‘True’ son of soil, Doraha farmer shows the way

Lovleen Bains

Doraha, October 18

Paramjeet Singh of Powat village has been managing crop residue not due to legal bindings but he believes that conserving environment is a moral responsibility.

Paramjeet has been practicing in-situ paddy straw management for the last six years. “If a farmer is considered to be a son of the soil, does it behove of him to destroy it to the point of no return? We are plundering our own wealth by setting it to fire, destroying its organic matter, killing thousands of living beings, adding chemicals and fertilisers indiscriminately,” he said.

“In 2012, I used happy seeder under the guidance and supervision of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) experts and after that I borrowed happy seeder from the KVK every year. In 2017, I purchased a happy seeder and used it for sowing on 20 acres. I also used to rent out the machine which resulted rise in income,” he added. This year Paramjeet has made happy seeder available to other farmers on “no profit, no loss” policy.

Dr S C Sharma, Director, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Samrala said, “He cultivates paddy, potato, wheat and maize in his field. Total area under paddy is 30 acres and he is managing complete paddy straw for cultivating potato and wheat with technical support of the KVK.”

Dr Devinder Tiwari from the said, “Before planting potato, he procured straw mulcher on rent for chopping straw into small pieces. After mulching, he operated rotavator for incorporation of straw into the soil. The rotavator mixed the straw into soil and for incorporating straw to an optimum depth, reversible MB plough was operated. MB plough lifted the soil and incorporated the paddy straw from 8 to 10 inches deep into the soil. The level of field was disturbed after deep ploughing and for reshaping the field it was necessary to operate planker.”

He said, “Two operations of planker was done followed by rotavator for breaking the clods. Planting was done with the help of an automatic potato planter.”

Due to his efforts in efficient paddy straw management, he got appreciation award from the ATARI, ICAR, Ludhiana, during a stakeholder meeting in 2017. He was also given the CIR Pump award for using modern agricultural machineries in farming during the Kisan Mela held in March-2017 at the Punjab Agricultural University.

Ludhiana GST Commissionerate, cricketer Harbhajan Singh too pitch in

• The GST Commissionerate, Ludhiana, in collaboration with the Punjab Agriculture University, handed one of the two happy seeders to the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Samrala, on Thursday. The happy seeders would be provided free of cost to farmers identified by the KVK.
• In order to encourage and educate farmers about economically viable alternatives to stubble-burning, NGOs like the JBNR trust would also be involved. 
• Cricketer Harbhajan Singh has also joined the GST Commissionerate in this campaign and has appealed farmers not to burn stubble and use happy seeders instead.