Think & grow richer

Amaninder Pal in Chandigarh

One of the most important lessons of life comes from a farmer: Keep an ear to the ground. The indications have come, simple and straight: Grow organic. Roughly translated, it would mean replacing most of chemical fertilizers for crops with natural resources to live longer, healthier and more contented. Manjeet Singh Bhullar, a former top executive of a private telecom giant, would vouch for it, sitting at his Dadiana (Fatehgarh Sahib) farmhouse with a glass of lassi to offer. “I didn’t spray even a drop of insecticide/pesticide or other nutritional inputs. I spent Rs 22,000 on labourers that I hired for de-weeding. I earned Rs 1 lakh from 1.5 acre. One can’t generate that much profit following modern-day agricultural practices,” he says.

“Today, my kids breathe the air I breathed in my childhood. Whenever they come over, they play in a land free of insecticides. What else can make you happier? My life as a small-time organic farmer is far more contented than what it was as a top executive,” says Manjeet. 

It is because of people like him that Punjab is starting over — springing back from decades of excessive fertilizer-based agriculture to a more meaningful ways to feeding the country. The good news is Delhi is listening. 

A guiding force

Punjab figured prominently in a review meeting of Parampragat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) in Delhi recently. Representatives of all states and union territories, signatory to National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), were told to learn from the state: how to sustain insecticide/pesticide-free agriculture and how to devise marketing strategies for organic products.

“The NMSA advisory came as a big surprise: How can a state, notorious for overusing chemical fertilizers, be a role model for organic farm practices?” said a senior official of Punjab Agri Export Corporation Limited (PEGREXCO), a state-managed corporation responsible for implementing the Yojana in Punjab.

The slow about-turn

Today, around 1,500 Punjabi farmers have taken to organic farming across 4,500 acres. They produce a range of eatables and food ingredients — organic wheat flour, basmati, turmeric, pulses, ajwain, saunf, vegetables, jaggery and fruits. The products are rapidly finding consumers in urban markets.

What has made Punjab’s organic farming story a success is the swiftness with which the state has persuaded farmers. Punjab figures among states which, apart from training farmers in production technologies, also facilitates processing and marketing of the organic stuff.

“It requires years of collective efforts to persuade farmers in  a state where overriding stress is on increasing foodgrain production”, says Kahan Singh Pannu, managing director, PEGREXCO, the nodal agency to promote organic farming in the state. 

A beginning made

The prospects were not as promising when the first state-sponsored plan was launched in 2006. Four different councils, all aimed at crop diversification, were constituted. The Organic Farming Council of Punjab was one among them. All councils were managed by the same Board of Directors (BoD). As one of the major councils got bogged down in a controversy after the change of guard in 2007, the Organic Farming Council lost steam. 

The focus again shifted to organic farming in the early years of SAD-BJP government’s second tenure and the council was merged into PEGREXCO. This gave a fillip to the organic farming movement. 

“We started by making farmers aware about the National Programme on Organic Production standards. Any crop or its processed product can be declared ‘organic’ only if it meets NPOP standards. After production, a major challenge was certification of crops. We then facilitated low-cost certification for organic crops by a globally renowned certification agency,” says Dr Madhu Gill, Consultant (Organic), to Punjab government.

While governments have their way to do the paper work, it is farmers like Manjit Singh who do farming with a mind of their own. “I may sound a bit philosophical: I think our best gift to our children can be cleaner air, a much healthier soil, and chirping birds!” says Manjeet. This from a man, who seeks to separate profits from promises.