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Korba, September 2 (HS). Bharat Aluminum Company Limited (BALCO), a Vedanta Group company, organized a Let's Do Ropai program under its 'More Jal More Mati' project. Employees celebrated Hareli festival with the community by participating in the plantation. The transplantation method was made easy by training farmers on System for Rice Intensification (SRI). More than 50 employee volunteers contributed to planting paddy in 4.5 acres of land. The labor cost of the farmer benefited from this campaign was reduced by about 15 percent.
Hareli festival in Chhattisgarh marks the beginning of the agricultural cycle. Hareli festival is an important festival for farmers. Chhattisgarh is known as the 'rice bowl'. This year BALCO encouraged its employees to actively participate in the rice planting along with the farmers. Working together with the farmers promoted a sense of unity.
Rajesh Kumar, Chief Executive Officer and Director, BALCO said that BALCO is committed to support farmers in every possible way. The voluntary service of our employees in the 'Let's do Ropani' campaign shows our commitment to the community. Through the Mor Jol Mor Mati project, the company is providing training to farmers of the community in various techniques and modern agricultural practices along with Systematic Rice Intensification (SRI) method. With the necessary knowledge and resources, our aim is to bring change in the lives of farmers which includes agriculture and sustainable livelihood along with education, health care and infrastructure development.
The company trained about 2,300 small and marginal farmers in SRI throughout the year, which has brought them economic benefits. Traditional methods have caused losses to farmers due to weeds, nutrient, water and sunlight problems, pest and disease problems, and crop failure. Adoption of SRI method leads to strong root development of rice, resulting in healthy crops. This technique has also reduced the problem of pests, which increases rice production by 20-30 percent.
Sharing his experience, Dhansay Patel, a farmer from Bundeli village, said that the training on SRI technology proved to be very useful for paddy production. Adopting this agricultural method has increased our paddy production. This technique has helped me get better crop yield as compared to traditional methods.
Sarthak Patel, a BALCO employee who participated in the plantation, said that it was a great pleasure to work with the farmers. It was a pleasant experience to learn about the crop from this campaign and make a positive impact outside of one's job.
BALCO's More Jal More Mati Project has reached out to 4749 farmers with more than 1400 acres of land in 32 villages. More than 80% of the farmers under the project have adopted modern agricultural techniques and are engaged in livelihood enhancing activities like SRI, trellis, organic farming, climate resilient crops, vegetable and wheat cultivation etc. About 15% of the farmers are engaged in activities like animal husbandry, horticulture and forest produce along with agriculture for livelihood. There has been an increase in average annual income of farmers as well as an increase in production by about 50 percent and reduction in cost by 40 percent.