| Details of Innovation |
Kantibhai Patel, of Patel-ni-Muwadi near Sathamba village in Sabarkantha district, has received seeds of a new variety of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) by gramsevak (village-server) Rajnibhai for checking. After two years, Kantibhai finds that the variety is adaptable to both irrigated and non-irrigated farms. He keeps a distance of three-and-a-half to four feet between the pigeon pea furrows so that when the plants mature the pods of different plants support each other. If the distance is more, the plant bends because of the weight of its pods and this can spoil the pods when the land is irrigated.
Similarly, Dosabhai Atalbhai, of Modasa also in Gujarat, planted the same variety in about 4 bighas of his land in 1999. According to him, the plant grew upright but a foot shorter than the normal variety. Many fellow-farmers advised him to destroy the crop, thinking it failed. But Atalbhai was firm. Soon he was astonished to see red-pink flowering in great luxuriance on the plants. The pods appeared bigger and longer in size. When he started marketing the raw pods, there was a great demand, as these were sweeter.
Atalbhai got a yield of 1200 kg from 3 bighas and earned Rs.10,000. He also planted wheat after the pigeon pea harvest. However, this wheat fetched a lesser price than the normal as compared to BDN-2 variety because of its big-sized seed. The point is the pigeon pea pods are longer in size. And so is the harvest in the next crop. |
Honey Bee Network Knowledge & Innovation Database (HBNKIND)