has leased for 14 years at Rs 75,000 per month, he decided to build his supermarket without any help from city-based engineers. He left parking space all around and is now constructing a small room to house an HDFC Bank ATM, which will fetch him Rs 13,000 a month.
“I have to count every penny. There are frequent power cuts here, but I cannot yet afford a big generator,” Krishnamurthy says. However, he isn’t the least bit worried by the possibility of FDI in retail. “I am not a fan of corporates but if it means farmers will have a bigger market and get better prices, then why not?” he says.
Krishnamurthy says customer feedback has helped immensely. He has realised, for instance, that he must stock rajma, dhokla pots and Gujarati mamra to cater to the north Indian crowd. His learning curve has been steep, he says: in two months, he has picked up some Hindi and English, deduced urban preferences for things like baby potatoes which are of little value back in his village, and figured out that the home delivery model isn’t efficient. When customers wanted to buy fish and chicken, he promptly contracted out a small cabin in one corner of the store to a local vendor.
Krishnamurthy’s sons, Adarsh, 16, and Sudarshan, 14, help out with the weekend rush. “Earlier, when we got up early, we would go to the field to help with farm work, but now, on holidays, we come here to get a hang of the business,” says Adarsh, who takes a bus from Hoskote to Bangalore to go to school every day.
The family has about 20 acres of land back home, of which eight acres are devoted to a vegetable garden where every day is harvest day. Adarsh wants to study management and help his father expand his business. Sudarshan enjoys working the billing systems for now.

The store opens as early as 7.30 am and shuts at 9.30 pm. The extra hours fetch Rs 10,000-15,000 more every day, Krishnamurthy says. “My father asks me why I have to work so hard from 5 am till midnight. Life isn’t easy for a farmer. I want to do more, for myself, and for other farmers,” he says. 

Eats shoots and leaves

Joeanna Rebello Fernandes, TNN | Dec 4, 2011, 07.30AM IST

The sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card said that unemployment was capitalism's way of getting people to plant gardens. (By that measure , the UK should be blooming ). In Mumbai, it's not unemployment that's driving some to the soil, but inflation, a rising concern about the health of their food, interest in organic food culture, and, not least, the desire to de-tox and destress naturally. 

Across the field, urban gardeners have been reporting about the city's growing interest in pots and plants. Guncha Khare, who runs Bombay Hub, the 'laboratory of social change' , says their monthly urban gardening workshops have been packing in a full house every time. "Every batch is attended by about 15 to 20 people, and it's a new audience every session," she says. The workshops are presently conducted by Adrienne Thadani, who runs Fresh and Local, an organisation that consults on organic gardening. "We try to propagate the benefits of organic farming; show people how easy and inexpensive it is; teach them how to work around constraints of space, and guide them towards timeand resource-saving techniques of gardening," she says. "We also teach them how to make their own compost from recycled kitchen waste." 

The clincher in the organic argument lies in the sampling of the fruit of labour. The harvest of veggies and herbs, like tomatoes, okra, basil and bay leaves from the hub's terrace garden is distributed to participants of the workshop so they can taste the difference between organic and chemical produce. Associated initiatives like Hari Bhari Tokri (the community farming experiment that supplies organic produce to subscribers), and Farmers' Markets have also done service to indie food culture and changed tastes. 

Urban gardeners on the crusade to make planters of the public have discovered the blog as soapbox. Mani Pattabiraman , who blogs under the alias Geekgardener, says he has 600 members on his forum and receives about 30 to 40 emails a day from people inquiring after his posts on hydroponic techniques , potting options and so on. "I usually advise beginners to start with one plant, say spinach or coriander, and tend to it until they're self-sufficient in its yield," says the Bangalorebased software engineer, whose kitchen sources from his terrace garden. "I haven't bought tomatoes in three and a half years," he claims. The engineer-gardener has even sold his surplus yield of beefsteak tomatoes and 18-inch long seedless cucumbers to the local supermarket and occasionally sells his produce in his office. 

Unlike Mumbai, which is a fledgling in the field, Bangalore has a relatively large group of terrace potters who come together for seed swaps and plant exchanges. But Mumbai is catching up. Urban Gardener Sunita Mohan, who writes the blog Urban Gardener , says she has been getting many inquiries from people who are interested in growing their own food. "Mumbaiites are foodies at heart," she says, referring to their interest in planting edible gardens as a natural progression of their interest in eating. "They also want to guarantee that their food is not toxic; they want to know that the sprouts in their salad or the spinach in their soup comes from a safe space, where the water and nutrients can be vouched for." 

Promoters are also pitching the exercise as a natural rejuvenator. The feel of earth and thrill of creation is a guaranteed restorative, they say. And for those who don't want to potter around in private or keep a lonely garden, groups like Urban Leaves invite them to the community farm. The farm, on the grounds of Maharashtra Nature Park, has been drawing a steady stream of volunteers who gather every Sunday morning to sow and reap and make a picnic of planting. 

"We're in the second year of the farm; it usually takes about three years to build a sustainable garden and get a good yield," says Preeti Patil, founder member of the group, who is also noted for turning one of the canteen terraces of Bombay Port Trust into a horn of plenty. Keen to take urban farms far, the group has even set up a small patch at Bai Avabai Petit Girls High School, Bandra. "It will hopefully be tended by the boarders of the school, who can then enjoy its produce," says Patil. 

Next week the propaganda for urban farming will be cranked up a degree when Urban Leaves hosts the second edition of the National Seminar on Organic Urban Gardening in Mumbai. The event will gather several experts to the table to talk about the principles of permaculture, medicinal gardening, plant-based diets, and explain the science of Nateuco Farming. 

Clea Chandmal, a specialist in molecular genetics and plant breeding, says she will be talking about terrace gardening and city farming the Permaculture way. "Permaculture is an integrated systems approach to designing a sustainable human supporting environment ," she explains. "It integrates, water, energy, food and house design." Chandmal will lecture on how one can set up a Permaculture terrace/ city farm to grow at least some of one's own food. "In addition to food becoming very expensive and ridden with cancercausing pesticides, our earth is also running low on oil. When Cuba had no oil in the '90s, fueldependent agriculture became impossible. Cubans got together and grew their own food on terraces and in parks. In India, many home owners are growing their own vegetables; Goa, Bangalore and Delhi have many examples. There are even competitions for kitchen gardening in these cities." 

In time, kitchen garden culture will prevail here too. After all, the seed has only just been sowed.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Eats-shoots-and-leaves/articleshow/10977051.cms?referral=PM