KVK
Almora, Uttarakhand
KVK, Dehradun, one of the KrishiVigyanKendras of GBPUAT (Pantnagar), took to the villages to help them gain commercial benefit from growing vegetables. They did so by developing poly tunnel technology for commercial nursery production of vegetables, identifying high yielding varieties in the area, helping farmers raise poly tunnels on their fields, supplying quality inputs (10 lakh vegetable seedlings of Brinjal, Tomato, Chilli, Cabbage and Cauliflowerdistributed to farmers), and also helping farmers market their produce. The result was savings on labour, input costs and abridged crop duration. The Brinjal (Eggplant) varieties like Anamika and Chaya showed a remarkable 64% rise in produce as compared to traditional varieties, with even the Cabbage varieties displaying a marked improvement in output (604 q/ha as against 455 to 500 q/ha) as seen by the 16 farmers who adapted this technology.
The KVK also sought to help Litchi farmers. They did so by introducing farmers to canopy management. Canopy management helps maintain optimum plant density, is an effective way of rejuvenating old litchi orchards, improves shelf life of the fruit, makes application of agricultural inputs easier, lessens thelabour requirement, and even the post-harvest losses are reduced. The resultis an astounding 100% increase in productivity (from 4000-6000 to 12000 kg/ha) as witnessed by 100 farmers who put the method to practice.
Mahindra Samriddhi India Agri Awards is proud to acknowledge the remarkable achievements of KVK Dehradun, a subsidy of GBPUAT (Pantnagar) by awarding them with KrishakShikshaSamman 2012 (National Award)