Accion Fraterna Ecology CentreAccion Fraterna Ecology Centre

Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre

Sustainable Human Nature

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Ananta Planter

Due to mechanization, tractors have replaced the traditional drought animals used earlier for farm operations. In every village, 5 or 6 big farmers own tractors and hire them to other farmers. Hence, small & marginal farmers, who form a large chunk, compete with big farmers to hire tractor drawn planters in order to complete sowing before the short lived soil moisture dries up. However, the tractor owners prefer to hire them to big farmers. The traditional planters available in the village are not very efficient and are not able to meet the urgent demand of sowing in the villages.

Ananta Planter is a new equipment designed by local Agriculture Research Station. It is 4 times more efficient than traditional planters, hence very helpful in low rain fall conditions in which the soil moisture dries up very quickly in just 2 or 3 days only. But the Ananta Planter was originally designed for sowing only groundnut. So, AF improved the Ananta Planter design to sow millets and pulses as well and it was successfully tested on the farmers’ fields during the previous year.

Watering furrows & manual sowing technique

AF introduced this technique last year on a very small scale for establishing lesser plant density crops like castor and red gram. A water tanker of 5,000 litres capacity is required for sowing castor and red gram on one acre of land. Shallow plough furrows were opened every 6 feet and seeds were manually dibbled in the furrows. Water drawn from outside in a tanker was let in the furrows using pipes and the furrows were closed with a plank. The method was demonstrated on 46 ha of land belonging to 100 rain-fed farmers in the project area. This method works well provided it rains within 20 days after sowing. However, the efforts did not yield the anticipated results this year as the dry spells lasted for more than 50 days after sowing. Providing protective irrigation right from germination to growth stage was not possible because of water scarcity and also made it economically unviable. The experience of previous year revealed that this technique is viable when the dry spell does not exceed 20 days. AF has been trying to work out possible improvements on its research farm for the next kharif season.

Providing protective irrigation during prolonged dry spells

During the last year kharif season AF scaled up demonstration of protective irrigation to red gram crop on 375 ha of land belonging to 900 farmers using tractor drawn tankers. An average yield increase of 30% was observed. AF also succeeded in proving that cement lined farm ponds store water, stop seepage and are of great help for protective watering of tree crops during dry spells. These results encouraged AF to continue popularising these techniques not only among farmers but also all stakeholders including NGOs, research bodies, policy makers, and government officials etc.

Categories

  • Covid-19 (17)
  • Minimum Ration (4)
  • News (11)
  • Reports (2)
  • Timeline (1)
  • Uncategorized (6)

Recent Posts

  • AF team distributed ration kits in the village of Chinnampalli village of Settur mandal on 28.04.2020 April 29, 2020
  • AF team distributed Ration Kits and Face Masks in Anantapur on 25.04.2020 April 26, 2020
  • Accion Fraterna – Covid-19 relief activity for AGEEWA Cluster by supporting 561 Vegetable Kits and Sanitary Kits in Dharmavaram mandal on 24.04.2020 April 24, 2020
  • AF distributed Ration Kits and Face Masks in Anantapur & Settur Mandal on 24.04.2020 April 24, 2020
  • Covid-19 Relief Activities: AF Ecology Centre Supported the State Government by giving 10,000 Face Masks, 3,000 Sanitizers and 2,500 hand gloves on 16-April-2020 April 21, 2020
  • AF team distributed ration and face masks to 29 members (Bachelors) in Anantapur town on 21-04-2020 April 21, 2020
  • AF distributed Covid-19 precautionary measure & Awareness Pamphlet to 10 thousand families in Anantapur District April 20, 2020
  • AF team distributed ration kits and face masks to the migrant labors from Uttar Pradesh on 11-04-2020 April 20, 2020
  • Coverage of AF Covid-19 Relief Work in V8 News April 18, 2020
  • Distribution of face masks and ration to migrant labor from Rajasthan April 17, 2020
  • TVRayalseema Report on Covid 19 Relief Activities taken up by AF Ecology Centre in Kuderu April 17, 2020
  • Press coverage of AF Ecology Centre’s Covid-19 relief works April 17, 2020
  • Distribution of face-masks and relief material at Kuderu April 17, 2020
  • Call for donors to come forward as part of curbing the spread of coronavirus: Anantapuram Collector and District Magistrate Sri. Gandam Chandrudu, IAS April 16, 2020
  • Distribution of ration and face masks to migrant labourers from UP April 16, 2020
  • Distribution of rations to 4 families (19 members) of migrant workers at Rayadurg town April 15, 2020
  • Distribution of ration to migrant workers from Jharkhand April 13, 2020
  • AF team distributed ration kits and face masks to 30 migrants labour from Rajasthan & Bihar and local poor in Kalyandurg town on 13-04-2020 April 13, 2020
  • Mainstreaming Gender and Organizational Development – a continuous process. January 5, 2019
  • Promoting Drought Resilient Cropping Systems December 28, 2018
  • Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods (2007 onwards) December 5, 2007
  • Model Watershed Village Development (2002-07) January 5, 2007
  • Area Development Approach (1987-95) May 1, 2006
  • RDT Ecology Centre becomes autonomous and is called Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre (2002) December 5, 2002
  • Village Watershed Development (1996-2002) May 5, 2002

Archives

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  • May 2002

Contact Us

Address: Upparapalli Road, Bangalore Highway,  Anantapur – 515 002. Andhra Pradesh – India.

Tel.: +91 8554 – 244 222, 246 884
Fax: +91 (0) 8554 – 244 990
Email: yvmallareddy@yahoo.co.in
Website: af-ecologycentre.org

About Us

Accion Fraterna (AF) is a Trust founded by Father Vincent Ferrer in 1982 that’s actively involved in people’s empowerment through natural resources management (NRM), watershed development, drought management, environmental development and policy advocacy.

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