Medicinal Plants Cultivation

Name of the farmer : Lankela Sivalingam Dora

Village : A. Thamarapalli, Paderu Mandal

Sivalingam Dora from Thamarapalli has 6.4 acres of land, which he inherited from his parents. He has been cultivating Paddy, Ragi, Turmeric, Coffee & Pepper in 5 acres of this land and left the remaining 1.4 acre untouched turning it barren from the past 4 - 5 years.

Amrutha Welfare Society with support from AVP, gave him an orientation training on the cultivation of Medicinal Plants, where he learnt about the cultivation process, yield and income details based on his farm. He prepared beds for cultivating these medicinal plants.

Initially, AVP provided him with planting material for Ginger, Sannarastram and Yerra Chitramulam. He planted those varieties in 90 beds, but due to heavy rains, his Ginger crop had failed. A team from Dignity and AVP came to see the damage of Ginger crop. During their visit, AVP gave him Iruveli to plant instead, on a trial basis for 3 beds. It had successfully germinated, and the growth was good.

AVP then gave him Iruveli to plant where the Ginger crop was lost. Sivalingam Dora came forward and prepared 60 more beds to plant Iruveli, based on its success.

He expressed his heartful thanks to both AVP and Amrutha for supporting Iruveli, after the loss of his Ginger crop.

Integrated Farming System

Name of the farmer : M. Rajayya

Village : Sappiputtu, Paderu Mandal

One farm many livelihood activities, this is the story of M. Rajayya and his family.

He has been cultivating millets, rice, vegetables, medicinal plants, pulses, pepper, turmeric, practicing horticulture, floriculture, and maintaining a poultry farm, cattle farm and a fish pond in a single acre of land with natural farming as its major focus being promoted by Amrutha, with support from Dignity & CWS.

The waste produced by cattle and poultry in his farm is used for the preparation of jeevamrutham and fish feed, which decreases their dependence on external resources and increases their income. This has inspired other farmers to replicate the same process.

This initiative is being selected by NGO Network Group in Andhra Pradesh and was documented last week to represent Govt. activities promoted by NGOs in the upliftment of sustainable empowerment.

Rajayya expressed his heartful thanks to all, the team of Amrutha and donors for giving him this training and support.

Nutri Garden – Kitchen Garden for 365 Days

Nutri Garden is an innovative Kitchen Garden model which provides nutritious vegetables throughout the week. In this model, we build 7 beds as inside rows and 7 beds as outside rows with a compost pit at the center of the circle.

We grow vegetables like brinjal, tomoto, potato, carrot, beetroot, lady fingers etc. in the middle 7 beds, and grow leafy vegetables like palak, thotakura, gongura, etc. on out side beds.

As the cycle starts, the beneficiary can use the first inner bed vegetables and outer bed leafy vegetables on one day, on the second day he will go for second inner and outer bed vegetables, accordingly. This way he can get a yield for 7 days by shifting one bed to another bed which represents Monday to Sunday… From the next week, after the completion of 7 days, the first day bed is ready for yield again, and so on.

Creeper varieties and Banana trees are grown at boundary, this helps to include variety in meals.

This is a successful Kitchen Garden Model for a family for 365 days.