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4 min read

Small Plot, Big Yield: Sridevi’s Machaan Story

Dariyachak Village, Maherma Block
Trellis Farming
Sridevi Murmu at her Machaan trellis plot in Dariyachak village.

Sridevi Murmu manages her home in Dariyachak village while her husband works as a contractual forest guard. In the time she has, she has turned a small kitchen garden into a source of income and self-reliance.

With her husband away for work, Sridevi took on farming a small kitchen garden alongside her household responsibilities. Making full use of a modest plot of land, without technical support or the right setup, limited what she could grow and earn from it.

Selected for the High Value Agriculture trellis intervention, Sridevi used the opportunity to strengthen her own farming practice. With technical support, she developed a horizontal Machaan trellis on 10 decimals of land, sourcing timber locally to keep costs low. In December, she transplanted bottle gourd and cucumber seedlings raised in a nursery at the field site, preparing the main field with compost and organic inputs. A toolkit from the project further increased her ability to manage the plot with confidence.

Bottle gourd on Sridevi trellis
A bottle gourd ready for harvest on Sridevi’s trellis.

Sridevi has begun adopting natural farming practices such as Beejamrit, Jeevamrit, and bio-based pest repellents, alongside fencing to protect the plot from grazing animals and intercropping within the trellis system. She has started harvesting bottle gourds for sale in the local market, while her cucumber crop is in the flowering stage with a promising yield ahead.

Outcomes at a glance
Trellis area
Machaan on 10 decimals of land
Crops
bottle gourd & cucumber, nursery-raised
Inputs
compost, Beejamrit, Jeevamrit
Protection
fencing against grazing animals
Status
bottle gourd harvest underway, cucumber flowering

With her cucumber crop still flowering and a promising yield ahead, Sridevi’s trellis system is set to keep building on this year’s first harvest.

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