From UK to Shahkot to distribute desi cane stalks to farmers free of cost

Settled in the UK for the past 47 years, Puran Singh (70) runs his golf club in Wolverhampton. But these days, he and his family are in their native Dhandowal village of Shahkot. The purpose of his visit this time was to distribute free stalks of indigenous variety of sugarcane to farmers.

As the free stalk langar was held today, farmers from across Punjab, Rajasthan and Karnal reached out to him in his fields where he gave them two stalks of sugarcane each. The farmers came in from Bagha Purana, Bathinda, Tarn Taran, Hoshiarpur, Patiala, Anandpur Sahib, Mohali, Karnal and Kota.

“Most available sugarcane in Punjab is from hybrid varieties but a section of farmers like us promote the native varieties for which we also organise langars. I have been distributing stalks of rarely available indigenous varieties of sugarcane also popularly called katha or chan. I have been coming to Punjab with this purpose for the past two years. While last year, there were fewer farmers and we gave them four stalks each. This time, the demand was higher and we decided to distribute only two stalks each. We took the contact numbers of all farmers visiting us. We urged them to distribute free stalks the way we do after two or three seasons when they are able to develop enough plants”, he explained his motive.

Puran Singh said, “Each stalk can have 50 eyes and each eye can give 25-100 plants. This is how the sugarcane multiplies. I strongly believe that our desi varieties of crops are more beneficial for health than the modified, hybrid varieties and hence I am strong votary for sowing only the desi seeds. Even my children are connected with the village and they accompany me here every winters and spend some time in the fields.”