Improved variety selected for cultivation of chickpea

The farmers who were once shying away from the cultivation of chickpea due to diseases and pests, are now earning lakhs of rupees from its seed production. Solanki Khuman Singh Valjibhai, a farmer of Karmad village in Surendranagar district of Gujarat, used to grow gram for domestic use only. Like other farmers of the area, he also used to cultivate with the seeds of old local varieties. These older varieties were affected by Helicoverpa armigera larvae and wilt disease, resulting in very low production. If the production was less, so the earning was also not high. But after the intervention of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, the picture of the area changed. Now Karmad village has become popular for high quality chickpea seeds. 

Production of improved gram variety GJG-3 

Cotton, sesame and bajra are cultivated in the Kharif season in Karmad village. Wheat, cumin and gram are grown in Rabi season. Earlier the farmers here used to sow loose seeds (swadeshi), due to which the yield was very less. Solanki Khuman Singh Waljibhai also used to do the same, so that 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 made available the improved gram variety GJG-3 for production in 20 hectare area covering 50 farmers under NFSM cluster FLD. Solanki Khuman Singh Valjibhai 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 nearby village as well. In view of this, Khuman Singh Bhai immediately started production of this variety on a large area next year with the aim of earning good profits. He also got the expected profit in the cultivation of chickpea by choosing the improved variety. Krishi Vigyan Kendra advised many farmers to take up the business of seed production, as good profits can be earned from it and Khuman Singh followed this advice.

Bumper seed production from chickpea cultivation 

Khuman Singh produced bumper seed in an area of ​​2 hectares in 2016-17. He made proper storage of seeds with the advice of the scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra. The seeds were sorted and classified and kept in airtight double layered plastic laminated bags. At the same time, in association with Krishi Vigyan Kendra, he promoted improved seeds of gram in many programs related to agriculture such as Kisan Mela, exhibition, farmer meeting, field day 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 seeds were sold without any transportation cost. 

Motivated to produce more

Seeing the popularity of the seeds, Khuman Singh sowed it in 2 hectares of land for the Rabi season 2016-17 and got 62 quintals of production. Out of this, 60 quintals of seeds were put up for sale and sold it to 23 farmers at reasonable prices. This earned him good income. Kabuli gram seeds were sold at the rate of 7500 per quintal. In this way he earned net income of Rs 4.61 lakh from an area of ​​2 hectares. Not only do they benefit from the sale of seeds, as well as the nearby farmers are getting good quality seeds from the market at a lower price, which is also benefiting them. Within a short span of time, Karmad village has become popular for the production of seeds of improved variety of chickpea.

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