Farmer clubs show way to green future

BOX: ‘Navi Disha’

* To promote sustainable agricultural practices, several clubs of farmers are being formed under a programme named Navi Disha

* These clubs help farmers in capacity-building and sharing of knowledge and resources like machines or agri-equipments

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 25

Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL) organised an interactive session with farmers at Makha village here on Thursday. TSPL held the session as a part of its corporate social responsibility initiative, under which it had supported over 700 farmers.

To promote sustainable agricultural practices, several clubs of farmers are being formed under a programme named Navi Disha. These clubs help farmers in capacity-building and sharing of knowledge and resources like machines or agri-equipment. Each club is further divided into clusters based on various villages. At Makha village, cluster representatives were encouraged to form a committee that would help them get funds from banks.

Several farmers, at the interactive session, shared ideas to improve agriculture. They said herbicides were as harmful to crops and produce as they were to soil and underground water. Growing organic crops not only cuts expenses but also helps improving soil quality, they said.

Balkaran Singh, a farmer from Lehri village said, “Earlier I used to incur an expense of Rs10,000 per month on pesticides but now on shifting to organic farming I save that amount.” The farmer representatives agreed to buy heavy machinery as a group that would benefit them in the long run and also help marginal farmers. The TSPL through this initiative is supporting farmers from 21 villages.