Ajnala farmer reaps profit, gains recognition by practising crop diversification in his fields

Baldev Singh, Sarpanch of Sarangdev village in Ajnala block, has been making farming more profitable for the past 10 years by adopting intercropping. His innovative model has earned him several prestigious awards in progressive agriculture. Baldev Singh has been successfully practising intercropping in sugarcane fields since 2016 by sowing rajmah (kidney beans) and tomatoes along with sugarcane. For this successful model, he was honoured by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in Tamil Nadu. He has also been honoured by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Amritsar, for his achievements.

Sharing his experience, Baldev Singh said that since 2000, he had been working on crop diversification to break the traditional wheat-paddy cycle. He regularly cultivated sugarcane as an alternative crop. Based on his experience, he planted sugarcane with a spacing of 27 inches and left a 54-inch bed vacant between rows. This spacing not only improved sugarcane yield but also allowed room for additional crops. In 2016, he started using the vacant 54-inch beds to grow tomatoes and rajmah. The experiment proved highly successful, with bumper yields from all three crops. He sows the three crops in February. Tomatoes are ready for plucking and rajmah is harvested by April, while sugarcane continues to grow.

Baldev Singh cultivates around 40 acres of land. During the winter season, he grows wheat along with peas and mustard in the same field. Instead of using the usual 40 kg of wheat seed per acre, he uses only 15 kg, reducing input costs without affecting production. Sarpanch Baldev Singh believes that by adopting new techniques of farming and diversifying crops, farmers can reduce the challenges faced by agriculture and earn better profits. His model is now being seen as an example for other farmers in the region.