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Ginger Cultivation - A farmer success story

Mr. B. Sasikumar is a graduate in hotel management and is working as a manager in a reputed hotel in Trichur District of Kerala. Born in a farmer’s family, 36 year old Sasikumar has shown keen interest in agriculture as a part time vocation. At present he is managing his 10 acre farm where the major crops like paddy, coconut, arecanut and rubber are cultivated.

Knowing about the improved varieties of ginger and turmeric released from Indian Institute of Spices Research from a leading agricultural weekly magazine, he decided to introduce ginger as an intercrop in coconut garden on an experimental basis. When he personally approached the institute, he was assisted in procuring 600 Kg of seeds of two improved varieties viz. Varada and Mahima from a registered seed grower of IISR at Koorachundu village in Calicut District. Along with these varieties he also sowed equal quantity of local ginger variety to assess the performance of improved varieties. He adopted scientific management practices as recommended by IISR in both the trial as well as control plots.

Following scientific practices were adopted ;

  • Basal application of fertilisers at time of bed preparation
  • Basal application of organic manure loke bone meal, neem cake and farm yard manure
  • Seed treatment before sowing
  • Mulching after sowing and after 45 days
  • Weeding after 45 days
  • Top dressing with fertilisers 60 days and 120 days after planting
  • Chemical spray against shoot borer
At the end he realized a total yield of 8 tonnes of ginger from 1 acre plot where he cultivated improved varieties while the yield from local variety was 4 times less. He has taken care to maintain the farm records to ascertain the cost of cultivation. It was seen that a total expense of Rs. 65000 was incurred including the cost of seeds, inputs and labour. He was able to sell the ginger as seed rhizomes @ of Rs 30/- per kg. Encouraged by this learning experience, he expanded his area under ginger cultivation and at present he is one of the major sources of seed rhizomes of improved varieties released from IISR for the state agriculture department farms.
 
Reports from other states where the varieties were tested also gave promising trends. Non Governemntal Organisations like Seva Mandir at Udaipur and CARD in Amaravathy in Maharashtra have also acknowledged the superiority of these varieties. Reports from Horticulture department, Megahalaya also confirm that these varieties are high yielding and disease resistant. Data obtained from research stations in Andhra Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar islands testify the superiority of newly released varieties of ginger from IISR.