Knowing Tissue Culture: 

Tissue culture is a process that involves exposing plant tissue to a specific regimen of nutrients, hormones, and lights under sterile, in vitro conditions to produce many new plants, each a clone of the original mother plant, over a very short period of time. Tissue culture plants are characterised by disease free growth, a more fibrous, healthier root system, a bushier branching habit, and a higher survival rate.

There are three main steps to the tissue culture process:

1. STAGE I is the initiation phase. It concerns the establishment of plant tissue in vitro by sterilising the material and initiating it into culture. 
2. STAGE II is the multiplication phase. At this stage, the in vitro plant material is re-divided and placed in a medium with plant growth regulators that induce the proliferation of multiple shoots. This process is repeated many times until the number of plants desired is reached. 
3. STAGE III is the root formation phase. It involves the introduction of hormones to induce rooting and the formation of complete plantlets. 

Project Background: 

Kandha Project is located in Vansda Block, Navsari district of Gujarat State which has been sanctioned in the year of 2010-11 by Government of India. The project is a cluster of six micro-watersheds. The total project area of the watershed is about 6725.40 ha, of which 4000 ha has been undertaken to be treated under Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP). The watershed Programme has covered seven villages namely Kandha, Bartad, Bedmal, Kamalzari, Anklachh, Khanpur and Satimal. Tribal communities are the primary inhabitants of the village.

Fig. 1 : Discussion with farmer

 Before intervention: 

Devjeebhai Jhuliabhai Deshmukh who is the beneficiary of Banana Demo Plot belongs to Bedmaal Village(Dungri Faliya). Earlier he was dependent on growing traditional crops like Paddy, Nagli, Pulses, Pigeon Pea using traditional methods. He also used to grow the traditional variety of Banana (Lokhandi variety) from which he was getting an income of Rs.30,000 to Rs.40,000 per annum. The production from one acre (o.4 ha) was nearly 4500-5000 kg. Due to non-uniform bunch formation the market price was nearly Rs 150 per mann (20kg). As a traditional banana farmer he is having a sound knowledge of banana cultivation. To make proper comparison between traditional and tissue culture farming Jhuliabhai was selected for demonstration plot.

 

IWMP intervention: 

A plot of 0.4 Ha. (one acre) was undertaken and then ploughing and levelling was done. Organic fertilizers were bought from Government Co-operative Society to increase soil fertility. Along with organic manure, chemical fertilizers were also used. The variety of Banana- Grane 9 has been planted. The cost of each plant including transportation cost is Rs.15. Thus a total of 750 Plants were bought from Gandevi Market at a total cost of Rs.11,250. These plants were planted in the month of Feb 2013. Drip Irrigation has also been installed in his field by converging with GGRC Department. The total cost of Drip was Rs.54296 out of which the contribution of Rs.19,864 was from IWMP and Rs.34,432 from GGRC respectively.

Monitoring on continuous basis was done by the project team and DWDU. MDT Agri and WDT Agri gave information on regular basis about the adoption of time to time practices. For proper cultivation of banana through tissue culture extreme care must be taken for initial three months of planting regarding timely irrigation and pesticides sprays, otherwise yield will be affected. The soils pH was also checked timely as pH more than 7.5 are not suitable for tissue culture.

Benefits of growing bananas through Tissue Culture Method to the Beneficiary:

• Plants are absolutely free from diseases and pests, so there is less field mortality. 
• Early maturity of crop- maximum land use is possible in low land holding areas. 
• Increase in yield ( nearly 2 MT per acre) 
• Produces are more uniform in shape and size, thus easily marketable with better price realisation   

 

Flow chart of processes involved:

 

After Watershed’s Intervention: 

After 9-10 months 325 mann (1 mann = 20 kg) of bananas were produced which were sold at a rate of Rs. 230 per mann. Thus after selling 325 mann he has received Rs. 74,750 as total revenue. Hence there is an increase of revenue of Rs.20000 to 25000 per acre for the farmer.

According to Devjeebhai Jhuliabhai Deshmukh, “growing bananas through tissue culture method had allowed efficient use of land and resources, realizing higher yield and net profit, easy practices, improvement in fruit quality, easy and good harvest which have ultimately lead to an increase in income”.  

Fig. 2 : Distribution of sapling	Fig. 3 : Planting of sapling
Fig. 4 : Growth stage of banana	Fig. 5 : Before harvesting

Way Forward: 

A tie-up with KVK Navsari is made to do some research on the stem part of banana for the purpose of making thread. Hence the plot is under direct supervision of KVK. With this successful intervention DWDU is now promoting tissue culture in other project areas. Various training are also being planned to generate awareness about tissue culture among the banana growers. There is a huge scope of tissue culture in near future and DWDU is acting as a dynamic partner for its promotion.

Contributors: Rashmi Sinku (Technical Expert); Rahul Vekariya (MDT Agri); Hardik Desai (MDT Agri); Rashik Ganvit (WDT Agri)

Basic village information: Suraj village is located in Becharaji taluka of Mehsana district of Gujarat. The total geographical area of the village is 1195.90 Ha. Generally the region experiences irregular rainfall with an average of 400 mm. The topography of the land is flat with medium black soil.

Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) had started its interventions in the village in 2009-10 (i.e. Batch I Projects). In IWMP 2 (Becharaji Project), there are 6 villages in which Suraj village is one of them. The total geographical area of the watershed is 5681.70 Ha out of which 5000 Ha was proposed for treatment under IWMP.

Cash crops such as cotton and castor are cultivated approximately in an area of 80 Ha of the village. Here, the average yield of cotton is 500 kg./Ha against the average district production of 640 kg/Ha (source: agri.gujarat.gov.in as on 2009-10). Cotton yield had been declining in this village despite increasing dose of NPK fertilizers every year.

In absence of sufficient knowledge, farmers here were used to practice their own way of farming, which includes

• Insufficient FYM (Farm Yard Manure) application 
• Single tillage 
• High rate of seed application (with the mindset of perceiving higher yields) 
• Irregular sowing & fertilizer application (high basal dose)

In order to address this issue, an on-farm-trial was taken up in IWMP DPR to demonstrate the benefits of scientific farming of cotton. The agriculture staff of the Multi disciplinary team had organised several Gram Sabhas to motivate villagers to come forward for taking up the on-field-trial of cotton on his farm. The villagers then suggested the name of enthusiastic Shri Nadoda Jagmaal Bhai Juva bhai. He is a progressive farmer of this village having 1.06 Ha of agricultural land. Earlier Jagmaal bhai used to advocate heavy doses of fertilizers and pesticides to enhance crop productivity but did not achieve the required production.

Out of 1.06 Ha, 0.47 Ha of his agricultural land was used for crop demonstration of cotton on his field while leaving the other part for his regular farming. This was done to show the clear difference between the newly adopted scientific farming and the traditional one. He attended all the meetings and trainings related to scientific agriculture practices coordinated with the help of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Kherva.

Initially the KVK gave the farmers a detail account about crop demonstration technique and sowing measures. The highlights of training are as follows

1. During kharif season, deep tillage should be done
2. 6 to 8 tractors of FYM to be applied on the fields
3. After applying FYM, once again tillage should be done
4. Sowing should be done at suitable time

The methodology of crop demonstration goes as follows: “Soil testing was done for major macro and micronutrients. Based on soil testing results fertilizer schedule was prepared (120:90:45 for demo plot & farmer applied 128: 92:45). With the help of a rotavator, crop residues were incorporated into the soil. Sowing was done in the 1st week of June 2012 with a spacing of 5 feet between the rows and 2.5 between plants and the seed rate was 0.3 kg/ha (therefore 0.6kg applied in 0.47 Ha). A basal dose of DAP was then applied to the demo plot (4.5:11.5:0) and farmers plot (36:92:0). The cost of fertilizer for demo plot accounted for Rs 8000/- ( FYM = Rs 6000/- & vermi compost = Rs 2000/-) whereas for farmer plot it was Rs 4000/- which accounts solely for FYM. The source of irrigation was kept same in both the plots.”

Fig. 1 : Shri Nadoda Jagmaal Bhai Juva bhai in front of demo plot

The post harvest comparison is mentioned below:

S. No	Particulars	Demonstration Plot (0.47 Ha)	Farmer’s Plot    (0.59 Ha)
1	Quantity of Seeds (gm)	600	900
1	Crop duration  (in days)	180	180
2	Cotton Balls (No.)	156	73
3	Average weight per cotton ball (gm)	7.17	6.23
4	Cost of cultivation (Rs)	22,010/-	20,670/-
	Seed	1240/-	1860
	FYM	6000/-	4000/-
	Vermi Compost	2000/-	0
	Fertillizer	1570/-	2210/-
	Irrigation	11,200/-	12,600/-
5	Yield (Kg)	1962	1185
6	Gross return (Rs.)  (Market Price Rs 63.5/kg)	104967/-	63398/-
7	Net Return (Rs.)	82957/-	42727/-
Comparing Net Return per ha. (Rs.)		176504/-	72419/-

The crop demonstration plot, although less area than its counterpart, not only gave better yield but also provide higher remunerative returns (almost more than double). Having witnessed the results, more and more farmers are coming forward to adopt scientific farming method. The increasing number of farmers query and participation in training also depict the indirect impact of crop demonstration. As of now approximately 25 farmers have shown their interest to adopt scientific farming in their own fields. Further training plan has been made in coordination with the KVK to provide technical input to the interested farmers.

It can be said that crop demonstration under IWMP project in the village has surely made some difference in the cropping practices of the farmers and will continue to inspire in the near future.


Contributors: Desai Iswarbhai (WDT- Agri), Pankaj Raval (WDT-CM), Shri Nadoda Jagmaal Bhai Juva bhai (Beneficiary Farmer), Deepali Solanki (Technical Expert)