Crop Diversification: Progressive Farmer Gurtej Singh tries his hand on Papaya
Jasbir Kapoor/ royalpatiala.in/ Mashana (Bathinda)
In a bid to diversify his crop to get more income, Gurtej Singh a progressive from Mashana village is trying his hand on papaya farming these days. He has grown 200 saplings in his four canals net at his farmhouse in the village.
Officials from the Horticulture Department today visited the farm house of Gurtej and enquired about the growth of the papaya plants. Expressing satisfaction on the progress of the plants, the officials stated that Gurtej is one of the very few farmers of the district who has planted papaya under the net at such a large scale.
“Gurtej is a progressive farmer who is trying to obtain maximum benefit from the papaya for which he is working hard to maintain the proper growth of these recently planted papaya saplings,” said Deputy Director Dr. Darshan Pal who along with his Horticulture Officers visited Gurtej’s farmhouse today.
Gurtej said that he thought it fit to grow papaya after replacing vegetables as he had to take vegetables to the market almost every evening. He stated that he bought these plants from PAU (Punjab Agriculture University), Ludhiana after due consultation with the experts. He has been using the net for farming since 2014.
Horticulture experts said that if proved successful, the papaya cultivation by this farmer would prove very helpful for the other nearby area farmers who may also opt for cultivating same fruit in future. They said that papaya is likely to help Gurtej in earning some extra profits in coming months.
The progressive farmer pointed out that in a bid to maintain the rotation he presently has grown 200 plants in the four canals net, which actual has the capacity of 600 plants. “I will grow 200 plants in the month of July and then plant similar amount against in September,” he said.
