S9 - A Friend of Mine

In this era of nuclearization of families, farmer Madhav Singhs

son Surendra Singh lives in his joint family of 13 members in
Devri village (Gram Panchayat Barkheda Kurmi) of Ichhawar
block, Sehore district, MP. Due to unstable financial status of
the family, Surendra had to leave formal education after he
passed high school. The entire family depended for their
livelihood solely on the joint possession of 10 Acres of land.
Surendra, 27 took the lead role in managing all the agricultural
activities at family level. However as agriculture was the only
livelihood activity for the family, all the adults from the family
supported Surendra in agriculture as per the best of their
abilities.

While on one side Surendra and his family somehow were

managing to survive and gain some meager profits on the
outcomes from the land, on the other side one thing that was
constantly keeping Surendra worried was the increasing cost of
production in agriculture. He noticed that this increase in the
cost of production is mainly being incurred due to rise in prices
of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc. Not only that, Surendra
also felt that the increased application of these are also
affecting his land adversely as year after year the productivity
is somehow going down. Even this was degrading his lands
quality by killing the necessary micro-organisms & pests helpful
for agriculture, e.g., Surendra knew the earthworms that are
known to be very good for agriculture have been a rare sight
these
days.
Even
after
knowing
the
problems,
Surendra did not really know
BOX 1. PREPARATION OF
whom
to
approach
for
ORGANIC
MANURE
solutions and thus felt very
USING S9 POWDER
helpless.
In the year 2010 SRIJAN and
ITC jointly launched the
initiative Sunehra Kal in
Surendras village. Surendra
came to know in a village
meeting organized by SRIJAN
that the main objective of the
initiative
is
to
provide
farmers
with
effective
farming solutions to their
practical problems. Surendra
could feel the importance of
the
forum.
Hence
after
discussion with family, he
decided to be a member of
the Farmer Field School that
was established as a village
institution for village level
farmers under the initiative.
The discussions in the FFS
seemed very interesting to
Surendra as they mostly

Ingredients:
Wheat straw, grass, cow
dung,
biodegradable
household
wastes,
S9
powder
Procedure:
1.
Spread
a
clean
polythene sheet over an
area of 25 ft by 5 ft.
2. Layer by layer staking of
husk
followed
by
household wastes & grass
followed by cow dung and
lastly fresh green grass.
3. Spray mixture of water
and S9 powder and keep
for 90 days.
Usage:
400 kg required for 1 Acre

revolved around practical problems that farmers like Surendra

were facing in the area. Surendra also shared his case in one of
the FFS meetings. There, he came to know that the solution to
his current problems lies with a powder called S9.

During the practical demonstration sessions in FFS, Surendra

learned that S9 is an organic powder, used for preparation of
organic manure (process as in box1). Even after gaining
practical knowledge on the preparation methodology, Surendra
was not yet sure about the success rate of the intervention. To
give him a confidence booster, SRIJAN facilitated interaction
sessions for Surendra with farmers who have already applied
this kind of manure and have been successful in the endeavor.
As intended, post-interaction Surendra felt more confident
about the idea. All these took Surendra 2 years to decide and
then finally in the year 2012 he decided to go for it. For clarity
Surendra held a second round of discussion with SRIJAN field
team on the procedure and then started with the work.

Surendra prepared 10 quintals of organic fertilizer using the

described technique. He applied the fertilizer in required
quantities as per directions given by SRIJANs field workers.
Thus he was able to save Rs. 6000 that he earlier had to spend
on fertilizers & pesticides for getting average crops out of his
land. Due to sincere adoption of the entire package of practice,
not only Surendras crops were saved from pest attacks this
time but he also did witness a remarkable increase in crop
productivity. Surendra also expressed his happiness on the
cleanliness and hygienic surroundings that he could maintain
around his house that year as most of the household solid
wastes were utilized in the process of preparing the fertilizer.
Thus, all this helped Surendra to fetch some more income to his
family that year.
Impact MappingIncrease in annual productivity & income
140
120
100
92115
80
60
40
20
0
Units Before intervention

97.5
60

After intervention

Parameters
He also understands now that the health of his agricultural land
has improved due to the intervention as the use of organic
fertilizer fostered growth of microorganisms helpful for
agriculture in the land.

Expenditure in pesticides (In hundreds of INR)

40

20
Before intervention Expenditure
0
After intervention
Quantity of fertilizers (in quintals)
in fertilizers
(in thousands of INR)

Quantity of pesticides (in litres)

Surendra aspires to completely shift to organic farming in

future. As per his plans this year he has done completely
organic farming in 3 out of 10 acres and is looking forward to
the productivity.

Pic: Surendra preparing bio-manure for next

cropping season.