Tag: Cotton

Amarnath Singh

READ FULL STORY

How organic farming left a positive impact on the life of Amarnath Singh and is cheering him to never stop!

The desire to eat healthy and live chemical free life is leading many farmers towards organic farming. One such farmer, Amarnath Singh from Bathinda has also turned towards organic farming and is successfully reaping profit out of his farm.

Before stepping into the agriculture field, Amarnath was an ICICI life adviser for 5 years (2005-2010), and the land which comes from ancestors in inheritance to him was given on rent to other farmers earlier. Well, this is not the only background story of this land. Everything was going smooth, his father – Nirbhai Singh used to cultivate the land until 1984. In 1984 conditions got worse and matters got escalated in many regions of Punjab. At that time Amarnath’s father decided to leave Rampura Phul – a city in Bathinda district, and they shifted to Tapa Mandi – a town in Barnala district and also the maternal home of Amarnath’s father.

Nirbhai Singh was very attached to his land, so even after leaving the Rampura Phul, he used to daily visit his farm from Tapa Mandi. But, one day, when Nirbhai Singh was coming back from his farm, he met with an accident and he died (2000). Since then, Amarnath has been taking care of that land and other family responsibilities.In 2010, income source from the rented land reduced, as he got no fair deal that could offer him the land’s right price. So, he decided to switch to farming. Moreover, in 2007 one of his friends, Nirmal Singh Ghootna told him about many progressive farmers in the field of organic, in case if he thinks of switching to farming.

Rajiv Dixit is the person who inspired Amarnath Singh towards farming. To get more help Amarnath also joined Kheti Virasat Mission in 2012 and started attending their camps from where he extracted the most knowledgeable information required for farming.

Cotton & Paddy were the first commercial crops reaped by Amarnath Singh and some veggies for home purpose too. In 2012. He grew Kharif crop Guar in 11 acres from which he didn’t earn much profit, but income was enough to satisfy his home and other farming expenditures. Gradually with the time, Amarnath reduced pesticides use and in 2013 he completely stopped it. In 2015, he also started reducing fertilizer in his fields. Out of total land (36 acres), he is doing farming on 26 acres and has given rest of the land on rent.

Amarnath – I can myself feel the positive change in me and my family’s life after boycotting the use of fertilizer and pesticides.

Eventually, Amarnath decided to shift to his native village in 2017 and today he is leading a happy life with his family. He has named the farm on the name of his father – Nirbhai Farm so that he could be remembered always through it.

To promote organic farming, Amarnath himself prepares decomposer and natural pesticides at home and also distribute it among the farmers free of cost. Today, whatever Amarnath Singh has achieved, it’s all because of his own hard work and determination.

Future Plan:
In the coming time, I am planning to encourage my children towards adopting farming. I want them to stand by me and help me in the fields.

Message
My message is for the younger generation, nowadays younger generation is very much influenced by the social media sites and apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Whats App, so they should take useful information related to agriculture from it, instead of wasting time.

Shamsher Singh Sandhu

Read Full Story

This Is What Happens When the Nursery Preparation Venture Turns Out Well In the Field Of Agriculture

When it comes to agriculture, then farmer should stop following the sheep herd and do what truly motivates them to wake up daily from their bed and stand up in the fields, whether its vegetable farming, poultry, piggery, floriculture, food processing, or door to door delivery of the produce. Because this is how a farmer can make out the best from agriculture.
One such a progressive farmer from the land of Jaats- Haryana – Shamsher Singh Sandhu, has excelled his way up in the field of agriculture by following his ideas and dreams. Unlike other farmers, Mr. Sandhu is mainly into seeds preparation which is giving him good returns as compared to conventional farming practices.
Inspired by his father’s achievements in the field of agriculture, Shamsher Singh also decided to adopt farming after completing his studies (Bachelor of Arts) in 1979 and in the next year he got married too. But following the same footsteps as his father of cultivating wheat, paddy, and other conventional crops was not that fortunate, and he was still confused about his profession.
However, the agriculture sector is such a wide sector with so many fields and opportunities, so, in 1985 he came to know about Young Farmer Training Programme of Punjab Agriculture University, it was a 3 months training programme under which there were 12 subjects like dairy, horticulture, poultry and many other subjects. He got himself enrolled in it. After finishing the training he started preparing seeds and without visiting the vegetable market or having any shop, he earned well from the seed preparation business just by sitting at home.
Apart from agricultural activities, Shamsher Singh Sandhu is also involved in a social initiative through which he helps the needy by donating clothes to them. He has made a group of farmers specially, to collect unwanted clothes and use it for a better purpose.
For seed preparation, first Shamsher Singh Sandhu himself buys seed from the university (PAU or HAU), cultivate them, harvest it when it has reached its full maturity stage and after that treat it with semi-organic methods before selling it the other farmers. In this way, he is making a good profit out of nursery preparation business. His venture is so successful, that he has been awarded two times for his outstanding efforts from IARI with Innovative Farmer Award and Fellow Farmer Award in 2015 and 2018.
Presently Shamsher Singh Sandhu is farming Guar, Wheat, Barley, Cotton and seasonal vegetables along with seeds preparation and is reaping good profit out of it. In future, he is planning to expand his Sandhu Seed Farm work, so that he can supply the seeds not only in Punjab but in other neighbouring states as well.
Message
Farmers should try seeds of other seed suppliers as well because in this way they can know the difference between the good supplier and the bad one and take the better yield of the crops by choosing the best.

Balwinder Singh Sandhu

READ FULL STORY

STORY OF A FARMER BREAKING THE OLD CONSERVATIVE CUSTOMS OF FARMING TO ADOPT NATURAL PRACTICES

Today, farmers are the only person who can inspire other farmers towards organic practices of agriculture; and Balwinder Singh is one of those farmers who has adopted organic farming in the recent years to bring a positive change in the environment, by getting inspired by a fellow progressive farmer.

Well, turning towards organic is not that easy for those farmers who are used to conventional farming practices and high yield. But Balwinder Singh Sandhu overcame this hurdle with his strong determination and persistence hard work.

Earlier, in 1982 to 1983, he used to cultivate Cotton, Mustard and Guar crop, but from 1997 he started encountering pest attack of boll-worm on cotton crop, due to which he faced a major loss repeatedly. So, after that, he decided to start with paddy but still did not achieved the level of satisfaction with which he was farming earlier. His journey towards organic farming started in 2011 when he visited the organic vegetable farm of Manmohan Singh.

Visit to the organic farm, opened multiple insights of Balwinder Singh and then he decided to start vegetable farming; he initiated with chilli. To improve his earlier farming mistakes he even visited Gujarat to buy the good variety of cotton seeds and there he discovered information about the farming of seedless cucumber, strawberry, and melon. For continuously 3 years he keeps on reducing the use of pesticides on his land.

That year, Chilli crop yield was very good and it made him a profit of Rs 500000 just from 2 acres. Balwinder Singh also took advantage of his farm location. His farm location was on the road, so he put up a small shop at the roadside where he started selling vegetables. He also started processing chilli into chilli powder.

“When I started processing chilli powder then many people used to complain about it that your chilli powder is not red in color. Then I explained to them that chilli powder is never blood red in color. The powder which people generally purchase from the market has impurities and color adulteration.”

In 2013, Balwinder Singh started cultivating more veggies like Cucumber, Tomato, Pumpkin, and Capsicum.

“More crops needed more area, so to increase the farming area I took 40 acres land on lease from cousins and brothers. In the beginning, marketing was an issue for vegetables, but by the time this problem was also resolved.”

Currently, Balwinder Singh is cultivating vegetables on 8-9 acres, strawberry on 1 acre and paddy and wheat on the rest of the land. Moreover, to increase the productivity he has adopted all the modern farming implements, technology and environment-friendly practices like tractor, bed planter, rotavator, cultivator, leveller, seeder, drip irrigation, mulching, home-prepared organic compost and buttermilk spray in place of insecticides.

From the last four years, he is practicing complete organic methods on 2 acres of land and has reduced the use of pesticides and insecticides on rest of the land mass. Balwinder Singh’s hard work has impressed many people, even the DC of his area visited his farm; many articles have been published about his work in different print media and with the speed with which he is progressing, he will be recognized in the future also…

Message:
“Now farmers have to hold the weighing machine in their own hands to sell their produce to earn the profit. Because if they will continue their dependence on the middlemen or dealers for selling their harvest then they will not progress and will be cheated by the thugs again and again. Mediators take away all the profit that is farmer’s right.”

Karamjeet Kaur Danewalia

Read Full Story

HOW A WOMAN PURSUED HER PASSION OF FARMING AFTER HER MARRIAGE AND IS LIVING THROUGH IT SUCCESSFULLY

Generally, in India, when daughters are married away and sent to their husband’s home then they get so busy in their life after marriage that they forget to think about their interest and hobbies, they just get bounded to the household chores. But one such woman who pursued her passion even after marriage and outliving it is Mrs Karamjeet Kaur Danewalia. Instead of just becoming house woman she chose to step outside the house and pursue her hobby of orchard farming.

Mrs Karamjeet Kaur Danewalia is a woman who was born raised in a typical Punjabi farmer’s family of a small village. As coming from a farming background, Mrs Karamjeet was always fascinated towards farming and had an interest in helping his father in the fields. But she never get a chance to be a helping hand to her father before marriage.

Soon she was married to Mr Jasbeer Singh, to a business class family. She never thought that after marriage she would get an opportunity to fulfil her dreams and pursue it as her profession. Just after few years of marriage, in 1975, with the support of her husband, she decided to start with the fruits orchards and give a chance to her interest. With the help of leveller machine and workers, she levelled 45 acres of land and prepared it for orchard farming. She planted kinnows in 20 acres, Plums, pear, peach, java plum, banana, naak pears on 10 acres and in the rest of the 5 acres she planted wheat in winter and cotton in summer.

Her hobby changed into passion and she decided to continue it. In 1990 she build up a pond and stored rain water in it so that, she can irrigate her orchards with it. But later on, she started fish farming in it and used it for both purpose fish farming as well as irrigation. To expand the business to one level ahead she also started preparing seedling herself.

In 2001 she created a record of Kinnow production in India. And to make the kinnow orchards business more successful, she especially went to California in 2003 to take kinnow packaging and processing training. After coming back she implanted that training and gained a huge profit from it. Since she has started kinnow farming from that year her kinnow quality is always no. 1 in district level and state level, every year. And because of her growing popularity in kinnow production, Prakash Singh Badal (Former CM of Punjab) entitled her as the Kinnow Queen in 2004

For the farming purpose, she has every type of modern technological farming equipment and machinery at her farm. Her popularity in the horticulture field has made her member of many prestigious communities and recipient of many awards. Some of them are listed below:

• Awarded First Prize in State Level Citrus Show by Agriculture Minister S. Gulzar  Ranika (2001-02)
• Awarded Desh Seva Rattan Award by Ravi Chopra by Shahee Memorial International Seva Society, Ludhiana. (2004)
• Entitled by Punjab’s Former CM- Prakash Singh Badal as Kinnow Queen in 2004
• Best Kinnow Grower Award by Agriculture Minister by S. Jagjit Singh Randhwa in 2005
• Awarded 2nd prize in state level citrus show kinnow crop (2012)
• 1st prize at district level citrus show kinnow crop (2012)
• 2nd prize district level citrus show kinnow crop (2010-11)
• 2nd Prize in state level citrus show kinnow crop (2010-11)
• Best women kinnow grower awarded by agriculture minister- S. Such Singh Langhah (2010)
• State awarded as innovative women farmer at kissan mela by PWD Minister S. Shranjit Singh Dhillon & V.C PAU, Ludhiana (2012)
• Champion Female Farmer Award for excellence in agriculture at 7th National conference on KVK at PAU, Ldh. Presented by Mr. Sharad Pawar Minister of Agriculture, Govt. Of India. (2012)
• Award of Honor in progressive women farmer on 64th Republic Day at Amritsar presented by Chief Minister, Punjab, S. Parkash Singh Badal. (2013)
• Award of appreciation in innovative contribution to Indian agriculture at global agri connect (NSFI) IARI, New Delhi presented by Dr. R.R Hanchinal, Chairperson PPUFRA, Govt. Of India, Ministry of Agriculture. (2013)
• National Awarded as Best Kinnow grower of Punjab at NRCC (National Research Centre of Citrus Nagpur) (2012)
• Bharat Jyoti Award for Meritorious Service, Outstanding Performance & Remarkable role in Agriculture presented by Dr. Bhisham Narain Singh(former governor of Tamilnadu & Assam) (2013)
• Bharat Gaurav Award as in Recognition of contribution and dedication to worthy cause and your achievement in keeping the flag of India high presented by Justice OP Verma former governor of Punjab at New Delhi. (2015)
• Zee Punjab/Haryana/Himachal Agri Award as best farmer horticulture of her outstanding contribution as a horticulturist in adoption & promotion of kinnow farming presented by Agriculture minister S. Tota Singh and Cabinet Minister S. Gulzar Singh Ranika and Mr. Dinesh Sharma editor, Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal.
• Member of PAU Kisan Club,
• Member of Punjab AGRO,
• Member of Punjab Horticulture Department,
• Member of Mandi Board,
• Member of Changi Kheti,
• Member of Kinnow Utpadak Sanstha,
• Member of Co-operative Society,
• Member of Kisan Salahkar Committee.
• Member of PAU, Ludhiana Board of Management

Despite being a recipient of so many awards and appreciation, she is always curious to learn something new and that’s why she never misses any district level agricultural events or meetings. She also regularly visits farms of the farmers who are associated with PAU and Hisar Agriculture University to learn something new from there and gain knowledge.
Today she is harvesting 130 ton of kinnows per hectare and generating revenue of 1 lakh and 65 thousand from it. From the rest of the fruit orchards and wheat and cotton crops, she is making revenue of 1 lakh each in every season.

Behind all her success, she gives credit to his husband who supported her dreams also helped her in farming all these years. Other than farming she is also contributing to a very good cause for the society; she helps in poor girls get marriage by providing financial help and other marriage material also. Her future plan is to make agriculture a more profitable commercial business.

MESSAGE TO FARMERS-
“
Farmers have to start maintaining their expenses properly and stop showing off what they don’t have. Today, agriculture field needs more attention, so young kids even daughters should also be involved and taught about this field. And everyone should remember one thing that every human being in the field of agriculture is a farmer first and then a businessman.
”

Raja Ram Jakhar

Read Full Story

The Futuristic Farmer of Rajasthan Bringing Changing Tides in Conventional Farming Trend with Aloe Vera Farming

Even today also Rajasthan is known for its conventional farming methods, and the main crops that are grown there are Bajara, Guar, and Sorghum. Many farmers are progressing but still, many farmers are there who just don’t want to come out of their stereotypical conventional farming trend. One such a person who is trying to do something out of the box and bring a changing tide in agriculture field is Raja Ram Jakhar.

Born and brought up on the land of Rajasthan, Raja Ram Jakhar is a B.Sc. Agriculture Graduate who left his government job just to pursue his passion towards farming. He learned to take advantage of the opportunity and gain profit from it. And today he is a successful aloe-vera farmer in Rajasthan, who is not dependent on anyone for marketing because his produce is sold to the consumers from his farm only.

Rajaram Jakhar’s family was associated with agriculture from the beginning. And all his childhood, he had seen all his family members doing farming only. But after completing his B.Sc. Agriculture degree from the DAV College of Sangaria, Rajasthan in 1980, he got a chance to pursue a different profession (Supervisor at Central State Farm, Suratgarh). However, he wasn’t able to work there more than 3-4 months, because it doesn’t interest him and he chose to come back and continue his ancestral occupation, farming.

He started farming in the same way his ancestors were doing and there was no major profit that he achieved. Slowly it was getting difficult for him to manage his family livelihood, they were just living from hand to mouth. But then he heard about Patanjali brand and its aloe vera products, and to manufacture those products Patanjali needs aloe-vera produce in bulk. So he took advantage of this opportunity and started aloe-vera farming by making minimum Rs. 15000 of investment in 1 bigha of variety “Babie Densis”.

During all this, once his family also went against his decision of aloe-vera farming, because they were unsure of what he was doing, and at that time he was the first one to start aloe-vera farming in his area (Ganganagar District). But he never changed his mind, because he was confident of himself. After one year, when finally aloe-vera plants were ready, few buyers contacted him for buying his produce, and since then he is selling his produce without making any extra effort from his farm only and is earning 1 Lakh from 1 Bigha in 1 Year.

As there are many factories in Rajasthan for Aloe-Vera processing, so every after 50 days two trucks are sent to his farm by the buyers to purchase his produce and he just has to load the produce in the truck with the help of the workers. Now he has started inter-cropping and has planted moringa tree in the aloe-vera field to take advantage in a better way.

Currently, he is living happily with his family (wife, three daughters and one son) and is managing the whole farm on his own. He has one tube well and tractor for framing. He strictly follows organic farming in his farm for aloe-vera, moringa, and cotton. Along with aloe-vera, moringa and cotton he has also planted vegetables like okra, ridge gourd, cucumber, bottle gourd, guar beans and other seasonal vegetables for home use.

Rajaram Jakhar chose Moringa for inter-cropping because of its medicinal properties and it is easy to grow with little care. Now he has also started selling plants and giving free training to farmers who want to start aloe-vera farming. Rajaram Jakhar with his futuristic views is trying to bring a new revolution in the agriculture field. Till now he has taken no help from government or any other source, he has done everything on his own. His upcoming plans are to expand his work and make more farmers aware to start aloe-vera farming.

MESSAGE TO FARMERS
“Before starting any new thing, a farmer should search the market first and then start farming. There are many opportunities from which farmers can take advantage and they should never miss that.”

Hind Pal Singh

Read Full Story

Meet Rajasthan’s Jojoba Farmer Who Hold Hotel Management Degree from IHM Pusa Delhi, But He Chose to Follow His Father’s Footsteps

Farming has never been and never will be an easy life, but for many people who don’t have any option for them farming is the only choice. That’s why today most of the farmers send their kids to school and college so that they can choose whatever they want and become whatever they want. But one such person who even had a good job opportunity, but then also he chose to farm is Hind Pal Singh Aulakh.

Hind Pal Singh was born in a typical farming family of Rajasthan (Ganganagar District), but was grown up in a very different modern environment; with the motive of pursuing different profession than his father, he pursued Bachelors in Hotel Management from IHM PUSA, Delhi.

“But maybe Hind Pal Singh wasn’t destined to continue his career in the same field. His father was a farmer and was very much interested in farming. His father inspired and motivated him to start farming.”

After seeing so much passion of his father towards farming, he decided to help him. He also started reading agriculture related magazines like Changi Kehti etc. In one of the magazines, he read about Jojoba Farming and thought of giving it a try. He visited Jaipur and took training from there in Jojoba Farming. Mr. Saini was a faculty member of the training staff who helped and guided him in jojoba farming and especially visited his farm in his hometown also.

In the beginning, Hind Pal Singh was a little scared before starting Jojoba Farming, but now it’s been 12 years since he is doing jojoba farming and he is very happy with the yield and returns. He bought the Jojoba seedlings from Rajasthan Agriculture University because jojoba plants need to be planted in 10:1 ratio, where 10 is for female jojoba plants and 1 is for male jojoba plant. And only a proper agriculture university or expert can help in providing the right jojoba plants because common people cannot identify the male and female plants in seedling until they start flowering (can take up to three years).

“The female plants produce seed from flowers pollinated by the male plants, female plant is dependent on male plants for seed production.”

Planting and farming jojoba was not that easy for Hind Pal Singh. He faced many problems like termite and fungus, but he dealt with it very smartly. He always consulted an expert and used micro food and basic fertilizers for farming. From the year of the plantation, it starts bearing fruits in 6th and 7th year.

“One Time Investment: Jojoba farming is the best thing to do in an area like Rajasthan where there is water scarcity because it needs very less water for irrigation (can survive without water for two years), moreover the plant age is up to 100 years.”

In the beginning inter-cropping can also be done when the jojoba plants are small because they don’t start bearing seeds properly up to 6th to 7th years. He faced few difficulties in marketing the produce, but he took no help from the government. As Cosmetics Company need jojoba seeds in for making face cream, oil, face wash and many more beauty products, so soon he found his consumer and started earning good profit.

“Jojoba Oil also has an alternate use as a fuel oil because of its viscosity index. It can be used as transformer oil or as a lubricant for high-speed machinery or machines operating at high temperature.”

Other than jojoba farming which he is doing in approx. 5 acres, he is also growing cotton, wheat, seasonal veggies, mustard, kinnow and other crops in the rest 65 acres of land. He implements all the modern farming machinery like tractor, trolley, cultivator, leveller, disc harrow and drip irrigation system for better farming. His future plan is to expand what he is doing right now and attract more loyal and profitable consumers of jojoba seeds. With a minor 45 thousand of investment today he is earning in lakhs. Moreover, jojoba is a disease free and fire resistant plant which needs very less care once the plant is fully grown.

Message to Farmers
“Farmers have to become independent and start thinking differently if they want to earn profit from farming. One more thing that farmers have to do is to keep track of their accounts and give their hundred percent if they have started something.”

Katta Ramakrishna

Read Full Story

How Katta Ramakrishna Made Cotton Farming More Interesting With High-Density Plantation Technology

Katta Ramakrishna is a progressive farmer from Obannapalem village near Naguluppalapadu Mandal in Prakasam District of Andhra Pradesh state. He has successfully implemented high-density planting technique in his cotton field as per the scientists’ suggestion, which resulted in high yield with improved productivity.

This innovative initiative taken by Katta Ramakrishna to put more plants in a little area, ultimately boosted up the yield. By taking this step he produced 10 quintals per acre which made him won national recognition from Indian Council of Agriculture (ICAR) and he was awarded “Babu Jagjivan Ram Abhinav Kisan Puraskar” in 2013.

Later on, with the guidance of District Agriculture Advisory and Transfer of Technology Center, Katta Ramakrishna planted 12500 plants in an acre, and this he implemented in his 5 acreage plot and got the yield of 22 quintals from an acre.

“For every penny invested by me, I got an equal amount as profit in return”
– Katta Ramakrishna said by proudly showing his award that he received from Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan in New Delhi.

Minimally Rs 5, 000 per acre was added to the investment of Rs 45, 000 per acre that the farmer did in the beginning.

“Normally an ordinary farmer used to plant 8, 000 cotton plants in an acre and get the yield of 10 to 15 quintals. But they don’t know that increasing the plant density can increase the cotton yield.”
– Said by the Senior Scientist Ch. Varaprasada Rao, DOT Centre.

Encouraged by the good productivity of white gold, Katta Rama Krishna said that –
“In the coming time I am going for plant density of 16, 000 per acre to aim at 25 to 20 quintals of yield.”

His achievements
• He has been honoured by various state and national organizations.

• Sri Ramakrishna started practiced high-density cotton planting with a spacing 90 cm x 30 cm (as against 90 cm x 45cm ) which resulted in improved yield (45.10Q/ha) even under rainfed conditions.

• He adopted the hydrogel technology in the cotton field for maximum water conservation that resulted in 15% increase in yield.

• Field trials for chickpea, black gram, and green gram have helped to identify suitable varieties for farmer fields in Prakasham district.

• Biofertilizers such as Rhizobium and Phosphobacteria for Bengal Gram have been adopted for increasing the yield.

• He gives preference to organic fertilizer and green manure for the cultivation.

• He uses neem seed kernel extract to counteract the pest menace.

• He has developed technology for use of tobacco waste as a fertilizer in his fields in collaboration with CTRI, Kandukar, Parkasham District.

• He refined and modified seed cum fertilizer drill to place the seed and fertilizer at different soil depths at a time. This modified seed cum fertilizer drill is useful for all types of pulses plantation to the local farmers.

• The innovative technologies and improved package of practices followed by him are published in local languages. Further, the real name farm experiences were disseminated and broadcasted through various radio tasks and public meetings.

• He has become a role model for others in the area and is an inspiration for them.


Message
“Farmers should get their soil tested by the experts to manage the micro-nutrients in soil for the better growth of crops. And in this way, they can also get best results of pest management by using fewer chemicals and pesticides.”

 

Hartej Singh Mehta

Read Full Story

Hartej Singh Mehta- Laying Foundation For Better Future By Inspiring Others To Pursue Organic Farming

Earlier organic was a term which was very rarely used or practiced. There were very few farmers who use to do organic farming and that also for the home purpose. But with the time, people recognized that every shining vegetable or fruit looks good but is not good for health.

This is the story of a farmer – Hartej Singh Mehta, who took a wise decision 10 years back and is very grateful for it. For Hartej Singh Mehta continuing organic farming was the best decision he ever took in his life. And today he is the renowned personality for organic farming in his area (Mehta Village- Bathinda).

As being from the Malwa region of Punjab, where farmers use pesticides and chemicals at a very high rate to get good productivity, Hartej Singh Mehta chose to maintain harmony with nature. He is very dedicated towards his hereditary occupations from his childhood and for him living a simple life is more important than bragging about his achievements.

Despite being highly qualified (MA Punjabi, MA Political Science), he chose to pursue organic farming instead of running behind the city life and govt. job. Currently, he has 11 acres of land in which he grows Cotton, Wheat, Mustard, Sugarcane, Lentil, Spinach, Fenugreek, Carrot, Radish, Onions, Garlic and almost all the vegetables. He always prefers to prepare his fields by following natural ways which work well for cotton (F 1378), wheat (1482) and Bansi named seeds.

“Reasons like dissatisfaction, illiteracy, and desire of higher productivity of the farmers lead them to use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, due to which, farmers who are known as the Savior are now serving toxin in the society.Nowadays farmers use pesticides and chemicals for pest management which harms the good worms and fertility of the soil. They are not aware that by using chemicals in their farm they are ultimately poisoning the whole food chain. Moreover, by using chemicals and pesticides they are not only worsening the environmental conditions but also facing major economic loss due to increasing debt.”  – Said by Hartej Singh Mehta

Mr. Mehta always practices natural method and whenever he needs information related to natural farming he refers Pingalwara Society, Amritsar and Agricultural Heritage Mission. He generally uses cow urine and animal dung for preparing fertilizer, as this is good for the soil and is also very economical.

According to Mr. Mehta, consuming naturally grown food has kept him and his family perfectly healthy and away from diseases. Due to this reason also Mr. Mehta feels inspired towards organic farming and in future also he will continue doing it.

Message
“I want to give the same message to the farmers across the country that we should come out of the shackles of private companies and should pledge to make healthy society by serving them healthy food.”