A former white collar employee harvests success from turmeric
About 17 tonnes of fresh turmeric was harvested from an acre
Turning point: Busthani in his turmeric field in Kozhikode.— Photo: Special arrangement
Mr. Muhammed Busthani, from Koduvally in Kozhikode
district of Kerala, does not claim to be an experienced farmer, but a
casual chat with him can make one realise that the man’s knowledge in
the subject is quite deep rooted.
His interest,
particularly in turmeric, is surprising when he asserts: “Among all
crops turmeric is the least affected by pests and infestations.”
No clue
On return to his home town after leaving a private sector job in New Delhi, Mr. Busthani was planning to venture into business.
But he was totally clueless on where to start. His friends floated many ideas, but he was all the more confused.
It
was a meeting with an expert at the Indian Institute of Spices
Research, Kozhikode, and an old acquaintance, which helped him to
realize that agriculture was his next calling.
In
February 2011, he, along with his five friends, attended a three-day
seminar and technology showcasing conducted at the Institute under the
aegis of National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) of ICAR.
That was a turning point in the life of Mr. Busthani and his friends.
“After
attending various sessions in the seminar and hearing the success
stories of farmer participants, we decided to grow turmeric,” he
recalls.
Initially, they booked one tonne of seeds of
Prathibha turmeric variety from a farmer delegate in the seminar. The
friends formed a trust and took one acre land on lease at Sultan
Bathery, Wayanad, and thus Bucca Farms was born.
From that one acre plot the team harvested around 17 tonnes of fresh turmeric in January 2012.
“We
dried about 100 kg of Prathibha turmeric and powdered it for domestic
use. After that, the home made dishes were all in a different taste.
When my wife pointed out the superiority of turmeric powder, I thought
of cultivating it on commercial scale,” he recalls.
Exploring options
He took the appreciation seriously and explored the opinions of the neighbouring housewives — a sort of survey study.
All the neighbours who used Prathibha turmeric for cooking endorsed the ‘magic’ of Prathibha turmeric powder.
This
year, the friends leased out around 18 acres of land at Pazhayangadi
near Vellamunda in Wayanad district of Kerala and the entire area was
planted with the remaining Parthiba seeds.
Today,
Bucca Farms may be the largest farm growing a single variety of turmeric
in Kerala. The farmers adopt the production packages recommended by
IISR.
The operations including the fertilizer
applications are targeted to get a yield of 320 tonnes. IISR scientists’
team has developed specific fertilizer recommendations to obtain a
fixed yield from a unit area of land, known as ‘targeted yield’.
As the crop is showing good health and uniform growth, the farmers are expecting a yield somewhere near the targeted levels.
Tonnes per hectare
“Maturing
in 225 days under rainfed conditions, Prathibha gives an average yield
of 39.12 tonnes per hectare. Relatively higher levels of curcumin
(6.25per cent), oleoresin (16.2per cent) and essential oil (6.2 per
cent) make this variety a hot choice for industrial, medicinal, and
culinary purposes.
“The variety is proven to give 6
to 7 per cent of curcumin under Kerala conditions,” says Dr. B
Sasikumar, Principal Scientist of the institute who developed it more
than 10 years back.
“The Prathibha variety, which was
released in the year 1996, has proved to be more adaptable to different
states of India like Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Punjab etc, owing to its better phenotypic plasticity and other
favourable conditions,” says Dr. M Anandaraj, Director, Indian Institute
of Spices Research.
With his two years of experience
of turmeric cultivation, Mr. Busthani is now aware of the problems of
farming in the state — labour shortage and high labour costs.
Remedy
And
he has a remedy too for this malady — farm mechanization. In fact, one
of the major labour requirements for turmeric in the state is for
bed-making for planting. With the help of local skilled workers, he
converted a tractor mounted disc plough into a bed maker.
“Though
the topography of the area was undulating; we could make uniform beds
for planting turmeric in the entire 18 acres land using the bed-maker.
It helped us to save about 300 labourers’ work,” he adds.
The
farmer is also contemplating going in for available modern techniques
in other farm operations so as to bring down the cost of production.
“We are working on a tractor mountable device to harvest the crop in the coming season,” he adds.
He
was also one of the farmers identified for scientific cultivation of
ginger (varada) under the institutes’ NAIP project on multi-enterprise
farming models to address the agrarian crisis of Wayanad, Kerala in
2011.
For more details contact Mr. Muhamed Busthani, Thotathil House, Elettil PO, Koduvally, Kozhikode, Mob: 09946041946.
original article here : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sci-tech-and-agri/a-former-white-collar-employee-harvests-success-from-turmeric/article4121563.ece
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