Farmers sow pea crop using happy seeder

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 13

A few vegetable growers has successfully experimented with the sowing of pea crop using happy seeder. Earlier, it was predominantly used for sowing wheat.

According to the earlier practice, the pea crop was sown on soil beds, which needed diesel in a large quantity. By using happy seeder, local farmers have sown the pea crop on flat surface without making soil beds.

Mahinder Singh of Kot Gurbaksh village said, “Looking at the growth of pea plants and the less number of weeds, we feel that the experiment is successful.”

He said it was not possible for them to make soil beds when crop residue was still present in fields. Mahinder added that they had been sowing pea crop for many years and with government banning the burning of crop residue, they earlier felt helpless.

Another farmer Gurbhej Singh said farmers could save around Rs4,000 per acre if they used Happy Seeder for sowing peas without making soil beds.

Agriculture Engineer Ranbir Singh Randhawa said, “Many more pea growers are expected to follow the practice with the successful results this year.” He said Happy Seeder could also be used for sowing crops such as maize and pulses. Randhawa said farmers could also increase the spacing between two rows of a crop by making minor adjustments.

Happy Seeder has been in use for sowing wheat crop for many years. It enables farmers to sow the crop in fields immediately after harvesting paddy and without tilling the land.