Progressive farmer produces muskmelon 1-month advance

Tribune News Service
Sultanpur Lodhi, April 15

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Progressive farmer Ajit Singh Aujla from Sultanpur Lodhi is all set to sell his muskmelon crop in market, which he produced nearly a month earlier than traditional method with the help of ‘plastic mulch and polytunnel’ techniques. After studying market, Aujla came to know about high price of muskmelon crop during Ramzan (April 14) in Jammu and Kashmir as regular crop hits the market in mid May.

Aujla cultivates wheat, potato and muskmelon on his 12 acres. Talking about the new techniques to raise his crop, he said the Agriculture Department played a major role by selecting his land for demonstrations under the crop diversification scheme.

He said he first raised nursery by using cocopeat, followed by transplanting seedlings in field after laying plastic mulch. “To save crop from frost injury, plastic sheets were used to protect crop,” he said and added that drip irrigation was used to save groundwater and supply nutrients in an efficient way to the crop.

Agriculture Development Officer Dr Jaspal Singh Dhanju said Aujla was selected as founding chairman of the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) scheme in Sultanpur Lodhi due to his progressive attitude towards agriculture techniques.

Dr Dhanju said as Sultanpur Lodhi is known as a vegetable belt and the department used to arrange farmer exposure visits at Aujla’s fields to encourage others to adopt crop diversification for higher income.