সেউজী ধৰণী
TS-36,
a toria variety likely to boost farmers’ income in Margherita Block of Tinsukia
district
Dr.S.Hussain
Jagun is a small township of
Tinsukia District bordering Arunachal Pradesh in the East and Nagaland in the
South-East. People living in this part of the district belong to various cast,
creed and community. However, all of them are predominantly farmers cultivating
a number of field and horticultural crops. Being situated at the foot hill of Nagaland
and Arunachal Pradesh, land of Jagun area is very much fertile. River Dihing
and a number of small streams encourage farmers to adopt agriculture as a
profitable venture.
Sri Gopal Chetri is a progressive
farmer of 3no Rampur village under Jagun Gaon
Panchayat. He has a small piece of land measuring about 15 bighas where rice,
maize, toria, summer and winter vegetables are grown. Toria is an important oil
seed crop that farmers grow in Jagun. Sri Chetri has a sizable area under
toria. However, the yield that he harvests with local as well as improved
variety M-27 is not very encouraging. So, he was looking for a suitable toria
variety to replace old varieties.
Sri Chetri was identified as
probable beneficiary for demonstrating a new high yielding toria variety. Accordingly,
Team ATMA, Tinsukia along with KVK scientist visited the site and approved it.
The team also met other farmers of the village and enlightened them about ATMA
and the objective of the demonstration to be conducted in the village. All the
farmers showed keen interest on ATMA and the various programmes that are to be
undertaken by it.
TS-36 is a new high yielding toria
variety developed by Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Shilongoni,
Assam Agricultural University. The variety showed good performance in some
other parts the district. Hence, it was decided to introduce TS-36 in Rampur
village. By middle of October, 2012 seeds and other inputs were provided to the
farmer. Seeds were sown in the first week of November. Soil moisture retained
after tillage operation helps in uniform seed germination. As the season
progress, field staff monitored the field activities frequently. Officers from
the district HQ along with scientist from KVK, also visited the site and
provided necessary guidance. For timely advice, contact number of KVK scientist
was also provided to the farmer.
After three months of sowing, the
crop was ready to harvest. During this period, the crop received two light
showers. Field staff visited the site and decided to organize a Field Day at 3no
Rampur villager. Accordingly, a Field Day was organized in the site on 9th
February, 2013 where about 60 farmers from four neighboring villages assembled.
A joint field visit was made in the demonstration site where officers from
district HQ and KVK also took part. All the farmers were happy with the crop
stand, per plant pod number as well as pod size of TS-36. Ceremonial harvesting was done in three plots,
each measuring 5mx5m. It was observed that on an average 2.8 kg seed was
recorded in 25 sqm plot which is equivalent to 150 kg per bigha or 11.2q per hectare.
This yield was about 1.5 times more than the neighboring plot of M-27. Sri
Gopal Chetry and fellow farmers expressed their satisfaction over the yield
performance of TS-36. Sri Chetry spoke about the production technology that he
had adopted. He was highly grateful to the team member of ATMA for all the help
and guidance. The village head, who preside over the meeting, opined that for
overall development of Rampur and other neighboring villages farmers had to adopt
new technologies developed in the field of agriculture and allied sectors. He asked
farmers to collect seed of TS-36 for the next crop season. Later, field staff
reported that one liter oil could be extracted from 2.7 kg TS-36 seed while to
get the same quantity of oil 3.2 kg M-27 seed was required.
Recent information received from the
field staff indicated that more than 80 farmers will grow toria variety TS-36
during rabi 2013-14 in Jagun panchayat. Sri Gopal Chetry, with his
knowledge and experience will act as resource person.
Per
hectare additional income from Demonstration
Plot
|
As Seed
|
As Oil
|
Yield
Qt/ha
|
Value(Rs)
|
Addl Income(Rs/ha)
|
Oil extracted(lt)
|
Value(Rs)
|
Addl Income (Rs/ha)
|
Demo
|
11.2
|
56,000
|
26,120
|
414 lit
|
33,120
|
14,480
|
Control
|
7.47
|
29,880
|
233 lit
|
18,640
|
NB.1) Variety used: Control plot- M-27
Demo
plot - TS-36
2) Cost
as seed: Rs 50/ kg (TS-36) , Rs 40/kg ( M-27)
3) Oil
extracted: One lit from 3.2 kg of M-27 seed and 2.7 kg of TS-36 seed
4)
Price of Oil: Rs 80/ lit