OREANDA-NEWS. July 21, 2011. 7,200kg of paddy seeds distributed among 289 farmers covering 461 acres in 14 villages

Approximate production of paddy estimated at 8,000 quintals amounting to Rs10 million

Dhanbad: With the vision to improve the quality of life of the communities around its project site, Tata Power, in partnership with AC Nielsen, has launched an exclusive Maithon Power (MPL) focussed livelihood intervention project. The project has been launched with the objective to develop agriculture productivity in the area from mere subsistence level to commercial farming. This has further enabled and empowered over 275 farmers to undertake agricultural activities in the region as a profitable business opportunity.

The project was introduced post detailed assessment which put forth interesting opportunities to leverage the regional advantages pertaining to fertile land availability, favourable topography and water availability. The pilot phase with 48 farmers and 44 acres of land witnessed overwhelming response and significantly increased the paddy production average yield of 17.6 quintals / acre vis-a-vis an average yield of 4 quintal / acre. This further led to increased average agriculture income from paddy to Rs21,120. The encouraging response during the pilot phase provided impetus to scale up the project to its current reach of 289 farmers covering 461 acres in 14 villages.

The increased confidence of the farmers with the significant increase in production resulted in enhanced participation. This also led to the introduction of an innovative cost-sharing model (50:50) whereby MPL will provide the high-yielding variety seeds, nutrients and soil amendments, and the farmers will share the costs of fertilisers.

The MPL livelihood intervention project is estimated to produce 8,000 quintals of paddy amounting to approximately Rs10 million. It also puts forth the possibility of value addition ie, de-husking, which will lead to realisation of 4,800 quintals of rice amounting to approximately Rs13.5 million.

Speaking on the initiative, Praveer Sinha, head, eastern region projects, Tata Power, said, “The challenge was to make agriculture profitable at a place where farming was not thought of as a means of sustenance. The idea was also to inspire mass participation from the community, leading to improvement in their livelihood. The outcome of the initiative, both in terms of the participation of farmers and the final yield is very encouraging. This inspires us to do more.”