Kandi farmer sets example in organic farming

Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, June 19

Progressive farmer of backward Kandi area of Hoshiarpur district, Parlad Singh from Namolihar village, has become a role model for others by adopting organic farming. Beginning in 1998 with the cultivation of his 7 acres of ancestral land, he is now successfully practising diversified organic farming. He has been earning a much greater deal as compared to traditional wheat-paddy farming.

Parlad said starting with his 7 acres of ancestral land, he later took 15 acres on lease and started sowing traditional crops such as sugarcane and wheat and then switched to pulses. He also reaped good profit through inter-cropping technique by sowing vegetables and flowers along with the traditional crops. After this, he cultivated flowers and vegetables in a 2 kanal area through net house method as advised by the agricultural experts.

He then turned to modern single bud plantation system and sowed sugarcane in 8 feet x 3 feet distance besides sowing other vegetables also, thereby reaping a profit of Rs 1.40 lakh per acre.

He also added that leaving traditional farming, he cultivated cash crops such as ginger, turmeric, cauliflower and garlic which require very less water. This further added to his profits.

“After getting training from Indian Institute of Sugar Research (IISR) Lucknow under ‘Aatma’ scheme of the government, I set up my own unit of jaggery and sugar. The unit yielded good profit and now even some people from as far as Australia and Dubai have contacted me, seeking advice for setting up their units,” said Parlad.

Parlad has also participated in the Vibrant Gujarat Summit-2013 and Progressive Punjab Agriculture Summit-2014 as a progressive farmer.

The Deputy Commissioner Hoshiarpur, Vipul Ujwal said progressive farmer Parlad Singh has become a role model of organic farming the others.

The Deputy Commissioner said organic farming with scientific techniques leads to huge profits apart from saving the humans from disease caused due to excessive usage of the chemicals.