Gibbon neighbours reap demo benefits

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Gibbon neighbours reap demo benefits

TINKLE ROY
The Telegraph

Jorhat

June 1: A little village at the edge of Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary is being spruced up to become the one-stop destination for rain forest experiments and demonstrations.

When the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education decided to pick a demonstration village in Jorhat for its experiments, an extensive survey was conducted to choose the most suitable spot.

After scouring through Jorhat, officials zeroed in on Meleng Grant to become the demonstration village for the Rain Forest Research Institute.

Comprising three hamlets — Bhogpur, Madhupur and Govindpur — Meleng Grant has 220 households in all.

The director of Rain Forest Research Institute, Niranjan K. Vasu, said since Meleng Grant is near the the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, it will be a potential platform with a variety of “target” audience for the demonstration.

“Demonstration of forest technologies at Meleng Grant will provide a great opportunity to publicise our work to local, national and international visitors. Many will come to know about our research while travelling to the sanctuary,” Vasu said.

Scientist Pawan K. Kaushik, who is the co-ordinator of the “demonstration village programme”, said a course has been suitably designed so that villagers can participate in the programmes.

“The villagers are being trained in different aspects of field work so that they can lend a helping hand to the research programme,” Kaushik said.

So far, villagers have been trained in micro planning, raising bamboo nursery and vermicomposting.

The prime aim of the programme is sustainable development of the rural population through forest research.

As part of the plan, two patchouli nurseries, two bamboo treatment tanks and nurseries have been set up.

Twenty-two vermicompost units have also been constructed and villagers have been trained to produce vermicompost themselves.

A mechanism has been put in place to monitor the entire mechanism.

A local technology transfer monitoring committee, named Trinayan Unnayanmukh Committee, involving officials of the research centre and villagers, was formed to record feedback and file data.

The members of the committee have also decided to contribute five per cent of the income to the committee’s account, which will be saved with the State Bank of India and the Union Bank. Once the village is ready for demonstration, it is expected to generate much more than mere interest.

Extension of Patchouli based Agroforestry Models in RFRI Demo Village

(http://www.sentinelassam.com/state.php?sec=2&subsec=2&ppr=1&dtP=2009-08-11)

Training of farmers by RFRI SENTINEL :From a Correspondent JORHAT, Aug 10: The Rain Forest Research Institute (RFRI) after initiating the farmers into ways and means of laying nurseries of bamboo, patchouli and training them into making vermi-composting units as an advantageous form of fertilization, is now aiming to sustain production by finding a commercial market for the produce. The RFRI, which has adopted the Meleng Grant village here as its demo village for transfer of research from lab to land recently acted as a liaising agent between entrepreneur Ranjit Bora of Kaliabor Tiniali and the villagers for selling dried patchouli leaves at a viable price. Pawan Kaushik, RFRI scientist and co-ordinator of the demo village said that the work of RFRI did not end with just training the farmers on different and better methods of raising crops but also in working out the economics that the farmers are benefited by being able to market their produce at a higher price. Enterpreneures visiting Kisan Nurseries to ensure supply of patchouli leaves “The farmers have started supplying and selling patchouli plants to the NGOs based in New Delhi and other progressive farmers in Asom”, Kaushik said. “The idea of planting patchouli is new to farmers and therefore it is imperative that they know the commercial value of the plant. RFRI is there acting as an intermediary between entrepreneurs and the villagers to that effect”, he said. Patchouli oil is used as a herbal medicine for treatment of skin diseases and as an aromatic oil in perfumes besides foods and beverages. “The villagers were trained on inter-cropping of patchouli with betelnut trees based on a model developed at RFRI. The cool shade of the betelnut trees help in better growth of the patchouli bushes and use of fertilizer and water becomes less”, Kaushik said. The trees were planted in April and the leaves had become ready for harvesting now. The entrepreneur Bora assured the farmers of buying the leaves if sufficient quantity was produced to fill a mini-truck. Earlier RFRI had organized an entrepreneurs’ meet so that farmers could find a market for the edible shoot of bamboo (khorisa) at Karbi Anglong.