UPL focuses on increasing productivity

With an aim to increase the productivity and an income of farmers, the major agrochemical and Seeds Company in the country- United Phosphorus Ltd (UPL) has taken a novel initiative for farmers since the past one year.

As a result, incomes of farmers have increased remarkably from 30 per cent to 120 per cent due to increase in the productivity and improvement in quality of crops.

"As part of the company's programme of increasing productivity and improvement in quality of crops, we undertook a pilot project in Manchar (near Pune) and surrounding 40 villages. We provided them training, advice and solutions on selecting good quality seeds, crop protection products and day-to-day information of agri goods prices from nearby five-six mandis.

He added, “As a result, incomes of farmers who chose to apply our techniques and advice have almost more than doubled in the past one year," said Bhupen Dubey, Head (Integrated Business), UPL.

"Generally, the Garlic crop takes five months, but I took it in just four months due to advice and solutions by Unimart centre of UPL and my crop productivity increased from 600 kgs to 2,140 kgs an acre, against 1,540 kgs an acre last year. I earned a net profit of Rs 1.25 lakh, against Rs 40,000 from the previous season," Savliram Gate, a farmer from Kurvandi village (15 kms from Manchar) told Business Standard.

"My net income has increased by around 30 to 40 per cent due to a good variety of seeds and crop protection products and time-to-time advice and solutions from company's Unimart centre. Moreover, the productivity of cauliflower has also almost doubled from 8 tonnes to 15 tonnes an acre," said Daulat Bhor, a vegetable grower from Nagapur village.

"We have set up an advisory and solution centre under the brand name 'Unimart' at Manchar. 'Unimart' centre provides quality farm advisory services at farmer's doorstep. Expert visits on field, home delivery of products, library services to enhance the knowledge of the farmers and various farmer training programmes are some of the services offered by the 'Unimart'. Apart from services, Unimart also offers a series of products like vegetable seeds, field crop seeds, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, micronutrients and fertilisers. Presently, we have 1,000 farmer members at Manchar," N Brahmananda Reddy, GM, Maharashtra, - United Phosphorus Ltd (UPL) said.

"After the success of our pilot project at Manchar, we are planning to implement this project under the brand name 'Unimart' at 10 select locations in Maharashtra in 2011 and one Unimart Centre will cover around 40 nearby villages," said Kanhaiya Kondekar," head of Unimart project, Maharashtra.

"Apart from advice and solutions, we will also provide farmers with the information about market prices of five nearby mandis, which help them to realise the best price of their products," said Shivaji Hol and Sanjay Jagdale of Unimart.