Patti’s ‘carrot king’ breaks wheat-paddy cycle, shows way to diversification

Chanan Singh Sran, a progressive farmer of Patti, has earned the sobriquet of ‘carrot king’ as he is the only farmer in the region who grows the root vegetable on 25 acres of land. Perturbed over shortage of labour for paddy transplantation, Chanan had brought a direct sowing of rice (DSR) machine to cultivate basmati.

As fields were not hard after harvesting basmati, Sran decided to grow carrot in soft soil. “Our experiment worked and ever since we have stopped growing wheat,” said Chanan Singh.

Seeing him succeed, other farmers started looking up to Chanan Singh and he did not disappoint anyone. “Presently, we have an association of over 100 farmers. We have been able to expand our market and are sending carrot to places as far as Srinagar,” he added.

Singh said it was not possible for one farmer to send produce to markets that offered better price. “Being in a group has helped as the produce can be transported in one large trailer and it also brings down the cost,” he said.

After harvesting carrot, Chanan Singh grows corn. This way, he is able to get three crops a year instead of two like other farmers. “Diversification from the paddy-wheat cycle is not difficult provided one knows how to market his produce. One has to keep a tab on prices in other markets,” he said.

Upset over shortage of farm labour, Chanan Singh took to the direct sowing of rice (DSR) method in 2013. After harvesting paddy, he found that the soil was quite soft. He had never experienced this earlier when he used to cultivate paddy after puddling of the field. It was then that he decided to cultivate carrot as ground was favourable for root crops.

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