BARGARH :Integrated farming has proved a boon for 64-year-old farmer Pramod Sahu of Nunia Jampali village under Sadar block in the district. Instead of concentrating on paddy cultivation, he has diversified to poultry farming of Japanese quails, dairy, pisciculture and organic farming in five acres of land.
In 2015, Pramod started quail farming with 600 chicks. At present, he sells about 6,000 quails per month and earns profit of about `30,000 per month with an investment of around `20,000 per month.
Pramod said a Japanese quail gets ready for sale in 35 days after attaining the weight of 250 grams and they are easily sold at the rate of `50 per piece. He faces no difficulty in selling the quails as its meat is considered to be tasty, nutritious and healthier than the meat of other domesticated birds. Their death rate is also lower than other domesticated fowls and they are generally not easily infected by diseases, he added.
Pramod owns two incubators for hatching the quails’ eggs and the facility has a capacity to hatch 6,500 eggs. Apart from poultry, dairy farming is another major source of income for Pramod. At present, he owns 24 milch cows who produce around 120 litres of milk per day. He also produces cottage cheese (paneer) adding to profit from dairy farming.Pramod said he has already generated about seven tonne of paneer in the last seven months. He produces quality paneer, which is popularly known as ‘Jampalia paneer’, and has ready buyers. Similarly, Pramod grows green fodder over two acres of land near his farm to feed the cows. He earns profit of around `50,000 every month from the dairy after deducting monthly expenditure of around `80,000.
This apart, he is into pisciculture for the last three years and is raising fishes like rohu, catla and grass carp in a tank spread over 40 decimal of land. Recently, he has started rearing catfish in a separate tank spread over 20 decimal of land. Moreover, Pramod owns vermi-compost pits and grows vegetables, including cabbage and brinjal, over half an acre of land in organic way.A Matriculate, Pramod said altogether he earns a profit of about `one lakh per month from his integrated farming. Earlier, he was solely concentrating on paddy cultivation but it was not worth considering the amount of toil one has to put. This led him to give his 14 acres of land on lease for paddy cultivation and he earns about ` three lakh annually from it.