Success story of integrated farming for enhancing livelihood
Enhancing productivity from the available piece of land has been a continuous effort under the NAIP sub-project Sustainable livelihood improvement through integrated freshwater aquaculture, horticulture and livestock development in Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Sambalpur districts of Orissa. The integration of the various interventions has already started bearing fruits …. literally !!
Baladuan village of Anandpur cluster of Keonjhar district adopted under the NAIP project is predominated by the SC, ST and OBC population. One of the intervention s promoted by the consortium partner Central Horticultural Experiment Station, Bhubaneswar, is integrated aqua-horticulture on pond dikes and adjoining areas. Sri. Purnachandra Das is one of the many farmers benefitted by this technological intervention and has now set an example by his uncanny success in the integrated aqua-horticulture in his couple of ponds. With an average educational qualification up to 10th standard, Sri. Das with a family of four members were formerly depended on single crop of rice. The deliberations during one of the farmers’ meeting organised by CHES, He was motivated to implement the aqua-horticulture system in less-utilised dike area of his couple of ponds. Being the part of the Self Help Group created for fruit and vegetable nursery, he could raise papaya seedlings of red lady variety in nursery from the seeds provided by the NAIP and planted 25 numbers of seedlings in his dike area with a plant to plant distance of 3mt. After one year he got approximately 1.0 to 1.2 quintal papaya fruits per plant on an average. He harvested papaya fruits 
twice in the year and grossly he got 60 quintal papaya. He sold papaya in local haat and nearby markets @ `8.5/- in rainy season and in summer @ `6.5/- per Kg. Totally he got Rs.38000.00 from papaya cultivation in his unutilised dike area of ponds excluding home consumption. He also cultivated poi, bitter gourd, cucumber as intercrop in papaya and earned Rs.8000.00, Rs.5000.00 and Rs.2000.00 respectively. The candid utilisation of the dike area for economic gains through horticulture besides pisciculture has become a role model for farmers in the region. For his successful integrated farming, he was felicitated in a workshop on “Horticultural interventions for sustainable livelihood” on 26th March 2013 held at CHES, Bhubaneswar.