Submitted by,

K.Shivakiran Roll No: 47

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PGDM RM 2010-2012

PERSONAL LEARNING PAPER

Declaration I hereby state that the personal learning paper submitted is a compilation of various field

observations and information gathered by various focus group discussions, by personal

interviews and interaction with various information providers. Information provided is based

on the known, available information and data and there are no information made on personal

bias. The information and the sighted instances of examples are true to my knowledge and no

data presented here has been based on assumptions.

K.Shivakiran.

(Signature)

Acknowledgement

I convey my heartfelt gratitude to Mr. M.N. Dinesh Kumar from Earth 360 Eco Ventures Pvt.

Ltd for providing me the opportunity to stay and learn with the team in the organization. I

also thank the support provided by Mr. Maulaliya and Mr. Devendranath Reddy for their

utmost support and care during my stay in Kadiri and the nearby villages. I also take this

opportunity to thank Prof. Shambu Prasad from the Xavier Institute of Management,

Bhubaneswar for his support and guidance throughout this Rural Living and Learning

Experience and for providing a memorable and cherishing opportunity.

Introduction The Rural Living and Learning Experience (RLLE) started for me from the small town of

Kadiri in the Anantapur district. I stayed in the premises of an organisation named Earth 360

Eco Ventures Pvt. Ltd. and from there I visited 12 villages in and around the Kadiri region

under four mandals. The organisation was working on all these 12 villages for the

procurement of millets from the farmers of these villages which would be processed and

marketed subsequently. I visited all the 12 villages to understand the extent of the work done

by Earth 360 Eco Ventures and more interestingly I got an opportunity to stay at some of

these villages. In this personal learning paper, I would like share some of my learning from

the visits to the villages and from the stay at the organisation. Even though anything and

everything can be a learning experience for anybody, I would personally hold on to those

learning that are relevant to my current academic context.

My Learning from the one month’s time in and around Kadiri Some of the learning are very interesting and some are very informative though not quite as

interesting as the others. Described below are some of the learning i found interesting and

informative.

Technology of Mulching Mulching is the process of providing a protective cover over the soil to retain the moisture

content in the soil and to reduce the erosion of soil. To some extent it also reduces and

suppresses the growth of weeds in the soil.

In some of the farm lands near the villages of Narasapagari Palli which is located 15kms from

the small town of Kadiri had instances of mulching being used which were more advanced

and modern. The farm lands or fields there employed a concept called plastic mulching for

their fields. Like normal mulch the plastic mulch is used to protect the soil from erosion and

retain moisture in it. One of the farmers, Mr.Adinarayana, from Narasapagari palli who was

using plastic mulch gave me more insight on the use of plastic mulch.

Mr.Adinarayana informed that the plastic mulch costs anywhere between Rs.4000 to Rs.8000

per acre depending on the quality of the plastic. This cost includes the cost of installation and

the removal too. He also informed that there are reusable plastic mulches available that will

pose a threat to the environment. He also suggested that mostly the plastic mulches are used

along with drip irrigation and mostly in the cultivation of vegetables. After the process of

laying the plastic mulches the top layers of the plastic sheets are provided with small

openings to provide space for the plants to grow. Quite interesting is the fact that this farmer

was using the reusable plastic mulch and he suggested that he had been using this technology

for the past two years. As a result of this technology, he informed that he was able to obtain a

harvest that was almost three times the yield obtained without the use of plastic mulch.

This was one of the interesting and informative learning and it shows that the farmers are

willing and ready to take up and apply technology for their agricultural practises.

Application of manure from Livestock – A new way! Nagareddy Palli is a village in the Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh located at around 19

km from town of Kadiri. It consists of a total of more than 200 households. Majority of the

people are engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry consisting of sheep, goat and

buffalo. These livestock are managed by a herdsman and typically a herdsman manages up to

a 100 livestock. The herdsman gets paid by the owners of the livestock at a rate of Rs.50 to

Rs.60 per month per livestock to graze them on barren lands and fields.

Now, the farmers in the village of Nagareddy Palli doing agriculture under the organic

farming practise use the manure from the livestock to nourish their agricultural fields.

Interestingly in the village of Nagareddy Palli, the farmers manure the agricultural fields

quite differently. Right before the preparation of the land for the next cropping season, the

farmers request the herdsman to take his livestock and graze them on the farmer’s field. This

way the weeds and the grasses in the land gets cleared and thus the soil is now ready for

preparation. Additionally, the herdsmen are also requested by the farmers to stay on the

agricultural field for a couple of nights and the herdsman is paid for the stay. During their

stay in the field the droppings from these livestock are used as natural manure for the soil and

thus the farmers and the herdsman along with his livestock are benefited from this symbiotic

process.

Economical Drip Irrigation System Mr. Devendranath Reddy is a farmer from the village of Nagareddy Palli of Mudigubba

mandal which is located at a distance of 19 km from the town of Kadiri. Mr. Reddy is

currently growing vegetables like tomato and egg plant in his agricultural field and he has

installed the drip irrigation facility in his farm land. The drip irrigation system used by Mr.

Reddy is a very economical alternative to the expensive varieties of drip irrigation. He

informed that this type of drip irrigation is called the T-Tape drip irrigation. The major

advantage of this drip irrigation system over the other conventional varieties of drip irrigation

system is that they require very less technical skills in handling the irrigation system and

besides having the advantage of being very less expensive; they can also be easily installed

and reused at different fields.

The T-Tape drip irrigation system has a motor pump which pumps the water from the source

and there are three inlet valves connected to each of the drips through which the rate of water

flow can be controlled. The drip tapes are provided with holes or openings at specified

intervals where the water is required to come out and these when laid on the field will irrigate

the field in 2 to 3 hours (per acre of land). Normally for an acre of land this drip irrigation

system costs Rs.12000 to Rs.15000 and incidentally the entire cost is waived off by the

government of Andhra Pradesh. Waivers up to a cost of Rs.50000 or 90% (maximum of

either) are provided in the case of drip irrigation systems by the government of Andhra

Pradesh.

System of Rice Intensification On the way to a village named Katinae Palli which is located at a distance of 35 km from the

town of Kadiri in Tanakal mandal, I came across a farm land having rice grown in a different

way from the rest of the fields there. On enquiring I came to know that the farm land belongs

to a farmer by name M.Narasimmallu. Mr. Narasimmallu informed that he is growing rice

under the method called System of Rice Intensification. As suggested by Mr. Narasimmallu,

the major differences in this type of rice cultivation from the conventional cultivation method

is that,

The rice fields are kept moist rather than fully flooding them with water. This reduces

the anaerobic reaction in the soil and supports aerobic soil activity. It further improves

the growth of the plant.

The plants are also planted at a more spacious fashion thereby increasing the exposure

of the plants to the sunlight.

The rice saplings are also transplanted very early to protect the roots from getting

damaged which would otherwise be the case in the conventional methods of rice

cultivation

Mr. Narasimmallu informed that he is obtaining good yields year after year by following the

system of rice intensification and suggests that he would continue to follow the same practise

from now on.

Sprinkler Irrigation One of the major learning was that many farmers near the villages of Narasappagari Palli

were using sprinkler irrigation for their agricultural fields. An interview with the farmer

named Anjaneyulu revealed some interesting learning for me. The cost of setup of the

sprinkler irrigation system would be anywhere between Rs.12000 to Rs.15000 and out of that

the government of Andhra Pradesh provides a subsidy of 50% of the total system cost with a

ceiling of Rs.50000/- per family.

The main reasons for the use of sprinkler system as informed by Mr. Anjaneyulu are,

They can be used to irrigate uneven agricultural lands where irrigation is difficult

They also take up less land for cultivation purposes and more land is available for the

crops (additional area under irrigation)

The water used for irrigation is much less (around 30% to 40%) less than the

conventional irrigation methods

Application of fertilizers are also easy and Mr. Anjaneyulu informed that he mixes the

fertilizers in the water for irrigation which will be sprinkled on to the crops