Better Yields and Income: Mahendra’s Story

ODISHA, INDIA – Three years later, the transformative impact of East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation’s interventions in India is coming into greater focus.

Mahendra Das has been a farmer for over 20 years. On his 1-acre vegetable plot and 3 acres of rice, he worked hard year after year. For a long time, he only grew eggplant in his vegetable plot. He had tried growing hot pepper a few times, but it never worked out well, so he gave up on trying new crops.

Back in 2022, Mahendra decided to learn more about vegetable farming, and he was selected as a key farmer for our Empowering the Farmers of Odisha initiative. As a key farmer, he established an okra demonstration plot on part of his land, under the guidance of Technical Field Advisor Annapurna Baral. Through this demo plot, he was introduced to new ways of farming—raised beds, mulching, proper plant spacing, pruning, and more.

Encouraged by the results, he became more confident. Using the new techniques in a 130-square-meter demo plot during the next season, he finally found success with hot pepper, earning a net profit of 12,137 rupees from an investment of just 1,492 rupees.

After the training he received, Mahendra began using these techniques in his regular vegetable field. To his delight, he saw a big improvement. His eggplant plants, which used to produce only 2 kilograms of vegetables each, began yielding 4 to 6 kilograms per plant.

Mahendra currently grows hot pepper, bitter gourd, and okra, in addition to eggplant. He is happy with his harvests. “These new techniques helped me increase my yield and income,” he said proudly.