Onion, a widely consumed vegetable across the country throughout the year, is mainly cultivated in three seasons i.e. during kharif, late kharif, and rabi. The crop being harvested during the rabi accounts for 60% of onion production, hits the markets from March to June. The same crop continues to meet the consumer demand till October-November every year before the kharif crop is harvested and brought to the market. Therefore, it becomes pivotal to successfully store rabi onion so as to maintain its supply in the markets. The Onion is a semi-perishable crop and 30-40% of the crop gets lost during the storage. During natural calamities, the losses go beyond 40% that leads to heavy stress both on demand and supply. The supply volatility creates market distress causing a steep rise in the price of onion that eventually affects the end consumers. A adequate storage facility will help in checking the supply volatility and steep rise in onion prices. Storage facility available in India...

The five villages (Mundri, Geong, Kathwar, Sampli Kheri and Bhaini  Majra) in Kaithal district of Haryana have been adopted under Farmer FIRST Project “Empowering farmers through selected interventions in salt affected agroecosystems of Ghaghar Plains”. Kaithal district in general and these villages in particular have major limitations of poor quality groundwater (high RSC>2.5 meq/l) and soil sodicity (soil pH>8.2) reducing soil infiltration rate and submergence of crops during the periods of intense rains resulting in crop failure. To provide location specific drainage-cum-recharge facility for safe disposal of excess rain water in low lying areas where runoff gets accumulated and adversely affects the crop production, cavity type groundwater recharge structure was installed. The recharge cavity consisted of conventional cavity tube well coupled with sand-cum-radial filtration unit, constructed by drilling a bore hole until a sandy layer found below a clayey layer. A high...

Shri Mohan Singh Sisodiya, a 38 years old young and energetic farmer residing in Baijapur village of District Khargone has achieved a laurel for himself and his family too. Sisodiya, Higher Secondary passed out from Khargone in the Year - 1997, engaged himself in farming with his other family members. But, his thirst to achieve self-reliance encouraged him to be self-employed. The idea triggered him to form and register a group of farmers named Vedashree Beej Utpaadak Sahakari Sanstha in 2007 for producing and supplying good quality of seeds for the farmers. But, the lack of experience and cooperation from other members made him unsuccessful during the initial stages.   He met Scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Khargone in 2011 and reported the various issues and problems being faced by the group. Shri Singh was provided with full support by the KVK. It was the real turning point of his life where the KVK adopted his village to provide the farmers with the training on...

Tomato is commercially important vegetable crop intensively grown in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and North Eastern States of India. Tomato is cultivated in 0.809 million ha with the total production of 19.697 million tonnes and average productivity is 24.34 Mt/ha in the country. However, in Uttarakhand it occupied an area of 8626.81 ha with the total production of 94005.13 metric tonnes while average productivity is 10.89 MT/ha. From the last one and half decades its area, production, productivity and availability have been increased significantly particularly in Himalayan States of India. Farmers raised nursery of tomato in the month of January and February and their planting is done during March-April. The tomato is mainly grown between March to October and its production start from May onwards which is the off season because during this period it is hardly grown in plains due to high temperature. Because of the off season, farmers get premium price of their...

Women empowerment is one of the main pillars for the development of the rural economy. A successful rural economy is impossible without the share of women empowerment as women seems to be the main driving force for the economy to develop and prosper. The women’s participation in the rural economy is invincible. The best example of taking the women entrepreneurship to a new height is the Women’s Self Help Groups from Murshidabad District of West Bengal who have been deemed as the major bread-earners for their own and the family too to a larger extent. In a recent event, the women groups of Murshidabad District of West Bengal have done a remarkable job by involving themselves in rearing of poultry and duck. As it is known that the importance of backyard poultry production is deemed to have overcome the never-ending problems of poverty, hunger and malnutrition in the country! In Murshidabad, the poultry production output corresponds to the backyard poultry production because...