Improved variety selected for chickpea cultivation

Earlier, the farmers who used to shy away from cultivation of Kabuli gram due to diseases and pests, are now earning lakhs from its seed production. Solanki Khuman Singh Waljibhai, a farmer from Karmad village in Gujarat’s Surendranagar district, once grew gram only for domestic use. Like other farmers of the region, he also used to cultivate with the seeds of old local varieties. These older varieties were affected by Helicoverarmegera larvae and wilt, resulting in very low yields. The production was less, so the earning was also not much. But after the intervention of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, the picture of the area changed. Now Karmad village has become famous for high quality chickpea seeds.

Production of improved variety GJG-3 of gram 

Cotton, sesame and millet are cultivated in the Kharif season in Karmad village. Wheat, cumin and gram are grown in the rabi season. Earlier, the farmers here used to sow loose seeds (indigenous) from which the yield was very less. Solanki Khuman Singh Waljibhai also used to do the same, due to which he did not get any profit from the gram crop. That’s why he used to produce it only for domestic use.

But in 2015-16 Krishi Vigyan Kendra JAU, Surendranagar provided improved variety GJG-3 of gram for production in 20 hectares area covering 50 farmers under NFSM cluster FLD. Solanki Khuman Singh Waljibhai was also one of them. The production of this variety of Kabuli gram was very good and its demand started increasing among other farmers of the surrounding villages. Seeing this, Khuman Singh Bhai immediately started the production of this variety in a large area the next year with the aim of earning a good profit. Due to the selection of improved variety, he also got profit as expected in the cultivation of chickpea. Krishi Vigyan Kendra advised many farmers to do business of seed production, as good profit can be earned from it and Khuman Singh followed this advice.

Bumper seed production from chickpea cultivation 

Khuman Singh produced bumper seeds in 2016-17 in an area of 2 hectares. He did proper storage of seeds with the advice of scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra. The seeds are sorted, graded and placed in airtight double layered plastic laminated gunny bags. At the same time, in collaboration with Krishi Vigyan Kendra, he promoted improved seeds of gram in many programs related to agriculture such as farmer’s fairs, exhibitions, farmer’s meetings, field days and training programs. The benefit of this was that 60 quintals of seeds were sold from Khuman Singh’s house itself i.e. 60 quintals of his seeds were sold without any transportation cost. 

Motivated to produce more by chickpea cultivation 

Seeing the popularity of the seeds, Khuman Singh sowed it in 2 hectares of land for Rabi season 2016-17 and got a production of 62 quintals. Out of this, 60 quintals of seed was kept for sale and sold to 23 farmers at a reasonable price. This earned him a good income. Kabuli gram seeds were sold at the rate of 7500 per quintal. In this way, he earned a net income of Rs 4.61 lakh from an area of 2 hectares. Not only are they benefiting from the sale of seeds, but also the farmers of the surrounding areas are getting good quality seeds at a lower price than the market, due to which they are also benefiting. Within a short span of time, Karmad village has become famous for the production of seeds of improved variety of chickpea. 

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