Ranchi: Little is known about Deori’s small hamlet in Block Nagri, 25 km from the state capital before Prime Minister Narendra Modi made Manju Kachchap’s special attention and villagers on Sunday morning.
When overcoming the country through the 81st edition of Mann Ki Baat, he praised the villagers for taking aloe vera cultivation with the support of Birsa Agricultural University which increased traditional income.
Expressing happiness because it finds the mention at the address of PM, Manju Kachchap (Tirey) says they hope to get more support for their medicinal plant agriculture ideas.
“We were chosen for training to adopt Aloe Vera plantations by Birsa Agricultural University in 2018 and at least three dozen villagers under Diori Pancayat decided to try planting drug plants, not traditional plants,” he said.
Along with Manju, Meena Devi Bhagmani Tirkey and others realized the benefits of shifting to new cash plants.
“The input costs are lacking, because we don’t need to buy seeds every year and products, mature leaves in this case, ready for sale,” said Manju, who has produced around 1.5 quintals of aloe leaves every year from the small plot of land he chooses for test.
During the peak of Covid infection, the demand for new aloe vera grows increasing manifold.
“The buyer comes to our field because of the demand for aloe vera juice and gel is very high,” Manju said.
He wants to install the settings needed for the production of gel but with the absence of the necessary support and knowhow, he still sells leaves.
Head of the Ministry of Forestry Products and Utilization, Birsa Agricultural University, Dr.
Kaushal Kumar, who is a pioneer in introducing aloe vera cultivation in Jharkhand, said the project was funded by the Indian Agriculture Research Board (ICAR) under the Sub Plan (TSP)).
“We chose several tribal villages to see if dreams to double farmers’ income can be realized through drug plants, new concepts for the country,” he said.
After training more than four dozen villagers, in which only a few were agreed to adopt new plants, the smell had monitored and expanded all the assistance needed as far as it involves technology transfer.
Kumar said Aloe Vera was suitable for the agrocoblimatic conditions of the region and also had a readymade market.
Under the leadership of Manju Devi, many villagers agreed to adopt drug plants, it was only for them.
“Because many people begin to grow Aleo Vera on whatever plots they have, we can see this plant almost everywhere in the village encourage visitors to call it village Aloe village,” Kumar said.
Even though the aloe vera grows in difficult conditions, it requires irrigation in the summer and the leaves takes almost 18 months until cooked.
Manju said because their well dried up in the summer they were worried about irrigation in the summer months.
“Because PM has mentioned the name of our village, we hope that some irrigation facilities will now be given to us,” he said.