| Details of Innovation |
Belonging to a farming family, the farmer started helping out on the farm from an early age. He has developed amazing skills in evaluating different crop varieties and qualities of groundnut, sorghum, bajri, and wheat. It is his hobby to conduct different types of local country experiments. He suffered great hardships in the 1987 drought- one of the worst in several decades. The drought of 1987 and 1988 was followed by irregular rains with the result that there was a shortage of groundnut seeds in the region of Saurashtra. The government distributed groundnut (Arachis hypogea) seeds to overcome the shortage of planting material. The farmer enquired about the seeds from his relatives, but he could not get any. Then he purchased Tagavi, Saankdi, and Punjab-1, a variety of seeds from Junagadh District Sangh. With the onset of rains in June, he sowed the seeds.
While weeding and inter-plowing, his elder son, noticed five plants completely different from the other plants in the fields. The farmer collected the stems of these plants and planted them at different places. In this way, he developed a more or less pure line. He gave the seeds of this new variety to the farmers of 15 to 20 neighboring villages. He developed a completely different variety of groundnut crops. During the monsoon season of 1994, he sowed his new variety of groundnut in the 32 bighas (12 acres) of lands that he possessed. The story of the new variety of groundnut spread to the surrounding villages, and the farmers started purchasing the seeds at a high price. The farmers have gladly accepted this variety of seeds. Since the fruit of this groundnut is shaped like a peacock, farmers call this variety of seed morla (peacock in Gujarati). Later, they named this variety thakershi after its inventor.
The farmer has made the following conclusions:
(1) A gap of at least 31 inches has to be maintained while sowing the seeds. If the start of the monsoon season is delayed, then an 18-inch space must be maintained while sowing.
(2) In comparison to the other variety of seeds, this variety is ready for harvesting in a shorter period, i.e., within 95 to 100 days.
(3) The plant can survive even if the moisture in the atmosphere is less. It does not turn yellow if there is excessive rain.
(4) The height of the plant is more, and its leaves are bigger and thicker compared to the veldi variety of seeds.
(5) No insects or pests, including UGSUK, attack this variety.
(6) During the monsoon season of 1993, the production yield per bigha (.4 acres) of land was around 3.4 to 3.6 quintals. In contrast, the other farmers of the village who used a different variety could not get more than 1.2 to 1.4 quintals because the monsoons were poor. |
Honey Bee Network Knowledge & Innovation Database (HBNKIND)
