AVisits with Gurbinder Bajwa to Gurdaspur District
Pingalwara
I spent almost three hours with Rajbir Singhji, visiting Pingalwara. He is indeed an inspiration. Absolutely every biological “waste” on their farm is recycled and used either as fertilizer or as a biological based controller of fungi, insects or unwanted plants. Even the micro-organisms are considered to be fertilizer. One significant feature of one of his plots was 12 rows of different crops, each one of which is harvested at the separate time, with the longest time to be that of fodder sugar cane, that is 10 months. Broccoli tasted very good and were planted next to cowpeas (lobia). Poplar trees in one lot sell very well. Biological fertilizer based on gobar and 1 gram of micro-organisms in a 6×8 foot tank were another action mentioned – this serves as an organic fertilizer.
He urged Pagri to establish a nonprofit organization in Punjab – only 5 members are needed – Pradhan, General Secretary and three other members. Then the organization can set up a current account and as per section 80G can get a tax rebate. DC also registers the organization. Then it can apply for FCRA approval after a few years.
Gurbinder Bajwa – observation: Punjab has five seasons – Spring, summer, monsoon, fall (patchad) and winter – extremes of heat, rain and cold. His YIF (Young Innovative Farmers) group has 350 members although it has the capacity for 500 members.
“Harman” – Horticulture Expert with nursery very near road – visited when it was dark.
This person was very impressive. He showed us many fruit tree plants that he can provide, including grafted apple plants. He has an ability to provide thousands of plants. He said that Himachal Pradesh was very aggressive and subsidized fruit trees in a big way. Punjab needs about 3.5 lakh fruit trees. He appeared to have a very high-level expert knowledge on providing all kinds of nursery plants. He can be a big asset if Punjab seeks to be aggressive in replacing significant acreage of wheat and rice with fruit trees.
Focal Point – sites that were set up by Pratap Singh Kairon that would locate Mandi, cooperative society, cooperative bank, hospital and veterinary hospital food processing center and processed products sales. These have been largely abandoned and are lying vacant. By the way, although not at one site, this is what IS BEING PRACTICED IN KERALA IN EACH VILLAGE TO THE GREAT BENEFIT OF ITS RESIDENTS!!
Observations by Harpreet Singh Bhatti
Punjab needs an MSP policy for fruits. From farm to processing unit, farmers need compensation for freight (per Kg). Punjab needs to cover 90% of the capital cost of a new processing unit. Central government grants 50%, 30% by state government, and 10% from Agriculture infrastructure fund (that is what Haryana does, I believe). A wheat weed from Mexico has become resistant to herbicides. Mosquitos have become resistant to pesticides, and there is extended resistance to tuberculosis.
Machinery Bank & Milk Collection Center – Palwinder Ghuman
Visited this in Sahari village. Ghumanji is a personable dynamic leader. He took us to his machinery bank where they rent out their services. Different implements can be mounted behind the tractor and service performed with rates established per acre. Main problem was that of an implement becoming obsolete quickly before they have recovered the cost. He then took us to their small Milk Collection Center (MCC), where milk is received, evaluated and weighed before being accepted for Verka.
FPO (Food Processing Organization) Formation
Ghumanji (with support from Gurbinder Bajwa) is working on registering an FPO that will be called, “Batala Foods”. They went the next day with about 15 farmers to the AR (Assistant Registrar) Office. Seems like they will get registered in a few weeks after the date of our visit. Haryana covers 90% of the cost of an FPO up to Rs. 6 crores. Punjab only covers about 30-35% and there is no effective policy. Also, the FPO policy scheme should be ONE – currently persons seeking to register an FPO have to go from pillar to post to visit all of the Punjab organizations concerned. However, after the capital costs are met (hopefully through subsidy), the FPO still has to cover the cost of fuel needed to run the processing plants and the cost of packaging the finished product. So, working capital is also needed to cover this and the cost of labor.
Sudhir Singh – Organic Farmer
Did not take any notes, so videos will have to cover. He does pure organic farming on about 12 acres. He seemed to be the most relaxed farmer we met in the whole trip. From what I remember, he had said that his earnings were only Rs. 50,000 per acre and he followed the total organic routine including using cow manure from his cattle.
Kabal Singh Goraya – Organic Farmer and Integrated Farming – A Super Center with potential for learning – this needs to be continued and not fade with him!
Village Maddu Chaanga, Block Ajnala, District Amritsar.
After Pingalwara, this was the most educative visit.
Fishery – 5 Acre Pond
His fish pond was 5 acres and is about 4 feet deep. Originally, he had dug up the pond and used the mud to make the bund. A fish merchant comes every few days with 10-15 people and he farms the fish with his nets. He needs at least 5 Quintals of fish to make it worthwhile for him. For Ludhiana the fish need to be transported live, whereas for nearby Amritsar these can be dead. For smaller farms where the farmer does it all himself (including taking it to market), the land area can be smaller, but for the merchant to come and do it, one needs a minimum of 2.,5 acres – this minimizes his need for labor and time spent in marketing. He said that he earns about Rs. 6-7 lakhs per year.
The six fish he breeds are katla, moraakh, rahu, grass carp, big head and common carp. Katla and big head are bigger in size and stay near the top surface, at mid depth is Damra, Commoin Carp is on the sides and Moraakh is at the bottom depth. Gras carp is at the sides and eats burseem. That and the washed-out liquid from the floor of the cattle shed are enough to feed the fish (otherwise, fish feed is expensive). Expenses are much less than for soil farming (kheti). People steal fishes if you are not around. The pH needs to be kept at between 8 and 8.5 (Kharay or brackish water can be used to grow shrimp or Jhinga).
For his big fishpond he had a small pond for which he bought small fishlets (about 100 to 1,000 at a time) from hatchery and raised them to be about finger size (takes about 3-4 months) before releasing them to the big fish pond. Birds do eat fish, but with the size of the pond he cannot put a net over it to protect it.
Description of Visit to Faridkot District with Balwinder Singh
(March 7-8, 2023)
Harvinder Nishkamji arranged for me to stay at the Dental College guest house (thanks to Baltej Singh also). It felt unique to be staying at a dental college residential campus where dental students reside. Kabal Singh, who was visiting from Edmonton Canada joined us for the visits on the first day (March 7). I believe he has expertise as a soil scientist. On the second day, Harvinder Nishkamji joined us. I stayed the night with him and early morning he left me on his scooter to the bus stand where I took the Volvo bus to Chandigarh.
Kabal Singh’s thoughts and recommendations: Punjab has alluvial soil and it needs chemical and organic fertilizers. For grain, stalks and roots of 1 Quintal, of 15-20 Kg of nutrients only 5-7 Kg are left. If you rely only on organic fertilizer, in 2-3 years all the nutrients will be gone at current rates of production (?). He had sent an article by SPS Brar to Lal Singhji. Fertilizer increases yield by 3-4 times, and one needs to do soil test and apply fertilizer accordingly. Excess fertilizer is bad as it leaches down (or creates Algae blooms in lakes and causes a deficiency of oxygen in the water – it’s called biological oxygen demand or BOD).
All of the cow manure will not provide enough fertilizer for Punjab. Still, every piece of organic matter should be recycled, and Nitrogen fixing plants should be used to the maximum – Alfalfa, peas, beans, burseem, etc. Nonetheless, Gurbinder Bajwa is indicating that after rice harvest, if the straw (parali) is used as mulch rather than burned, the chemical fertilizer need is less., less water is needed, and the plants are more robust and may need less pesticides and herbicides.
Visits to Farmers at their farms
1. Jagmeet Singh – organic farmer – with a good section on many fruit trees. He was growing peaches, cjiku, papaya, guava, and Chinese guava (sweet). He was also growing both small and large leaf methi. Oats are used as feed for cattle. He would like to have goats and from sugar cane process jaggery.
2. Jasmeet Singh – He owns a Rs 5 crore business making farm implements – his 4 kanal farm is managed as an organic farm by Balwinder – this farm can be used as a demonstration plus education site. He is willing. We will attempt to convince him to include implements needed by small farmers in his business (Gurbinder Bajwa has designed some of these).
3. Kuldeep Singh & Harjeet Singh – Bee Keeping farmers with 250 and 120 boxes respectively – met at Kuldeep Singh’s house and not at their bee keeping farm – there are about 40 farmers that badly need help with a honey processing plant (estimate about Rs 20 lakhs for a plant that would meet the needs of the 40 farmers – this plant would sanitize the bottles, filter the honey and separate the wax extract and bee pollen. They also have beeswax and bee pollen (very tasty and nutritious) as side products they sell. Bees provide valuable pollination service for free. Kuldeep Singh also does wheat and rice on a 2.5 acre farm. Price of honey about Rs 350-400 per Kg – but they struggle against adulterated honey on the market (He filled out the form).
4. Udeekwan Singh: This visit was amazing. He had a large area under organic garlic (with mulch) as well as a very good onion nursery (paniri). He had a very good organic farm, has won many awards, and received a lot of training. One video was posted and another awards related video was posted later. He would benefit from action of a chicken section. He is an expert on growing organic garlic and onion paniri (nursery).
5. Gurlal Singh: Owns a little over 3 acres and rents about 1.5 acre – He drove us around everywhere for two days. Some videos taken on his farm were posted. On many aspects he demonstrated a very high level of knowledge of crop varieties and organic farming. Goats can be added but need labor to manage for grazing. He showed a few desi varieties of wheat on his farm that he was growing which local people want to eat – they don’t want to eat the high yielding green revolution varieties. (He had filled out form). He is willing to convert his farm totally to the integrated model.
6. Balwinder Singh (Our Project Leader): His own farm is about 4 kanal and is an amazing example of the organic approach – understand what is going on (pests, weeds and yield issues) and modify strategy accordingly rather than take short cuts by attacking with chemicals straight away – the organic approach works best and is the lowest cost in all areas except labor cost. His son is imbibing his knowledge – that’s the kind of education we need!!
7. Baldev Singh: He only raises chickens for meat and had about 2,000 birds in a brick and concrete shed. His broiler chickens were very unhappy and sickly and hardly able to stand (this was noted at least another roadside location where desi chickens were happy and robust and white broiler chickens were sickly). These need expensive company supplied feed (cost of each bag went up from Rs 1,300 to Rs. 2,200 recently, while the price fetched by fully grown chickens was the same or may go down. He seemed to have a good knowledge of organic farming. He is desperate to transition out of the broiler corporate controlled trap to desi chickens for eggs. (He has filled out form)
8. Baljit Singh: He has a little over 3 acres. This farmer is not only an excellent organic farmer but also has taught other farmers. He has a meager Rs. 2 lakhs annual income and would really benefit from the addition of Desi Chickens (He has filled out the form).
9. Marketing Stands: Visited a marketed stand manned by Joginder Singh and Jagsir Singh (organic farmers) in Faridkot town. This they do at 4:30 pm every Tuesday and Saturday. Their produce sells well and is in demand. Problems are that they are located at a very traffic congested site and that as summer temperatures rise it will get very hot. They badly need a covered shed constructed at slightly less congested location. Also, Gurlal Singh’s farm is on the intersection of major road and a side road – it would be beneficial to construct a small covered roadside farm stand to sell their organic produce at the intersection – this could be used by more than one farmer.
Some of the things they mentioned that would help them:
1. Desi Free Ranging Chickens which they can sell under their own brand (First thought of Pagri to is to start with this).
2. Goats – but these need labor for grazing and milking
3. Cold storage
4. Honey processing
5. Training for the above