Farmers of Kothe Wahegurupura shifting to organic farming
Barnala-Village “Kothe Wahegurupura” of Barnala district is in for a major organic revolution with majority of the farmers from this village taking the lead and initiative to wean away from excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides and the disastrous effects of chemical residues on vegetables and crops. This village comprises of around 60 families of farmers, majority of whom are involved in organic farming.
While providing information, village resident and a farmer, Amrit Singh, informed that almost 90 percent of the farmers from this village are involved in organic farming on wheat crop and by doing this, not only the soil help is improving but it is also providing financial gain for the farmers. Amrit Singh informed that he is involved in organic farming on 2.5 acres of his land, besides pesticide free farming on another 12 acre piece of land. He informed that crops such as wheat, paddy, cotton, sugarcane and vegetables are grown successfully in his fields using organic farming.
Amrit Singh informed that it is often seen that some of the farmers have little knowledge about use of pesticides and that is why, they use them more than required which decreases soil health and also leads to pollution. He said that on the other hand, organic farming is much safer and easy to adopt and the financial gains are even better than conventional farming techniques of using pesticides. He said that by shunning the use of pesticides, he is saving around Rs 70,000 annually.
It is pertinent to mention that along with adoption of organic farming, majority of the farmers in village Kothe Wahegurupura have not set their wheat straw on fire this time, thus causing no pollution to the air.
Appealing to the farmers to adopt organic farming and decrease their expenditure, Chief Agriculture Officer, Barnala, Rachhpal Singh Khosa stated that the farmers should start organic farming by growing crops for their own use first. And once they become expert in it, they should adopt it on full scale. He said that by adopting organic farming, the expenditure of farmers would also decrease as the use of pesticides would be stopped. This would also help in making out environment pollution free. The CAO also appealed to the farmers to not burn wheat and paddy straw and instead plough it in their farm itself and eventually it would turn into organic manure.
