CHENNAI: In the quiet corners of the State, farmers of five panchayats have been silently revolutionising pulse farming.
Under ‘Pulse Panchayat’, an MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) initiative, over 1000 farmers in Pudukkotai have managed to achieve a 60% increase in the yield and also increasing the land under pulses cultivation in the three years since the project was started in 2013, the farmers said.
What was first started in the Edaiyapatti panchayat has grown to include four other panchayats, leading to the formation of the Illuppur Agriculture Producer Company Ltd (IAPCL). The company now sells its own products under the brand ‘Pattikadu’.
“Pulse panchayat is a concept, not an institution, that works with panchayats to increase the production, productivity and profitability of pulses cultivation,” said Thachinamurthy Krishnan, Chief Executive Officer, IAPCL.
To diversify the sources of income for the farmers, the IAPCL integrates dairy, poultry and organic vegetables with pulses cultivation.
Today, the cultivation area of pulses has increased from 40-50 acres to about 250-300 acres. In 2015, 20 tonnes of pulses have been sold with the total sales of all integrated products valued at around 48 lakh, he added.
Between the increase in the price of pulses in the market and the low price that the pulse farmers themselves receive for their produce, the money is lost because of the middlemen involved, he said. By eliminating the need for these middlemen and by reducing transport costs by having their own processing mill within 10 km of the cultivated area, the company is able to procure the produce at a better price.
The consumer has also a reason to rejoice. The difference between the market price and that of the Pattikadu pulses is at least `20, Thachinamurthy said.
According to him, the fall in pulse production is because pulses are grown in rainfed areas and these farmers don’t usually receive loans because their income is impacted by the vagaries of nature.
The farmers said that their hopes had finally gone up after the initiative.
R.I Palanichamy, Director, IAPCL and a pulse farmer with four acres of land, said that his son Chandrasekar, who left farming to work for a private company, had returned to help his father manage the farm.
“Now he thinks why he should toil for 12 hours a day when he can look after the farm for 3-4 hours and still make the same amount of money,” he said.
Thachinamurthy said that the MSSRF did not intend to take the model to other panchayats in the immediate future but hopes to make this a model that could be replicated while achieving a turnover of at least 5 crore. With this, the farmers will be able to get a minimum of `10,000 every month as regular income.
“We want to bring back home several Chandrasekars in the five panchayats, who have left farming for other work,” he said.
Meanwhile, their ‘Pattikadu’ stall at the MSSRF consultation on pulses was doing brisk business.
“Two days into the consultation, we only have 30 kg of pulses left of the 200 kg we brought,”Thachinamurthy said.
The farmers and representatives of the IAPCL were there for the farmers’ session of the three-day consultation on the theme of pulses organised by the MSSRF to commemorate the birthday of their founder Prof MS Swaminathan.