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Increasing mango yield by planting sunflower plants on the bunds
volunteer
Mr. S. Nanda Kumar
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

1st National Grassroots Innovation - 2001

Nandakumar recieved Sristi Sanman Award during 1994. He looks after the dryland owned by his father in law. He experiments different agroforestry models suitable for his land area. He has conserved lot of indigenous tree species viz., neem, iluppai (Bassia latifolia), jack fruit, tamarind at his farm. He has also conserved many traditional crop varieties in cholam, horse gram, black gram, green gram, fodder sorghum etc.. He developed innovative bunding method for water harvesting in black cotton soil area by using soil excavated during well digging.

Increasing mango-yield through cross-pollination:

When mango trees are at the flowering stage, sunflower plants should be cultivated on the sides of Bunds. Honeybees, which are attracted by the sunflower, also rest on the mango flowers. This facilitates cross-pollination.

Benefits:

Yield of mangoes is increased by this strategy.