GUWAHATI, May 8 � For a man resigned to cursing his field and fate following a string of poor harvests, it has been a remarkable turnaround for Md Abdul Khalek of Raidongia-Phuloguri village in Nagaon district whose exploits have earned national recognition.
Khalek, along with Montaz Ali (Kokila village, Bongaigaon), Umarani Basumatary and Indumoti Basumatary (representing the all-woman Mainao Multipurpose Agriculture Self-Help Group of Kokrajhar town) and Abdul Halim (Abravita village, Goalpara), was recently honoured by the Union Agriculture Ministry for their inspiring deeds in the field.
A day at a training workshop at the local Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) is all it took to enthuse Khalek with new ideas, as he realized that technological interventions could open up vistas he never thought were possible.
�I was left almost penniless after a series of bad harvests. I was toiling hard but the
returns were far from commensurate with the hard work�the knowledge I gained at the training did wonders, with the scientists, too, taking personal interest in my field. I switched to seasonal crops with thrust on quality and hybrid seeds besides applying the correct technologies,� Khalek says.
A staunch optimist now, Khalek has also gained from irrigation and proximity to the market.
Montaz Ali, an MA in Literature, found the prospects of his family farmland more alluring than chasing an elusive government job. He took keen interest in learning the details of growing different crops, especially the system of rice intensification (SRI) and high-yielding rice varieties.
�I established a good rapport with the KVK scientists and agriculture development officials�I cultivated various crops like summer paddy, potato, tomato, cucumber, banana, chilli, and both kharif and rabi vegetables,� he says, adding that he invested in fishery and dairy, too.
Indumoti Basumatary, the general secretary of the all-woman SHG, attributes the transformation to the hard work and commitment of ten women who attended a crop diversification programme sponsored by the Agriculture Department in 2007.
�We later formed an SHG with a moderate subscription of Rs 1,000 each. Our success started to manifest and we undertook many activities including providing financial help to members for cultivation, imparting technology training to other woman cultivators, organizing filed demonstrations, facilitating cooperative farming by leasing land from fellow farmers, etc.,� Basumatary says.
Significantly, the success of the ventures also led to a visible women empowerment in the area. �Never before did women here take their fate in their own hands to improve the lot of the community. It is now up to us to build on the success,� Basumatary says.
Abdul Halim had a childhood dream of owning a car, and it was at his father�s advice that he took to agriculture seriously. �I toiled hard on our family�s six-bigha plot and maintained close interaction with agriculture scientists and officials who guided me on the need to go for modern methods of cropping. If one is committed and has single-minded devotion to a cause, success is bound to come,� he says.
The four national awardees who were honoured at a function at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar feel that the tremendous prospects of agriculture in the State are yet to be reaped but that with adequate support from the Government in making available the technical interventions, �agriculture can flourish in the State and transform its economy.�
