Page 6 - 8-1-18 mgmg JULY-DEC-17

Group. With the support of the Self Help Group, the streamlining of the cultivation with the market
production has become very successful and generation of income by every individual farmer has
been consistently increasing. Each member of the Self Help Group now records his/ her annual
income to the tune of Rs. 80,000/- to Rs. 90, 000/-. The seemingly meager amount of income earned
by the farmers has changed the course of their life bringing about a new hope for better amenities in
their livelihood.

Strawberry Cultivation
The potential horticulture area in Siaha District accounts for 0.867 lakh hectares of the total area of
1.99 lakh hectares of the district. Though there is vast potential of horticulture in Siaha District,
farmers could not make use of the recent scientific and technical advancement in their farming for a
long period of time.

No-Aotlah, a small village which is situated at 20KM from Siaha, the district capital was selected to
start strawberry cultivation in the district. One of the main objectives of starting this type of
cultivation is to set up a sustainable growth of income through subsistence farming. In this area,
traditional practice of farming – slash and burn cultivation had been in existence since time
immemorial. It was found and witnessed that the shifting cultivation is only a wasteful practice
causing huge destruction of forests and land fertility with a result of large area of barren land.
Therefore, the yield of their agricultural land has gone down every year and the hardworking of
farmers with their toil came to the state of null and void.

The cultivation was introduced in the village in the month of May, 2016 under PMKSY with a target
area of 20 hectares. 20 farmers were selected for this project. Supply of certain agricultural kits like
mulch film (four rolls each), gravitational pipelines (500 metres each), neemkasto fertilizers and
strawberry seedlings (Chanlier variety with total of 50,000 (2,500 seedlings for each farmer) has
been made with an objective of boosting farmers’ viability.

Outcome
Area covering 20 hectare-stretch was used for this cultivation. When harvesting was done, it was
found that one hectare of the area produced an average yield of 120 quintal meaning that the total 20
hectares bore a fruitful outcome. During the on-season, the yields were in huge quantity that most of
the local markets have been packed with a collection and piling of the fruits.

4