Model Plots -Onion Cultivation

Background

Onions are one of the most profitable crops to grow, and they have a global market. The purpose of these interventions is to reintroduce farming to PAFs and maximise their use of available productive land, as well as to observe a significant shift toward farming.

 

Application Forms

During the initial period of beneficiary application form submission, the villagers showed no interest. Five farmers were then mobilised and encouraged to take part in this intervention. They began by cultivating onions in one of the Naali fields.

 

Torrential Rains & Related challenges

Although the intervention was going well, their nurseries were destroyed by torrential rains in the area. The team working on the ground worked diligently to secure saplings for the affected farmers to make up for lost time, but one beneficiary dropped out during the process, bringing the total to four farmers.

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The Work-in-progress

Nursery raising began in October, and crops were transplanted in the first week of December. April and May are expected to be the harvest months. The anticipated harvest was 250 kg on 1 Naali land, but the fields were reduced to 0.75 to 0.5 Naali in size.

 

Learnings

It was evident that due to torrential rains the nursery was wiped out and further interventions (nursery raising) can be done in in polyhouses. This will also provide a revenue opportunity for the polyhouse owners.In addition to this, the Phase II docket indicated that the cultivation activities should be conducted in groups and that the intervention should be taken to the next level by incorporating chain-link and bio-fencing. Again, the objective in the Phase II will be to undertake some model plots and continue.