Environmental degradation is a major threat confronting the world, and the rampant use of chemical fertilizers contributes largely to the deterioration of the environment through depletion of fossil fuels, generation of carbon dioxide (CO2) and contamination of water resources. It leads to loss of soil fertility due to imbalanced use of fertilizers that has adversely impacted agricultural productivity and causes soil degradation. Now there is a growing realization that the adoption of ecological and sustainable farming practices can only reverse the declining trend in the global productivity and environment protection. On one hand tropical soils are deficient in all necessary plant nutrients and on the other hand large quantities of such nutrients contained in domestic wastes and agricultural by products are wasted. It is estimated that in cities and rural areas of India nearly 700 million ton organic wastes is generated annually which is either burned or land filled. Such large quantities of organic wastes generate also pose a problem for safe disposal. Most of these organic residues are burned currently or used as land fillings. In nature’s laboratory there are a number of organisms (micro and macro) that have the ability to convert organic waste into valuable resources containing plant nutrients and organic matter, which are critical for maintaining soil productivity. Microorganisms and earthworms are important biological organisms helping nature to maintain nutrient flows from one system to another and also minimize environmental degradation. The earthworm population is about 8–10 times higher in uncultivated area. This clearly indicates that earthworm population decreases with soil degradation and thus can be used as a sensitive indicator of soil degradation. In this report a simple biotechnological process, which could provide a ‘win-win’ solution to tackle the problem of safe disposal of waste as well as the most needed plant nutrients for sustainable productivity is described.

 

Background of Sabarkantha District 

Nearly 80% of the population of Sabarkantha District, Gujarat, resides in rural areas and earns their living through agriculture based activities, animal husbandry and dairying. These livelihood options result in the accumulation of large amount of recyclable organic wastes in the form of cow dung, agricultural crop residues etc. However the lack of waste segregation practices among villagers results in discarding of such organic and recyclable waste along with non-organic toxic waste. As a result, essential raw materials that can be used for preparing nutrient-rich natural manure for farming are lost and farmers are compelled to use chemical fertilizers that result in environmental degradation, are more expensive and increase artificial chemical levels in plants. Furthermore, the absence of a dedicated waste segregation and collection effort also results in the piling up of such waste near rural houses inviting growth of harmful insects and bacteria that affect human health.

Integrated Watershed Management Programme at Sabarkantha District 

Recognizing these opportunity in rural waste management practices of Sabarkantha, the District Watershed Development Unit (DWDU) has taken as a livelihood activity in various project of Batch I,II & III as (Individual or group SHG) for recycling agriculture and animal husbandry waste into nutritional organic manure through the method of vermi-composting.

Fig. 1 : Vermicompost Unit

Fig. 2 : Vermi compost unit with side net

 

Vermi-compost: 

Vermi-composting is a simple biotechnological process of composting, in which certain species of earthworms are used to enhance the process of waste conversion and produce a better end product. Vermi-composting differs from composting in several ways. It is a mesophilic process, utilizing microorganisms and earthworms that are active at 10–32°C (not ambient temperature but temperature within the pile of moist organic material). The process is faster than composting; because the material passes through the earthworm gut, a significant but not yet fully understood transformation takes place, whereby the resulting earthworm castings (worm manure) are rich in microbial activity and plant growth regulators, and fortified with pest repellence attributes as well! In short, earthworms, through a type of biological alchemy, are capable of transforming “animal wastes” into ‘gold’. 

Improved soil physical, chemical and biological properties 

Studies on vermin-compost indicate that it increases macrospore space ranging from 50 to 500µm, resulting in improved air-water relationship in the soil which favourably affect plant growth. The application of organic matter including vermin-compost favourably affects soil pH, microbial population and soil enzyme activities. It also reduces the proportion of water-soluble chemical species, which cause possible environmental contamination.

Process: 

Individuals/SHG beneficiaries has given HDPE bed for vermi-composting, organic waste is collected at a place and treated with adequate moisture. After this treatment, earthworms are mixed with the waste in order to allow them to feed on the matter. Over a short period of time (45 days) the worms break down the organic matter in the vermi-compost unit, and leave behind nutrient rich substance which provides many benefits, for the soil condition of sabarkantha districts which varies from Hilly area hard stony soil to black cotton soil, silty loam to morrhum soil from Khedbrahma to Prantij and Himmatnagar to Bayad.

Fig. 3 : Collection of vermicompost

Fig. 4 : Screening of compost

 

Intervention: 

There are 9 talukas and 23 IWMP projects are being implemented in Sabarkantha district. The vermi-compost units have been taken in all 23 IWMP projects. In Batch I & II projects production of vermicompost has started and utilised by the beneficiaries in their own field. Various trainings were conducted in coordination with KVK Khedbrahma and Maize Research centre Bhiloda to generate awareness among farmers.

 

Table No. 1 Details of Vermi-compost production in all Batches 

Sr.No	Name of Batch	Unit Installed (Individual or SHG groups)	Production of Vermi-Compost Unit from  Installed (Individual or SHG groups)	Total Production of Vermi- Compost (in Kg) for 1 cycles	Selling of Vermi-Compost in local market and village	Remark
1	Batch I	286	209	109934	0	All framers has used in own agricultural land
2	Batch II	180	118	69502	0	All are use the in own field
3	Batch III	57	0	0	0	Production not received
	Total	523	327	179436	0

Total production from vermi-compost bed is 179436 kg from batch I & II batch and from batch III production is not yet received. Considering Rs 2 per kg market price of vermicompost, the total implicit income is Rs 3.5 lakh approximately.

 

Table No. 2 Details Crop Production 

Sr.No	Batch	Name of Crop	Nos. of beneficiaries	Total Area cropping (ha)	Approx. Production  (kg/ha)
1	Batch- I & II	Maize	50	22	1180
2		Vegetables	34	14	845
		Total/average	84	36	1012

The use of vermicompost has increased soil fertility and reduces the cost of cultivation by substituting chemical fertilisers. With this intervention 84 farmers cultivated 36 ha of land using vermicompost.

Challenges: 

• The production cycle increased from estimated 45 days to 60 days and in some cases it increased to 90 days. 
• Less awareness among the community for small activities like sprinkling of water timely, turning of compost upside down to speed up the process of production. 
• The package of practices given to the members required closer monitoring and identification of training needs. 
• Less sensitivity towards practicing the package of practices in production during the first cycle resulting into to breakage of cycle, increased cycle period. 
• Proper use of the vermi-compost and still used the chemical fertilizer along with it. 

 

Conclusion: 

Earthworm serves as “nature’s ploughman” and form nature’s gift to produce good humus, which is the most precious material to fulfil the nutritional needs of crops. The utilization of vermicompost results in several benefits to farmers, industries, environment and overall national economy.

To farmers:

• Less reliance on purchased inputs of nutrients leading to lower cost of production. 
• Increased soil productivity through improved soil quality. 
• Better quantity and quality of crops There is huge scope of promotion of vermicompost in this District. 

DWDU is actively participating for promotion of this green technology and farmers are also gradually interested to convert their farming processes.

Contributors: Sidharth Sing Bisen (Technical Expert); Sunil Patel (MDT Agri)

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)