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International Journal For Research & Development in Technology

Volume: 2, Issue: 6, Dec -2014 ISSN (Online):- 2349-3585

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Copyright 2014- IJRDT www.ijrdt.org

Hi-tech Nursery raising Training in

Agricultural and Horticultural crops to get

Livelihood for youth in Tribal areas of

Visakhapatnam District. G.V. Subba Reddy

1, B. Srihari Rao

2,

S. S. N Malleswara Rao3,Dr. G. Sridhar

4

1Subject Matter Specialist (Horticulture), BCT KVK, Visakhapatnam (India)

2Subject Matter Specialist (Soil Science), BCT KVK, Visakhapatnam (India) 3Subject Matter Specialist (Agronomy), BCT KVK, Visakhapatnam (India)

4Programme Assistant, BCT Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Visakhapatnam (India)

Abstract:Various training programmes were conducted for

Tribal youth of Visakhapatnam District at BCT Krishi

Vigyan Kendra to provide the knowledge in Pro-Tray raised

seedlings production in Agricultural and Horticultural crops

for transplanting robust seedlings for reducing input cost to

the farmer. The main target in conducting the trainings was

to convert the unemployed Tribal youth to employed one.

KVK has identified Tribal villages in the Agency of

Visakhapatnam district of Andhrapradesh for accomplishing

this task. The knowledge level of the different trainees was

checked before and after the trainings. The evaluation

profarma of 10 questions were prepared and given to check

the difference in knowledge. It was found that almost

58.55% increase in the knowledge and work efficiency of the

rural youth which was sufficient for starting own business.

After completion of model training course, trainees were

sponsored from the different agro based industries in order

to start the business. A post evaluation after starting the

business was taken which leads in real success of the

training. The average income of the trainee was increased by

2.55 times due to real practical experience given at KVK,

which resulted in building the trust in rural youth for this

sector.

Keywords: Pro-Tray raised seedling production training, Rural

youth, Income, BCT KVK,

1.INTRODUCTION

India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in

the world. Still there is an urgent need for technology

upgradation to meet the international quality standards as well

as domestic needs. Horticulture today is not merely a means of

diversification but constitutes and integral part of food and

nutritional security, as well as employment generation. Quality

Seeds and planting material, including hybrids, contribute

nearly 30% for enhanced productivity and ensures the food

security. From 1961 to 2008, the cultivated area and

production of vegetables in the world have drastically

increased by 128 and 313%, respectively and the seed

production of vegetable crops has increased from 46.34 to

128.71 thousand tonnes; out of which America, Asia and

Europe contribute 50%, 32% and 16.96% respectively. Seed

production and productivity of vegetables have increased 161

and 80%, respectively (FAO 2009), which shows that still

there is a need to enhance the productivity through integrated

strategies including quality seeds and planting material.

Bhagavatula Charitable Trust (BCT) is a non-proft

organization working in the rural Visakhapatnam distric since

1976. Hallmark of BCT‟s programs has been involvement

community in their own development. Visakhapatnam Krishi

Vigyan Kendra (KVK) is under the aeigs of BCT. KVK is

offering necessary technical support to the farmers.

Considering the labour issue, high competition in middle aged

tribal youth for employment the BCT KVK has started finding

out such unemployed tribal youth for converting them the

dependent into independent. KVK having different disciplines

like Agronomy, Horticulture, Plant Protection, Soil Science,

Agriculture Engineering, Home Science, Veterinary and

Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, computers in Agriculture and

allied areas that the tribal people need to learn and uplift their

skills and generate their livelihood. The mandate of the KVK

is to cater the need based and age based demonstrations and

trainings for the farmers, various extension functionaries and

rural youth. Gardening may be very specialized, with only one

type of plant grown, or involve a large number of different

plants in mixed plantings. It involves an active participation in

the growing of plants, and tends to be labor intensive, which

differentiates it from farming or forestry. The growing

vegetables market has resulted in higher demand for vegetable

seeds. The government expects the total vegetable seed market

to grow to 140 million tonnes by 2012 against the demand of

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forestry

International Journal For Research & Development in Technology Paper Title:- Hi-tech Nursery raising Training in Agricultural and Horticultural crops to get Livelihood for youth

(Vol.2, Issue-6) ISSN(O):- 2349-3585 in Tribal areas of Visakhapatnam District

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62,695 million tonnes during the period (M. L. Chadha, 2010).

It is believed that there are about 50,000 nurseries propagating

different ornamental and fruit plants. in most of these

nurseries (85%) are situated in and around cities catering

largely the ornamental plants for more effluent society.

Nevertheless, with the growing demand from semi urban

regions as well as from the old traditional areas, many new

nurseries have mushroomed in the last 10 to 15 years.

However there is a mismatch in demand and supply, (G.S.

Prakash, 2010). After the National Institute of Nutrition

project, 42% of households had started growing one or more

perennials varieties and 85% were growing the seasonal

varieties. At the end of our three-year extension project, 95%

of households had started growing perennials and 86%

seasonal varieties (Vijayraghavan K, 1997). Small and

Medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have created a special space

within all national economies. Hills (1996) in a comparative

study brought about a comparison between the responses of

highly successful entrepreneurs to a sample of just

entrepreneurs on certain opportunity recognitions. Most of

them, i.e. close to 85% indicated the identification of the

opportunity as a process was a continuous one rather than just

a one time attempt. “Gut feeling” to an entrepreneur while

evaluating opportunities was considered to be an important

factor (Hills, 1996). Participation and inclusion in decision-

making processes was high on the agenda. “Participatory

planning is a vital aspect of community development and any

community development strategy must incorporate formal or

informal mechanisms for local people to have a genuine role

in the making of priority decisions” (Ife 1995, p.138). Current

environmental and health challenges require us to identify

ways to better align aesthetics, ecology, and health. Our

findings demonstrate that gardeners‟ aesthetic experiences

generate meaning that encourages further engagement with

activities that may lead to positive health outcomes.

Community gardeners consumed fruits and vegetables 5.7

times per day, compared with home gardeners (4.6 times per

day) and non gardeners (3.9 times per day). Moreover, 56% of

community gardeners met national recommendations to

consume fruits and vegetables at least 5 times per day,

compared with 37% of home gardeners and 25% of non

gardeners (Litt, 2011). Household gardens are efficient users

of soil, water, sunlight and household wastes, and therefore

present an ecologically sound land management system. As a

multiple cropping system, they prevent depletion of soil

nutrients and represent repositories of diverse plant genetic

resources. They also do not use toxic chemicals in contrast to

field-based agriculture. In addition, other family members

such as the children and the elderly can provide labor.

(Midmore, D.J. et al., 1992). Community gardens enhance

nutrition and physical activity and promote the role of public

health in improving quality of life. Opportunities to organize

around other issues and build social capital also emerge

through community gardens. (Joan, 2003). The purpose of this

study is to gain a better understanding of how community

gardens can catalyze positive change in an urban environment,

to determine and catalog the impacts, and to learn about their

importance to small-scale agricultural production. (Kearney S.

C., 2009). Introduce community gardening as a promising

method of furthering well-being and resilience on multiple

levels: individual, social group, and natural environment. We

examine empirical evidence for the benefits of gardening (HA

Okvat, 2011). Keeping all these social and rural youth issues,

A study was undertaken at BCT Krishi Vigyan Kendra for

upliftment and stabilizing the socio-economic status of the

tribal farming community and tribal youth.

Material and Methods

Visakhapatnam District is having a total population of

4,288,113 compared to 3,832,336 of 2001. Population Growth

for Visakhapatnam District recorded in 2011 for the decade has

remained 11.89 percent. The survey at Visakhapatnam district

shows highest number of unemployed rural people in age of

25-30 because of lower education compared with the urban

once. Though the district is growing fast with several private

sectors but the unemployment is arises due to inadequate

knowledge in tribal youth. So to overcome this problem of

rural and Tribal unemployment, BCT KVK started at

organizing the trainings and demonstrations.

Infrastructural facilities for the Nursery Raising Training

at KVK

The KVK is having 50 acres instructional farm with several

Demonstration units with 40 mt capacity. Two Vermi compost

units, Shade net house, walking tunnel poly house, Nursery,

Small Agri Business Development unit , Medical plants block,

Vermi wash unit, Organic Banana growing block, Kitchen

garden demo block, Jatropa plantation block and the KVK has

Infrastructural facilities like Administrative Building equipped

with training hall having LCD presentation and Audio visual

facilities, Permanent Exhibition on KVK activities, Soil

testing Laboratory with facility of testing PH, EC, Nitrogen,

Phosphorous, Potash and Organic matter content of the soil

sample, KVK is having farmers hostel, Mess etc

Main reasons for organizing the training and

demonstration:

Specifically, the need for training arises due to the following

reasons

To match the Employee specifications with the Job

Requirements.

Organizational Viability and the Transformation process

Technological Advances

Organizational Complexity

Human Relations

Change in the Job Assignment

The need for training also arises to:

Increase productivity.

Improve quality of the service.

Help a person to fulfill its future personnel needs.



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Improve organizational climate.

Improve health and safety.

Prevent obsolescence.

Effect the personal growth.

Minimize the resistance to change.

Inputs in Training and Development

Any Training and Development programme must contain

inputs which enable the participants to gain skills, learn

theoretical concepts and help acquire vision to look into the

distant feature. In addition to these, there is a need to impart

ethical orientation, emphasize on attitudinal changes and stress

upon decision-making and problem-solving abilities.

Attitudinal changes in rural youth: Attitudes represent

feelings and beliefs of individuals towards others. Attitudes

affect motivation, satisfaction, and job commitment. Negative

attitudes need to be converted into positive attitudes.

Decision making and problem solving skills

Decision making and problem solving skills focus on methods

and techniques for making organizational decisions and

solving work-related problems. Learning related to decision

making and problem-solving skills seeks to improve trainees

abilities to define and structure problems, collect and analyze

information, generate alternative solutions and make an

optimal decision among alternatives.

Need of Hi-tech Nursery:

In India most of the farmers are not able to produce good seed

and healthy seedlings because of lack of knowledge and

resources for the basic units of Agriculture and Horticulture

production. Most of the farmers using higher seed rate even

though they are getting lower output due to lack of modern

nursery techniques which leading to mortality of seedlings by

seed born and soil born diseases and pest. Now a days seed

rate is drastically reduced by raising of seedlings trhough pro-

tray technics. There is great demand for pro tray raised

seedlings horticulture crops agriculture crops like sugarcane.

There is a need to equip the village level farming youth on

recent Hi-tech nursery techniques and developments, in view

of globalization the farmers have to be educated as the W.T.O

standards of production. In view of increased demand on

organic products there is a need to reorient the Indian farmers

towards organic farming techniques. In the villages for timely

supply of inputs to the fellow farmers there is a need to open

service oriented outlets, managed by trained farming youth for

supplying seeds, farm implements, bio-pesticides and organic

fertilizers. The farmers also need timely advice on situation

crop specific problems. To provide the above services there is

a need to develop locally available skilled human resources.

These skilled human resources can be developed through

K.V.K‟s and managed properly. The skilled human resources

(Trained farming youth) in turn, also add to increased

horticulture crops in the area and their productivity. They will

also acts as a facilitators for the extension of new technology.

The K.V.K has following objectives for the project:-

1. Development of skilled human resources

2. Timely supply of inputs and farm advisory services

through the trained farming youth to the farming

community.

3. Increased area and productivity in agriculture and

horticulture crops.

4. Facilitating better marketing tie up‟s thus intern provides

better price to the farm produce.

5. Encouraging post harvest technologies.

6. Encouraging and creating awareness on Organic Farming

Hi-tech Nursery Raising Training Programme at BCT-

KVK:

Keeping the above points in view Department of Horticulture,

Govt. of A.P has sanctioned nursery Training Programme

under National Horticulture Mission to few Institutions in A.P.

BCT-KVK is one among them. The training Imparts skills on

various aspects of nursery raising like seedling production by

using portrays under shade net house and transplantation, Seed

bed preparation and method of plant propagation. Handling

and maintenance of gardening equipments. Nursery

production, Flori-Culture, Seed Production, and Principles of

landscape design for house Gardens, Public parks, preparation

of complete landscape. The residential programme will give

the participants all the insights, with hands on training and on

field experience for six months. Already 2 batches have

completed the training.

Horizontal spread of gardening:

To make wider coverage of nursery training program in

different mandals of the district and to identify suitable

beneficiaries, different institutions like NHM, DRDA, Dept of

Horticulture, Dept of Agriculture and other NGOs in the

District like SVDS, ORRC, Sujana, Laya, Prgathi, Creators,

Shakti, Sweep, SRDO, IRDS and Gramabhudaya were made

involved . The program covered 30 Mandals and followed up

with the help of the above mentioned institutes. I addition to

this they are spreading production of saplings through Pro

Tray culture from the vegetable seeds. Through this farmers

are able to save the seed germination ration and production

cost. This is a major technological benefit to the farming

community and major way to generate livelihood.

Modus operandi of Gardening and Nursery Raising

Training:

Identification of Trainees from the Tribal Areas.

Exposure to the organization and Instructional farm.

Exposure to the Entomology

Exposure to Pomology



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Exposure to Landscaping

Exposure on Medicinal Aromatic Plants

Exposure on Olericulture, Floriculture, Horticulture

Exposure to Pro Tray culture

Collection of Soil Sample

Preparation of Decorative, Garlands and Bouquets

Preparation of Wood Fencing

Preparation of Hedges

Exposure visits like Vuda Park, Ramoji film City,

Lumbini Park where Landscaping and gardening was

done

Turmeric

Ginger

Sugarcane

Cutting of Seed

Plate 1: Seed Collection and Cutting of Seed

Plate 2: Training on Preparation of seed in Pro-trays



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Plate 3: Seed placing in Protrays

Plate 4: Raised Seedlings

Plate 5: Exposure visit of Trainees

Plate 6: Tribal Youth Batch and Certificates Distribution

by Dr. M. V. Rao and

Shri. Ajaya Kallam

Results and Discussion

The survey and analysis among rural youth indicates

that the worst worry is not to get employment or starting the

business but is the lack of knowledge and confidence level

among the rural youth. The prepared 10 questions for trainees

revealed that the trainees have significant variation in the

knowledge level for every question. This study gives that the

rural youth lacks the practical knowledge on how to grow the

seedlings. Since the Gardening program is found to be

economically viable and technically feasible to be handled at

village level, the study reveals that on an average there is

58.55% increase in income. The knowledge level of the

trainees was calculated by the following formula

Table 1: Knowledge level of Trainee in Nursery Raising

Training

Question

No.

No. of

trainees

answered

the

question

before

Training

No. of

trainees

answered

the

question

after

Training

% increase in

Knowledge

I 56 94 40.42

II 46 104 55.78

III 65 85 23.52

IV 45 105 57.14

V 37 113 67.25



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VI 24 126 80.95

VII 61 89 31.46

VIII 63 87 27.58

XI 26 124 79.03

X 15 135 88.88

Total

Score

438 1062 58.75

Figure 1: Knowledge level of trainee on nursery raising

before and After Training

Table 2: Impact of nursery Training on Income Levels

Sr

.N

o

Traine

e

Income/year % Change in

income Before After

1 Trainee

1

16000 16000 +

48000

200.00

2 Trainee

2

12000 12000+720

00

500.00

3 Trainee

3

12000 12000 +

60000

400.00

4 Trainee

4

10000 10000 +

30000

200.00

5 Trainee

5

12000 12000 +

35000

191.66

6 Trainee

6

12000 12000 +

37000

208.33

7 Trainee

7

12000 12000 +

62000

416.66

8 Trainee

8

36000 36000 +

56000

55.55

9 Trainee

9

30000 30000 +

62000

106.66

Total

income

1,52,000 4,62,000 253.21

Out of the 140 trainees the BCT KVK followed 10 trainees

who was started the nursery before the training itself. The 10

trainees were selected from different mandals of

Visakhapatnam district to calculate the average gain in the

income of the rural youth in order to justify the extension

activity in gardening aspect.

Figure 2: Income variations for different trainee.

This above graph implies that there was 2.5 times in increase

the annual income among the rural youth and leads to

livelihood generation. This indicates good scope to establish

sustained livelihood in rural areas through establishment of

Nurseries. Conclusion:

Gardening proved one of the livelihood options to be

a feasible in handling as well as generating gainful

employment and income.

The significant change in the knowledge level of the

trainees was seen through their business skills.

KVK got best impact in surrounding rural areas to

execute such type of new projects, trainings and

demonstrations.

References

(1) Chadha M. L., “Quality seeds and planting material

in vegetables : an international scenario‟,

AVRDC-The world Centre, Regional Centre for

South Asia, ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru,

502324, A.P, TS1: O-1, National Conference on

Production of quality seeds and planting

material-health management in Horticultural crops,

11-14 March 2010, New Delhi, 1-2.

(2) Hills, G. E., Lumpkin, G. T., & Singh, R. (1997).

Opportunity recognition: Perceptions and

behaviours of entrepreneurs. Frontiers of

Entrepreneurship Research, 17: 168-182.

(3) Ife J 1995, Community Development:

Creating community alternatives – vision, analysis

and practice, Addison Wesley Longman Australia.

(4) Joan Twiss, M A, Joy Dickinson, BS, CHES, Shirley

Duma, MA, Tanya Kleinman, BA, Heather Paulsen,

Leve

l of

Inco

me

Beneficiaries

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% Change inincome

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0

20

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I II III IV V VI VII VIII XI X

Knowledge test

No

of T

ra

ine

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Before Training

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MS, and Liz Rilveria, MPA, „Community Gardens:

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