Expert Advice Changes Young Odisha Farmer’s Fortune

Bhubaneswar: Purna Chandra Behera of Kandha Nayagad village of Kandha Nayagad Gram Panchayat of Ranpur Block, Nayagad district could not complete his studies due to his family’s financial condition. So he moved to Bengaluru and worked there for five years as a daily wage painter.

But then his parents prevailed upon him to return home and start farming to help his father. Although he was reluctant initially, Purna agreed to come back. Now married with two children, he does not regret his decision as he has been able to adopt modern farming practices with the help of the Reliance Foundation (RF).

He cultivates paddy and vegetables on eight acres, which includes 1.5 acres owned by his family. Among the vegetables he grows are bitter gourd, brinjal and cucumber and ridge gourd. He also grows green gram. 

“We could not earn much profit from the conventional agricultural practices that my father used to follow. I focused on getting the right information from the Reliance Foundation Toll-free Helpline No (1800 419 8800) before selecting crop variety. I consult experts right from the stage of land preparation to variety selection, fertilizer application, to pest and disease management. This has definitely changed my fortune,” said the young farmer. 

“Expert advice from Reliance Foundation helped me in saving my bitter gourd crop from being attacked by fungicide and leaf curling diseases. I applied Acefet + Imidacloprid (10 grams per 15 liters of drum) or Thiamethoxam + Acetamiprid (7 grams per 15 liters of drum). I used to apply it twice at an interval of seven days. To my amazement, I saw the bitter gourd leaf colour changing and the plant started recovering. I got 80 quintals of bitter gourd from 1 acre of land, which cost around Rs. 100,000 with an investment of Rs. 20,000 in a single crop,” said Purna.

Purna’s brinjal crop also became better and he was able to earn Rs. 50,000 after selling with an investment of Rs. 10,000 in a single crop. 

“With this profit in hand, I started to dig a well in near my land to meet the water scarcity. I invested in purchasing a pump set, pesticide spraying machine and doing cement plaster for four rooms for my family members,” said Purna.

‘I must have dialed the RF Toll-free number more than 100 times and am a regular VMS listener. I keep track of all the updates on Reliance Foundation Nayagad What’s App group. RF helps a lot towards increasing of livelihood of farmers,” Purna added.