Society For Technology & Development
a Non Government Organization

STD is working to improve the River rope way system, being used in the hill areas of Himachal and Uttarakhand, with support from Department of Science and Technology. We are in the process of technological improvement of this system. The STD Mandi has signed a MOU with IIT Mandi regarding river rope way technology to seek technical collaboration for up-gradation of River Rope way system.The final prototype has been tried successfully at our field station Bhadyal and efforts are being made to further improvements STD has also file an application for patent of this upgraded river rope way system

Carbonated fruit Drinks, Fruit Papads & instant chutney powder have been developed. These are being produced & marketed by FARMERS group at Nagwain.

Low calorie Mixed Fruit Jams, Low calorie apple spread & Low calorie Amaranthus biscuits. They have been analyzed at Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) Mysore & found to have lower energy value as compared to standard available products in the market. These are also being manufactured& marketed by FARMERS group at Nagwain.

Keeping in view the demand for natural cosmetic products, formulations from local herbal materials such as wild apricot oil, mustard oil, beeswax, aloe vera gel, etc. have been standardized. Protocols have been developed for Natural hand Moisturizer,Cracks heal cream, Face Moisturizer & Face Scrub/Pack. These have also been analysed in NABL labs & found satisfactory. These are being replicated to women SHGS & they are preparing & selling at local level.

Process & methodology have been Standardized & FARMERS group is making pectin for their own use.

Herbal soaps have been developed using wild apricot oil, aloe vera gel & essences from natural aromatics.These are also been replicated to women SHGS in villages.

Study have been carried out to compare the impact of standard nutrient management system with INMS using SBM on productivity of vegetables & soil health. INMS using SBM has been found to have positive effect on productivity as well as nutritional status of soil.

A comparative study on effect of chemical & organic pesticidal formulations was carried out at STD field station Nagwain in vegetable crops. Cow urine, old lassie & Derek plant leaves were used as source to prepare organic formulations. A plot was also kept as control (without any treatments). It has been found that this organic spray formulation is very much effective against these two major pests aphids & caterpillars of Cole crops mainly cauliflower & cabbage.

Keeping in view the climate change in the environment and its impact on apples, trials have been carried out on adaptation of low chilling varieties of apples. Two demonstration plots have been established at Nagwain.

Keeping in view demand for nutraceutical foods, now we are focusing to develop functional foods from underutilized/waste local food plant material, which have physiological benefits and can reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions, including maintenance of gut health. Initially we have developed Amaranthus biscuits using cauliflower greens. These biscuit have been found to have all the desired nutrients especially Ca, P, Fe & K which have nutraceutical values, much higher as compared to standard biscuits where we are not using this powder. Thus this product if introduced, could be beneficial to the people of all ages especially to women & elder people suffering from deficiencies of these nutrients.

(i) Carbonated Fruit Drinks
(ii) Preparation of Fruit Papads
(iii) Preparation of instant chutney powder

I.Organic pesticidal spray mixture for Cauliflower/Cabbage.
II.Preparation of low calorie mix fruit Jam.
III.Preparation of Natural Hand Moisturizer.
IV.Preparation of Crack heal cream.
V.Preparation of Face Moisturizer.
VI.Preparation of Face Scrub.
VII.Extraction of pectin powder/solution from apple pomace.
VIII.Development of low calorie Amaranthus Biscuits.

1. House hold survey, focus group discussion, village profile of 19 wards of Fozal, watershed work has been completed. CDP (Community development plan) draft of 19 wards has been prepared.
2. Water channel work has been completed at Dobhi by reviving old Gharat.
3. Saplings of 7000 plants of fruit (apple, pear, plum, pomegranate), fodder tree (rubinia), forest tree (Deodar) in Fozal Watershed has beenplanted .Plantation of 2400 saplings of Deodar, Akhnoor&Robinia has been done in forest area of HurrangPanchayat near Dhara village.
4. Training workshops on organic farming in Fozal watershed has been organized on 15.02.2018, 16.02.2018 and 17.02.2018 at Mandalgarh, Hurrang and PichliharPanchayat, respectively.
5. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) workshop was also held on 14.03.2019, 15.03.2019 and 16.03.2010 in these Panchayats to give hands on training for volunteers and VDMCs.
6. Apart from training workshop on organic farming, we have been given organic inputs (Nimbicidine, vermicompost (Doras) and verms among 10 farmers.
7. 5000 LED bulbs have been distributed to all households of Fozal watershed.
8. Revival work of one dried spring in Fozal Watershed, Kullu, and Himachal Pradesh at village Dhalogi inHurrangPanchayat is under progress.
9. Vermi compost pits for 10 Beneficiaries have been provided.
10. Roof Top Solar Panels has been installed at Govt. senior secondary school, Fozal.
11. Organic farming demonstrations in about 2 hectares of area in apple orchards of 11 orchardists have been undertaken. They have been given organic inputs and technical help.
12.  Biogas plants of 20 beneficiaries have been installed.
13. Exposure visit to Gopeshwar, Uttarakhand by Fozal watershed beneficiaries was undertaken.
14. Training programme on felt making from local wool was organized from 20.5.19-31.05.19 at village Neriin PichliharPanchayat in which 25 women participated. Artisans from J &K and an expert designer gave training in this workshop. Efforts have been made to form women SHG to adopt felt making on commercial basis.

The Chamba rural Leather tanning/craft in rural areas (among the oldest traditional skills/Practice) has declined virtually to extinction in the last few decades, unable to match the productivities of, or withstand pressures from, the growing organized tanning industry.  Most of artisans have become de-skilled, having lost their traditional occupations and have swollen the ranks of agricultural /other manual labour. Rawhides  emanate from dead cattle in villages,  still  flayed mostly  by traditional flayers, they then go  through  various stages/levels of curing, storage, transportation and trade  to finally reach industrial tanneries mostly in urban  concentrations.   
    An alternative scenario was envisaged and worked out to tackle these problems, while simultaneously `restructuring'   the leather tanning in favour of manufacturing bases in rural areas so as to benefit the artisans.     In  the basic model, the nodal  unit  may  essentially  produce  vegetable-tanned  leathers  for  sale  in local  market, with potential for the up gradation to the  glazed leathers. This  unit  is to sell directly leather  in  market  to the leather craft artisans and   may function  as  `satellite' units producing new range  for higher  value-added products  e.g. Chamba Chappal craft and other  leathers items etc.
The perspective outlined above suggests a way in which the above problems could be overcome, through working out of a new system of production/marketing for setting up a Glazed vegetable leather unit linked with traditional Chamba craft. The expansion of existing vegetable tanning production and marketing operation in the Mandi/Chamba  area for  the  maximum benefits to the local artisans  and  maximal utilization and value addition of local raw hides /skins.

Cherry trees present a particular challenge because when grown on their own roots they are potentially the largest of all fruit trees, certainly much larger than wild apple trees. Fortunately recent research programmers have resulted in new rootstocks that produce smaller more manageable tress-useful for commercial growers and ideal for gardeners. These rootstocks should naturally inherit the biologic and morphologic characteristics of the original plant, they are equalized and could have a slower growth and induce earlier fruit bearing. But, the nurseries are not able to multiply surplus rootstocks of cherry as they face so many problems like, adequate land, diseases attack, irrigation and other environmental factors Vegetative propagation of Prunus species traditionally occurs by cuttings or grafting. In the latter case, farmers use suitable rootstocks to confer resistance against several kinds of abiotic and biotic stresses, keeping the desired characteristics of the cultivar in the scion. In Prunus, rootstocks are propagated by seeds or by cuttings. Propagation by seeds can generate a large amount of genetic variation in the rootstocks, affecting grafting efficiency and plant yield in the field. On the other hand, cuttings harvested from field plants can also reduce the efficiency of the grafting process and can spread diseases into the new plantations . It is evident, for both the industry and breeders that, tissue culture has the potential to produce rootstocks on a large scale faster than the traditional methods. Additionally, this technology can guarantee the production of genetically identical, physiologically uniform and pathogen-free plants at reasonable costs In vitro propagation is probably the most extended application of plant tissue culture in plants. It may be interpreted as a simple application of basic techniques to propagate plants under aseptic and controlled conditions; however, the reality is very different because there are several difficulties associated with optimal tissue culture propagation of any species. So to solve above problem different type and concentrations of growth regulators will be tried to achieve maximum multiplication rate and the best protocol for the establishment and multiplication of cherry rootstocks will be identified. In vitro raised plant lets will be hardened first in poly house for about 2-3 months than they will be transplanted to farmer’s fields for further assessment. Once each step will be standardized plant lets of cherry rootstock will be distributed to farmers which are involved in cherry growing.

STD has undertaken livelihood support activities in Parwai (a backward village) of Chamba district of HP.  Chamba district has been included among 52 aspirational districts of India for carrying special development schemes in the backward areas. STD in collaboration with IHBT Palampur (CSIR Lab) has selected Parwai area in Chowari tehsil, where cultivation of wild marigold and its oil extraction, besides cultivation of aromatic and medicinal plants is being promoted through formation of groups of farmers. The menace of wild animals, especially monkeys have been damaging crops of farmers here for long.   The STD with technical advice from IHBT has been continuously helping farmers through field visits and providing them technical know-how.