Juna Rajpipla, Kotda Sangani, Rajkot Sustainable agriculture
The rain took his groundnut. The crop beside it paid for the year.
Damjibhai Thummar had never grown pigeon pea alongside groundnut. When unseasonal rain halved his groundnut yield, the second crop earned nearly twice what the first one did.
Damjibhai Lakhabhai Thummar farms 12.5 vighas at Juna Rajpipla, in Kotda Sangani taluka of Rajkot district. For years he did what most farmers around him did: one crop, one harvest, one income.
That works until it doesn’t. An irregular monsoon or a failed crop does not reduce the year’s income — it removes it.
What changed
SSKK gave him 2 kg of pigeon pea seed and training on spacing, dual sowing and low-cost management. He had never grown tuver next to groundnut. He put it across two acres.
Then the rain came
Unseasonal rain arrived just before harvest and went through the groundnut.
Yield fell from the usual 4–5 quintals a bigha to roughly 2. In a single-crop year, that is the whole story — and the whole loss.
But the same rain that ruined the groundnut suited the pigeon pea, which came in at 3.8 quintals a bigha.
What the two crops earned
| Crop | Yield from 2 acres | Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Groundnut | 10 quintals | ₹72,600 |
| Pigeon pea (tuver) | 19 quintals | ₹1,42,500 |
| Total | ₹2,15,100 |
The crop he had never grown before earned nearly twice what his main crop did — in the year his main crop failed.
Why it works
Two revenue streams off one plot, so a bad season for one is not a bad season for the household. Tuver needs less water and little maintenance, so the second crop costs little to carry. And the risk that used to sit entirely on the weather now sits across two crops that fail in different conditions.
The rain damaged one crop, but the other crop became our financial safety net.
Damjibhai’s own conclusion, for other farmers: never depend on a single crop. Plan properly and one field can pay you twice.