Faridkot, July 23
In a significant development a section of farmers of this district have started spraying countrymade liquor on their paddy crop to get a better yield and keep the crop disease-free.
The Agriculture Department claimed that they had not recommended this as it could adversely affect the growth of the plants and ultimately cause damage to the soil fertility.
Iqbal Singh Brar, a leading farmer of this district, who had been following this practice for years, pointed out that due to the spray of countrymade liquor, he got better yield. Moreover, he saved a lot of money. He claimed that due to spray of liquor pest or insects got intoxicated and became unfit to cause damage to the crop. He added that due to heavy intoxication pests and insects even died.
Brar alleged that the department concerned had not been taking interest in the fact that the spray of liquor on paddy crop could give better results as compared to those sprayed with expensive pesticides due to the fact that they had been working under the ‘diktats’ of pesticide manufacturers.
Joginder Brar, a farmer near Kotkapura, said though the department did not approve the spray of liquor on paddy, he had been getting a bumper crop ever since he had started following this method.
Interestingly, a number of farmers who had adopted this technique were not ready to come into limelight, fearing that the Agriculture Department with the help of other agencies could create legal problems for them.
Gurdial Singh, a senior official of the district agriculture office, Faridkot, while admitting the fact that some farmers had been following this practice said such farmers had been doing this on their own without any recommendation made by the department.
Meanwhile, the farmers demanded that the state government should allow the paddy growers to carry out the distillation of liquor in their house to use the same for agricultural purposes, as it would be economical for them.
