BACKGROUND OF THE CASE STUDY

Kishunpur Grant is a village situated on the banks of the river Kuano , close to the Sundar Ghat forest area. This area has frequent wild animal disturbances. Thus farmers widely adopted sugarcane as a cash cropbut their interest in cultivating vegetables remain low.

Aditya was a farmer who also used to work as an insurance agent in a life insurance company. He used to participate in farmer group meetings and the group was formatted under the Sujalam Sufalam Project for sustainable agriculture-based livelihood..

Once when Adiya’s wife Sangita met him during the farmer's group meeting, he shared with her about the Machan method of vegetable cultivation that was discussed in the meeting. Soon after getting technical assistance for the machan model project, Sangita insisted him to adopt this farming method to start the vegetable cultivation in their 500 sq. m field.

Aditya cultivated four crops in a year, followed by other vegetables, starting with bottle gourd, onion, and then bitter gourd and yam. He sold the vegetables in the local market and mandi.

OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF THE CASE STUDY

The Machan model or the multi-tier system aims to utilize growing spaces and simultaneously grow multiple crops. This enables the complete usage of land and results inincreasing the productivity of small farms.

KEY FEATURES OF THE CASE STUDY

Due to the reduced use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides and organic inputs, his vegetables looked bright and spotless, and he got the maximum product price.

The total production in the year (2015-16) was 46.75 quintals with 14.35 quintals of bottle gourd, 5.24 quintals of onion, 2 quintals of bitter gourd, 15.35 quintals of yam and other vegetables like turai was of 1.45 quintals. From their joint effort, Aditya and Sangita earned a net income of Rs. 36,695 (71.95 Rs/sq. m).

In the second year (2016-17), they changed the machan land and prepared machan for 384 sq. m. and produced 46.75 quintals,in which bottle gourd was 17 quintals, onion was of 7 quintals, bitter gourd was of 1.35 quintals, yam was of 20 quintals and other vegetables like turai was of 1.4 quintals.The net income from 384 sq. m. was Rs. 42,500 (110.68 Rs/sq. m). IMPACT FOR LONG TERM

Sangita highlighted that this method opened a door for sustainable livelihood for their family and children, and there was no need to migrate. However, it is not only a story of Aditya and Sangita, because many other self-employed farmers also associated themselves with this intensive vegetable cultivation through the machan model. The newspapers also appreciated the efforts of the farmers of Kishunpur Grant .

Sangita highlighted that this method opened a door for sustainable livelihood for their family and children, and there was no need to migrate. However, it is not only a story of Aditya and Sangita, because many other self-employed farmers also associated themselves with this intensive vegetable cultivation through the machan model. The newspapers also appreciated the efforts of the farmers of Kishunpur Grant.