Wchicken Harbant Singh from Punjab’s Thulewal village joined his own circle of relatives profession of farming withinside the 70s, the groundwater become to be had at 15 toes. Decades later, whilst his son, Satnam commenced farming, groundwater tables had extensively fallen to one hundred fifty toes.
This had an immediate impact at the Singh own circle of relatives. They have been reeling beneathneath debt because of the excessive enter expenses for automobiles to drag up the water, the tubewell and the heavy utilization of chemical fertilisers.
In the land of 5 rivers (Beas, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej), the father-son duo stared at a looming water crisis – similar to tens heaps of farmers throughout the state.
Figures again up this unlucky plight.
As in step with a 2019 document with the aid of using the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Punjab, in which nowadays paddy fields thrive, will grow to be a desolate tract inside 25 years if rampant groundwater extraction continues.
Way earlier than this document become released, Harbant realised the environmental harm his farming strategies have been making or even expected deteriorating situations of farmers.
But he lacked avenues and assets to enforce pro-environmental modifications on his farm till 2016.
In that yr, Harbant and Satnam participated in a workshop organised with the aid of using Kheti Virsasat Mission (KVM), a charitable agree with assisting farmers transfer to natural farming. They interacted with farmers, learnt strategies and diagnosed green options to chemical fertilisers.
“Using dangerous insecticides and exploiting water tables is like an dependancy in our vicinity and plenty of farmers need to pop out of this vicious cycle however no person desires to take risks. All folks are privy to the harm it's miles inflicting to the lands. So, after I were given an possibility and warranty from a farmer’s network that switching to natural is viable, I grabbed it,” Harbant tells The Better India.
After attending the workshop, the 60-yr-antique determined to maintain apart his years of enjoy and understanding for the sake of a bigger top and commenced developing dragon fruit, lemon and sandalwood.
Explaining the purpose in the back of selecting those uncommon plantations, Satnam says “Of the 8 acres, we've got devoted 1.fifty five acres for chemical-loose farming. Both dragon end result and sandalwood use ninety in step with cent much less water in comparison to standard plants like wheat or rice. They additionally want much less upkeep and enter value however they deliver excessive returns.”
Haresh Thacker, a dragon fruit farming expert from Kutch, is of the same opinion with Satnam and says, “The dragon fruit is a tropical plant this is low on calorie content material and consists of antioxidants. It does now no longer require an awful lot water to develop and might thrive in arid areas.”
Even aleven though the water necessities and agricultural inputs are minimal, dragon fruit farming will have exceptional consequences in phrases of yield if maintained properly.
For instance, one acre of dragon fruit bushes offers the Singh own circle of relatives forty quintals (4000 pounds) each yr and a kilo fetch as much as Rs two hundred.
“We have 2500 bushes of dragon end result that yearly offers us about Rs 8,00,000 in step with acre. As for sandalwood, the bushes will undergo consequences after 15 years and each tree can fetch as much as Rs three,00,000. We have near two hundred sandalwood bushes,” he provides.
Vietnam Method to Grow Dragon Fruit
In the remaining decade, Gujarat’s water-scarce Kutch district has witnessed an natural dragon fruit revolution in which masses of farmers are developing the Hylocereus undatus, that is purple at the outdoor and has a white pulp, peppered with black seeds, at the inner.
Satnam passed off to go to Vishal Doda, a chum from Kutch who's doing dragon fruit farming in 15 acres. Impressed with the aid of using the Vietnam method to develop the fruit, Satnam learnt it and bought 500 seedlings from his nursery.
He taught his father and invested Rs four Lakh (in step with acre) in cement poles, irrigation facilities, labour expenses and seeds to installation the process. He recovered the value inside years.
Here’s the method:
- Dig a 2-toes deep trench withinside the soil to house a 7×12 toes cement pole vertically.
- Enclose the pole with a hole cement ring.
- Maintain a distance of 1 foot among every pole in order that it may acquire sunlight
- Four dragon fruit bushes, that is a mountaineering plant, can thrive on one pole
- Fill the inner of the pole with soil and jeevamrut (a mixture of cow dung and urine) to offer nutrients to the flowers.
- Use drip irrigation method to water the roots directly. Harbant provides liquid natural fertiliser withinside the water pipe to maintain bugs at bay.
Harbant has planted 500 poles on 1.25 acre, “In the primary yr, in step with pole will deliver round four-five pounds fruit to be able to then boom to twenty pounds withinside the 5th yr.”
Sandalwood & Lemon Plantations
Being a parasitic plant, roots of sandalwood called ‘haustoria’ derive their nutrients from different host flowers and in go back deliver vitamins to their hosts in keeping with a study posted in magazine Current Science.
So, Harbant bought the Santalum album range from Bengaluru and planted two hundred bushes on 1/2 of an acre. Between every tree, there's a distance of 12 toes in which he's cultivating lemons.
“Apart from its excessive industrial value, sandalwood cultivation has many benefits. It calls for mild water withinside the first 5 years put up which it grows on its personal and it takes 15 years for sandalwood to be geared up for harvesting. Sandalwood plant offers seeds after 4 years and each kilo can fetch as much as Rs 1000. While there's no felony ban on planting sandalwood bushes in Punjab, a farmer has to are searching for permission from the authorities at some stage in its cutting,” explains Satnam.
three Lessons for Every Beginner
The Better India spoke Umendra Dutt, founder member and government director of KVM to recognize positive principles that a amateur ought to maintain in mind.
“Monoculture of unmarried cropping reduces the soil fertility forcing farmers to apply chemical fertilisers to beautify the yield. This, in turn, disrupts the herbal plantation cycle. It is really helpful to develop as many seasonal plants or greens as viable which additionally reduces insect attacks.”
Umendra similarly underlines that killing each pest isn't always important as a few useful ones sell soil pastime this is essential for roots. And finally, the farmer ought to mirror the herbal cycle of flowers. In different words, the farm ought to mimic nature and decrease the usage of outside inputs, along with fertilizers and insecticides.
“Keep animals like cows and hens for your farm as they assist in soil preparation. Their residue acts as nutrient-wealthy manure. Instead of discarding agro-waste along with leaves use them to mulch the soil. Invite birds to thrive at the farm as they feed on bugs that may depart your crop damaged. The solution to each farming trouble lies in nature, one has to best search for it,” provides Umendra.
