Pro-farmer NGO to approach Agri Dept to adopt its practices

JALANDHAR: ‘Dr Surinder Dalal Keet Saksharta Mission’, an NGO, which has been working dedicatedly for farmers for the past three years is now in the process of reaching out to the Agriculture Department and the PAU to adopt practices through which the NGO has been working upon.

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 20

‘Dr Surinder Dalal Keet Saksharta Mission’, an NGO, which has been working dedicatedly for farmers for the past three years is now in the process of reaching out to the Agriculture Department and the PAU to adopt practices through which the NGO has been working upon.

A comprehensive report will be made and it will be sent to the department by members of the NGO. It will be sought from the PAU and the department that the techniques which were used in farming by the NGO should be followed by them.

The NGO does not teach farmers through any classes or in any closed room, but in the fields to practically tell them why they do not need pesticide in farms.

The NGO is named after a Haryana-based scientist, Dr Surinder Dalal, who died in 2003 and gave a theory to farmers that the amount of fertilisers and pesticides that they were using in the fields was not required.

A Hoshiarpur-based Punjab coordinator of the NGO, Ashok Kumar, has been working ardently for farmers. The NGO had started working in 2016 in the state. Ashok said their experiences will be shared in an event for which Sarabjit Singh, Joint Director, extension and training, Agriculture Department, has been called on August 24.

“We are into the third year of these trials with great success,” Ashok said.

Dr Dalal’s Theory

Dr Dalal had told farmers about the integrated pest management (IPM). As per him, they should not spray pesticides in the fields. He said it was important to know about the insect before killing it.

The NGO works on the IPM that focuses on economic threshold level in which farmers are told that the pest should be present in the fields up to a certain level and that is known as the ‘threshold level’. If the level increases, then fertilisers can be used. Ashok said over 100 farmers have visited them. “The cost of production has reduced with this technique; and there is no decrease in yield, what else does a farmer expect,” he said.