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Grows sweet corn as mixed crop with cotton, an ideal IPM practice
“Sweet corn and cotton is the ideal mixed cropping crops. Every farmer should adopt this Integrated Pest Management technique,” recommends Chavhan brothers. Since past couple of years they are growing both these crops in their farm and reaping good profits.
Chavhan Farms spreads across 35 acres. It is located at Janina village, Yavatmal district, Maharashtra. It is managed and owned by Rajesh Dasharath Chavhan and his elder brother Govardhan Dasharath Chavhan. Apart from cotton and sweet corn other crops grown in the farm are sugarcane and soybean.
“We grow sweet corn in 10 acres area all throughout the year. It is recommended to grow along with cotton because it breaks the growth of larva pest in the soil. Besides corn has good demand in the market hence is sold easily and fairly at good price. All the production cost is recovered and profits are earned too,” asserts Mr. Rajesh. Soil fertility is also enhanced. Some farmers grow sweet corn along with pigeon pea and black gram but it is less gainful than sweet corn and cotton! The later is best mixed cropping crops.
Ideally it is sown in the month of June and harvested in September. Sweet corn seeds are sown through dibbling method. “We always buy seeds ‘Sweet 75’, product of Syngenta company. We prefer this brand for its taste and quality. After ploughing and marking the seeds are manually dibbled in the soil at the distance of 2*1 (2 feet distance between seed-seed and 1 feet distance row-row). The seeds are pushed 2-4 cm inside the soil,” explains Mr. Rajesh.
In one acre 22 thousand plants are accommodated. Each plant yields two pieces of sweet corn thereby in one acre 44 thousand sweet corn are produced. “The production can be increased but then the size of sweet corn will be reduced and it will not fetch good price! Therefore it is better to have two big size of sweet corn in every plant,” clarifies Mr. Govardhan. Corn is sold at Rs.5/piece in Nagpur market. “We have fixed buyers for past two years. So selling is never a challenge so far!”
The corn field is irrigated once in 15 days through sprinklers. “It needs good fertilizer input. We use organic manure as well as chemical fertilizers,” says Mr. Rajesh.
This three month crop also ropes in money for the farmers by selling the post-harvest plants as fodder. “Approximately 5 ton fodder is obtained from one acre. It makes an excellent feed for our cattle. We have dairy unit of 29 buffaloes, Jaffarabadi breed. After giving this corn based feed the milk quality has been increased. We now fetch Rs. 43-44/liter from milk sales to Amul Cooperative Dairy,” he elaborates.
In future Chavhan brothers plan to go in for organic farming and value addition processing. “Presently we are growing cotton hybrid varieties hence chemical fertilizer is must to use. But definitely we are going to make a 100% switch to chemical free practices because it is best to reduce the farming input cost and make the soil sturdy plus fertile. We also aspire for value addition of our farm produce but it is capital intensive venture therefore for the time being it is on hold but shall be taken up for sure,” shares Mr. Govardhan. “Farming is profitable but farmers lack the knowledge on IPM practices and other technical expertise. If he upgrades himself consistently then certainly earning money in farming will not be tough!”
“Every farmer must do sweet corn cultivation. It is best IPM practice, fetches good money from corn and fodder sales, less labour intensive and requires less monitoring too. This will never lead to loss for the farmers!” conclude Chavhan brothers.
Contact details:
Chavhan Farms
At. Janina, Post Pophali,
Taluka Umarkhed,
Yavatmal District,
Vidharbha Region,
Maharashtra
Phone: +91 7588090163, 9960696151
Email: gdchavhan@gmail.com
“Sweet corn and cotton is the ideal mixed cropping crops. Every farmer should adopt this Integrated Pest Management technique,” recommends Chavhan brothers. Since past couple of years they are growing both these crops in their farm and reaping good profits.
Chavhan Farms spreads across 35 acres. It is located at Janina village, Yavatmal district, Maharashtra. It is managed and owned by Rajesh Dasharath Chavhan and his elder brother Govardhan Dasharath Chavhan. Apart from cotton and sweet corn other crops grown in the farm are sugarcane and soybean.
“We grow sweet corn in 10 acres area all throughout the year. It is recommended to grow along with cotton because it breaks the growth of larva pest in the soil. Besides corn has good demand in the market hence is sold easily and fairly at good price. All the production cost is recovered and profits are earned too,” asserts Mr. Rajesh. Soil fertility is also enhanced. Some farmers grow sweet corn along with pigeon pea and black gram but it is less gainful than sweet corn and cotton! The later is best mixed cropping crops.
Ideally it is sown in the month of June and harvested in September. Sweet corn seeds are sown through dibbling method. “We always buy seeds ‘Sweet 75’, product of Syngenta company. We prefer this brand for its taste and quality. After ploughing and marking the seeds are manually dibbled in the soil at the distance of 2*1 (2 feet distance between seed-seed and 1 feet distance row-row). The seeds are pushed 2-4 cm inside the soil,” explains Mr. Rajesh.
In one acre 22 thousand plants are accommodated. Each plant yields two pieces of sweet corn thereby in one acre 44 thousand sweet corn are produced. “The production can be increased but then the size of sweet corn will be reduced and it will not fetch good price! Therefore it is better to have two big size of sweet corn in every plant,” clarifies Mr. Govardhan. Corn is sold at Rs.5/piece in Nagpur market. “We have fixed buyers for past two years. So selling is never a challenge so far!”
The corn field is irrigated once in 15 days through sprinklers. “It needs good fertilizer input. We use organic manure as well as chemical fertilizers,” says Mr. Rajesh.
This three month crop also ropes in money for the farmers by selling the post-harvest plants as fodder. “Approximately 5 ton fodder is obtained from one acre. It makes an excellent feed for our cattle. We have dairy unit of 29 buffaloes, Jaffarabadi breed. After giving this corn based feed the milk quality has been increased. We now fetch Rs. 43-44/liter from milk sales to Amul Cooperative Dairy,” he elaborates.
In future Chavhan brothers plan to go in for organic farming and value addition processing. “Presently we are growing cotton hybrid varieties hence chemical fertilizer is must to use. But definitely we are going to make a 100% switch to chemical free practices because it is best to reduce the farming input cost and make the soil sturdy plus fertile. We also aspire for value addition of our farm produce but it is capital intensive venture therefore for the time being it is on hold but shall be taken up for sure,” shares Mr. Govardhan. “Farming is profitable but farmers lack the knowledge on IPM practices and other technical expertise. If he upgrades himself consistently then certainly earning money in farming will not be tough!”
“Every farmer must do sweet corn cultivation. It is best IPM practice, fetches good money from corn and fodder sales, less labour intensive and requires less monitoring too. This will never lead to loss for the farmers!” conclude Chavhan brothers.
Contact details:
Chavhan Farms
At. Janina, Post Pophali,
Taluka Umarkhed,
Yavatmal District,
Vidharbha Region,
Maharashtra
Phone: +91 7588090163, 9960696151
Email: gdchavhan@gmail.com
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