Mr. P. Mahambare receives the "Best Farmers Club" Award on behalf of the Chorao Farmers Club

This award (for 2009-10) includes a cash prize of Rs 5,000/- and additional institutional support of Rs 5,000/-. It was presented to us at a special event on April 29th, 2010.

We’d like to thank the many, many people that have supported us in different ways over the last two years.

Mr. Deol - judged the 'Best Branch Manager' under the Farmers Club Program for 2009-10

The other good news is that our Central Bank of India Branch Manager, Mr. Amrik Singh Deol was identified as the ‘Best Branch Manager’ under the Farmers Club Program. A hearty congratulations to him and we thank him for his unstinting support!

Thanks to amazing support from mancurad mango lovers in Goa, we are now all out of AAMche Chorao Mancurad mangoes for this year.

Sorry if we missed you out this season, but we’ll be back next year. You can pre-order your mangoes in March 2011 by calling us on 9552 52 52 60

We can deliver to you in the following neighbourhoods — Bambolim, Caranzalem, Dona Paula, Fontainhas/Mala, Merces, Miramar, Panjim, Porvorim, Ribandar, Santacruz and Taleigao.

To order your mangoes,

call us on 9552 52 52 60 (only 300 boxes available)

Enjoy the mango season

Premanand Mahamabre felicitated by Ministry of Agriculture

Premanand Mahambare, the current President of our Club was among the 101 small and marginal farmers felicitated at the hands of the Union Minister for Agriculture, Shri Sharad Pawar, on the 26th of February 2010.

The Ministry of Agriculture has brought out a coffee table book titled “Harvest of Hope” that documents the role of small and marginal farmers in keeping the wheels of agriculture turning in India. 101 farmers from across the length and breadth of the country were identified and felicitated by the Minister at a function held at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi.

Needless to say, the Club is proud of his achievements.

Read the official press release about the event here.

And more about the book and event here.

Like last year, members of the Chorao Farmers Club were asked to make a presentation of our activities. Presentations included experience sharing from the Club’s President, the Branch Manager of the Central Bank (to which we are linked) and from TERI (the organisation which we work with).

(click here for TERI’s presentation [PDF- 4.3MB] )

Following the presentation, officers from NABARD, the Central Bank Regional and Branch Office visited the Farmers Club. Discussions with the 11-Member Committee were followed by a visit to farms nearby where some farmers are involved in an experiment on growing exotic vegetables (broccoli, Chinese cabbage and capsicum).

NABARD and Central Bank officials visit Madel Fields

The Problem: Leaves of the capsicum plan seem to be shriveling up and are not growing in size.

Shriveled up leaves of Capsicum

The diagnosis: Scientists from the KVK visited the farms where this seemed to be a problem. They suggest that this is a problem of fungal attack as well as that of white flies.

Dr. Prabhu and Dr. Rajnarayan visit affected farms

They also suspect that due to very high moisture levels (because of a low water table) and excessive watering the fungal attack was seen more in low-lying and not so much in upland areas.

Solutions: There were a couple of approaches taken to try and address the issue:

Sprinkle the following

1. wood/burnt cow-dung ash on the plants
2. a solution of burnt cow-dung ash in water (soaked for 24 hrs)
3. a neem-based water solution (though this was found to also contain the chemical epichlorohydrin )

It remains to be seen which of the above has been most effective.

Samiksha sprays her chilly crop with neem-based insecticide

Despite attack, Capsicum seems to be growing well in some pockets

Chorao Farmers Club stall at the Tiswadi Krishi Mela - Ela

This was an interesting opportunity for us to showcase our work and also directly sell produce to other farmers and residents from the taluka.

Thanks to the Department for organising an interactive session where we could address our concerns directly to the Directors of relevant departments, the ZAO and Ministers present (unfortunately, the Agriculture Minister was not present).

Farmers participating in the Q & A Sesion organised by the Department

We think such forums are an important space for farmers to raise issues of concern directly with authoroties. We hope the Department makes this an annual affair AND takes action on issues discussed.

Vegetable beds on day of sowing (30th Nov-2009) and one month later with ready saplings

The further-most bed in the photo on the right (above) has broccoli saplings. The next two have capsicum saplings and the one in the foreground of the photo has Chinese cabbage saplings, all ready for transplanting into their beds where they will grow.

Gently picking out the sapling after wetting the earth

It is a good idea to transplant saplings in the late afternoon (we started after 3:00pm) as the harshness of the sun has decreased for the day. This reduces the shock the sapling faces.

To ensure that we didn’t break the roots we wet the earth, thus softening it and in this way made pulling saplings out easy.

Getting ready to transport the saplings to the fields

Since 21 farmers have participated in this experiment, and we had limited saplings, we made bunches of 5-10 saplings and distributed it amongst ourselves. Saplings were then wrapped in hay, cloth or bunched in baskets to limit handling and damage.

Preparing beds and watering them before transplanting

Beds were prepared in the same manner as we did for the nurseries. Trichoderma virde powder (a bio-fungicide) was incorporated into the soil to prevent possible disease attack for the yet young and ‘in-shock’ saplings. Water was sprinkled on the beds to facilitate transplanting.

Capsicum is transplanted into beds

Capsicum saplings were transplanted 40cms apart in alternate rows (the rows without the saplings are used as channels for watering the beds later).

Chinese cababge is transplanted into rows

Chinese cabbage and broccoli were transplanted in rows keeping a distance of 50cms between plants.

All plants have to be watered twice a day preferably before 9:00am and after 4:00pm to prevent the leaves from getting scorched from the strong sun.

Learning to tag the bag

On the 14th of December 2009, we conducted a workshop where 8 new suppliers were inducted. Because we do not conduct centralised packaging, it is important that each and every supplier of rice (and these are all farmers too) know how to pack the rice the ‘correct’ way.

Always a little more, never a gram less...

We plan to conduct similar workshops every few months so as to induct new suppliers regularly.