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Nirmal : A landless Farmer Excels In Vegetable Growing

August 20, 2018 04:37 PM

Punjab News Express
NAWANSHAHR: Nirmal Kumar, a landless farmer of Banga has emerged as a role model for the unemployed youth and distressed farmers. He has set worth emulating example by adopting occupation of cultivation of vegetables on a land procured on lease.
Though he has to pay a hefty lease amount of Rs 40, 000 per acre for doing cultivation on seven acre land at nearby village Jeendowal but he fetches handsome profit after paying the annual lease amount easily.
Besides, instead of adopting any foul means to earn profit, he has been following ethics as well as the norms set under the mission Tandarust Punjab.He has either been using safe insecticides or organic insecticides prepared by himself to spray on the vegetables.
He said that he had got training from an organic insecticide manufacturing company to prepare these at his own. He is middle passed and worked as a labourer with a vrgetable seller apart from serving as a Homegurad Jawaan for 10-12 years but at the end he decided to start his own venture as vegetable grower.
Interestingly, he was accompanied by his son and wife apart from 4 to 6 labourers in his daily routine. He ploughed his land with a small 20 hp tractor instead of a big horse power.
Adhering to the horticulture department’s prohibition of Red label insecticide, he always used safe insecticides. He uses innovative and modern ways to grow vegetables such as trailing system for vine crops. He uses wires in bed planted tomatoes to raise it slightly higher from ground for better aeration. Almost every vegetable can be produced by using organic pesticides but production of Brinjal is only possible in net house technique during rainy season.
He also prefers to sell his produce directly not through middleman. He said that direct selling fetched more profit than middlemen, so he preferred to sell most of his vegetables directly.
Assistant Director Horticulture, Dinesh Kumar said that there were a few farmers who are producing safe vegetables. The horticulture department has been making the farmers aware that like Nirmal, they could also earn better yield as well as remunerative prices of their crop by adopting organic farming and ethical practices.

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