In spite of the unemployment pressure, Rafello did not succumb to it and
quite intelligently opted for the farming profession where his father and
forefathers did have expertise. However, he didn’t stick to his parental
land for developing an integrated farming system; instead, he selected
nearly 5 acres of land in a village and finally purchased the land by taking
a loan from his relatives.
In the beginning, this young farmer had the plan to develop a farming
system in such a way that least amount of inputs would be needed from
outside. At the same time, he also wanted to follow the tradition of the
‘khasi’ tribal farming community of not using any sort of chemicals in
agricultural operations.
Making a sustainable farming model
Once the land was procured, Mr. Khongwar rightly contacted the Indian
Council of Agricultural Research ( ICAR) for getting the necessary
guidelines to establish his farming system’s model. After a number of
visits and detailed discussions, he was advised to go for a number of
components simultaneously to make his method sustainable. Moreover, he
was taken to other model farming systems developed by ICAR Research
Complex for the North Eastern Hill (NEH) Region to explain the scientific
concept behind them.
Thanks to the advice of ICAR scientists, he divided his land in such a way
that more areas could be brought under agriculture and horticulture, and
all the components could be viable and inter dependent.
The beginning: poultry and piggery
Rafello started piggery and poultry initially by keeping ten pigs and 1,000
poultry birds in properly constructed houses where he put all the required
facilities like netting, wiring, feeding trays, etc., along with adequate
management practices. He also made the arrangements to collect pig and
poultry waste for its application into agricultural field and fishery ponds.
After running this poultry and piggery unit for one year successfully, the
following year this young farmer started fishery and agriculture with
proper stocking ratio and crops’ selection like maize, rice and vegetables
to feed the pigs, poultry and fish. The pig and poultry waste was collected
so carefully that he could even sell it also to other neighboring farmers
after applying into his agricultural field and fisher pond.
Farming: a successful way of livelihood
The development of the farming system model by Mr. Khongwar has not
only been beneficial to him in terms of livelihood but it has also
influenced other unemployed young professionals of the neighboring areas
to seriously think about this profitable proposition. ICAR has also tried to
highlight his success by arranging coverage through Kishan Channel and
entrepreneurs’ visits to his forming system, as well as by narrating his
story to all the adopted and non adopted farmers.
Rafello had to show great determination in setting up such an example, as
it is not very popular among the educated youth of Meghalaya. Still, he
went for it overcoming the initial challenges with guts, even when no
organization except for ICAR came forward to extend help in this regard.
Now, this young farmer is trying to get financial assistance from the banks
and State departments to expand his system but until the date he hasn’t
managed to do so. Hopefully success’ promotion will draw the attention of
concerned people towards Mr. Reafello Khongwar so that he and other
young farmers will receive some assistance and will prove others wrong in
not choosing farming as their main livelihood.
Source:ypard
No comments:
Post a Comment