Progressive Farmer - BALJIT SINGH
Border village farmer shows way by putting an end to stubble burning
Ferozepur, October 18, 2020: The farmers in Punjab tend to burn the crop residue, causing smog to engulf the region despite the ban on stubble burning five years ago by the National Green Tribunal – NGT. But certain sons of the soil like Baljit Singh of village Kadma in Ferozepur, have stopped putting a matchstick to paddy stubble and making its best use to increase the fertility of land, yield and of course adding more to income.
The farmers in Punjab have announced to burn stubble as an act of rebellion, who are protesting against the enactment of three Farm Bills since Sept 24, as they are angry that even as they suffer from farm distress and do not get any proper returns on their labour and produce and onus of stubble burning is put on them.
In fact, the wheat stubble can be converted into chaff and sold as animal fodder at a good price, there is no such utilization in case of paddy stubble. They don’t get proper compensation for their labour and produce. Farmer is clear about his job to produce the crop and all post-production management is the job of the government.
A farmer – Baljit Singh - from village Kadma block Mamdot Ferozepur is getting good yield without burning the paddy stubble of his 6 acres agriculture land, for the last three years by keeping a close liason with the Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Department. Not only this, he is spearheading the campaign not to burn paddy straw and to use modern machinery to sow crops in their fields.
Giving this information, Deputy Commissioner, Gurpal Singh Chahal said that this farmer was not only setting fire to the paddy straw but was also protecting the environment from pollution and increasing the yield of the land.
DC said that the farmer has adopted the crop rotation of wheat and paddy and after harvesting the paddy, he is using the reverse cultivation to dump the straw in the field and with this technique, the sowing of wheat with normal drill is very easy. This farmer is also motivating other farmers in the area to do more eco-friendly farming.
Baljit Singh said he was cultivating on about 20 acres of land and the modern techniques were proving beneficial to increase his income. Jarnail Singh stated that he was using Rotavator, happy seeder and other modern machinery and he ploughed his land along with paddy straw without burning paddy stubble and this technique had increased his yield and income.
He said that due to the mixing of straw in the field, the wheat needs less Urea fertilizer and thus saving more on cost production. The farmer said that other farmers of the district should cultivate the crop by mixing paddy straw in fields itself before sowing and this would not pollute our environment but increase the fertility of the land.