Mango Plantation activity

Under plantation activity, we had planted very good quality mango plants of Amrapalli and Dussehri variety which normally yields fruits from the third year of planting. We have been doing plantation under three categories:

1. In institutions
2. In Community Centers
3. Individual households

The vision behind plantation is to

1. Spread the culture of plantation in households including the concept of Kitchen garden. The mission is to have all households, institutions having surplus land to grow vegetables like greens, brinjal, drumstick, papaya , fruit bearing plants like mango, jack fruits, black berries etc
2. Thus, minimize land wastage and be environment friendly and pollution reducing agents.
3. Promote horticulture and vegetable plantation as a source of livelihood.
4. Make Odisha known as a destination for producing very good quality mangoes.

We had planted mango plants in institutions like Silicon Institute of Technology, a premiere Engineering college in Patia, Bhubaneswar, Amrita Vidyalayam in Janla, in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, Dist Khurdha, a school set up by the group of Mata Amritanandamayee Amma.

Horticulture as a livelihood aid

In the outskirts of Dhenkanal, there are community centres and hamlet cluster those comprise of approximately seventy households each. Mostly, they earn their livelihood as daily labourer. These households have a cottage each through Indiara Awas jojna and they all belong to BPL category.

We have been distributing around 500 Amrapalli/Dassehri mango plants every year to these families and ensured that each household planted at least ten plants in their backyard and collectively could position to produce around 20kgs per plant after 4 to 5 years.

We have also introduced a monitoring system to monitor the health of plants in each household and subsequently an appropriate GIS system can be introduced.

They will also use this variety plants for creating ‘Kalmi’ and developing a nursery for such plants which they will not only plant in their land but also can sell and earn some additional amount.

Co-operative farming

This is one of our ways and attempts to promote Co-operative farming. The farmers not only benefit individually but also learn to collectively create an identity for themselves as a hub or a pocket for producing such good quality mangoes.

In addition to being a collection centre for mangoes themselves, they will also be instrumental in spreading and propagating the culture of creating such hubs through their mango nursery in the nearby villages and community centres.