Exposure of 36 members from 10 farmers club to IGFRI UNDER HARIT PRAYAS project!
Venue: IGFRI (Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute)
Organizer: Jhansi
Date: June 21, 2012.
Introduction:
The very basic purpose of ‘Exposure Visit’, as a line-item activity in any project, is to learn by seeing and replicating the same. Exposure visit enables community members to see the effort being made by organization into a larger context. It also facilitates direct linkages of the community members with government institution and officials. One direct relationship between target community members and government bodies is established, the community members are empowered to take on, on their own.
Harit Prayas Project:
The line item number 2.2.4 of the Result Area-I, Agriculture (ref: PMF, Harit Prayas) directs for exposure visit of 36 farmers (members of farmers club) to any agricultural institute.
JCSS arranged a one day exposure visit of farmers to Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute (IGFRI). The IGFRI is one and only institute, not only in India
IGFRI is popularly known as GRASSLAND by common man in the region. It was established in 1962 AD by Government of India.
IGFRI has a huge and quality infrastructure and as per IGFRI declaration “The Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, established in 1962, has been instrumental in fostering research, training and extension programmes on all aspects of forage production and utilization through inter-disciplinary approach. It has provided technologies, human resource development skills, consultancy and technical services on forage production and utilization to government and non-government organizations, agri-business and farmers.”
Under project Harit Prayas the exposure visit of the farmers has been conducted on June 21, 2012 to Grassland.
Abstract/summary:
The exposure visit had two sessions. Session- I consisted of lectures by two senior scientists of IGFRI namely Dr. Maharaj Singh, HoD and Dr. Satyapriya. The highlights of the two hour long lecture by both the scientists, in their well equipped conference hall, can be summarized as following:
Session-I I
· The importance of livestock in growth of human civilization was discussed.
· The brief history of IGFRI and its area of work, objective were narrated to farmers.
· The importance of quality fodder for livestock, especially for the farmers of Bundelkhand region, was discussed by Dr. Maharaj singh.
· Dr. Singh also trained farmers on technology of producing different types of fodder like
- Green fodder
- Forest fodder
- Garden fodder
- Fodder production in dry land
- Fodder production in wetland
- Mixed farming (crops as well as fodder cultivation)
· Farmers learnt about plantation techniques and harvesting method and timing for different types of Grass/fodder.e.g
- Nandi Grass
- Napier Grass
- Ginni Grass
- Lobia
- Barseem
- Kachnar
- Sail Grass
- Fulkara Grass
- Anjan Grass and so on……
· The second speaker scientist Dr. Satyapriya emphasized on means and ways for getting benefit from IGFRI schemes.
· The community grassland for grazing livestock has disappeared in Bundelkhand region. He motivated farmers to talk to village pradhan for development of community grassland in their village.
· A magazine for spreading awareness, named Chara Patrika (in Hindi), is being published IGFRI. It is free of cost for the farmers.
· Apart from this all the farmers were told that they can receive the root & seed of different types of grass from IGFRI.
Session II
· This was a post lunch session. In this session the farmers and team members of Harit Prayas went to the farmland of IGFRI. This farmland has area of 1400 acre! All the theoretical learning, which took place in session-I, were demonstrated to the participants in the field. Dr. Upadhyay, the Technical Officer of Grassland guided and accompanied the participants in the field.
Modus Operandi:
· The Director, JCSS approached the Director, IGFRI for conducting this exposure visit. The brief history of JCSS, its focus areas and vision, mission and goal of the organization was also shared. The IGFRI Director also learnt about the aims and objective of project Harit Prayas.
· The Cluster Coordinators and Field Coordinator played important role in mobilizing farmers, having livestock or who were interested in fodder cultivation. For the exposure visit of selected farmers the conveyance was arranged by JCSS (as mentioned in the line item Budget).
Output:
· All the farmers learnt about quality fodder production
· They learnt about soil conservation with help of fodder cultivation.
· Soil erosion can also be stopped with help of fodder cultivation and the quality fodder will help them in getting more healthy livestock, more milk and thus increased household income.
· Five farmers also got roots of Napier grass from the farmland for experiment.
Observation and Learning by the team Harit Prayas:
· All the team members learnt about fodder production, its benefits and method of cultivation.
· Team requested the scientists to tell about types of fodder which could be cultivated by small and marginalized farmers, which is the target group of Harit Prayas project.
· The women farmers from village Bedora, were actively participating in both the session. It was encouraging for the team.
Expected outcome:
· The participants should go for fodder cultivation after receiving this training and exposure visit to IGFRI.
Challenges:
· In the Bundelkhand region there is an ill-tradition called Anna Pratha, rampant in society. In this system people leave their cattle free for grazing the farmland after harvesting of Rabi crops. Due to this farmers do not cultivate Jayed Crops. The Government of India, under Bundelkhand package, is trying to eliminate this ill practice. This ill practice may also create a hurdle for above mentioned ‘expected outcome’, since if a farmer of 3-4 farmers go for fodder cultivation, the cattle will not allow them to grow!
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