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PAGRI Needs Your Support
(Please donate on Dasvandh Nov. 9 to Nov. 19, 2023)

Dear Pagri supporters and well-wishers,
 
 Dasvandh is matching all donations dollar for dollar up to a limit of $ 400 per donation from November 9 to Nov 19, 2023.
 
To donate to the Pagri organization please click on the Donate button.   Thanks!
 
We have used your donations very judiciously, keeping the overhead to the bare minimum.
All office bearers are doing voluntary service and thus overheads are almost zero. With the grace of God, Pagri has an exceptional talent pool and thus we are able to keep overhead to the minimum.

But this is only the beginning.  The needs of Punjab's agriculture are immense, both qualitatively and quantitatively.  So, please continue to support us! Thanks to your support.
Pagri has grown and is adding activities and directly reaching out to farmers to help them. 

Dear Supporters: We have used your donations very effectively, but we have only begun and the needs of Punjab's agriculture are immense, both qualitatively and quantitatively. So, please continue to support us!

Thanks to your support, Pagri has grown and added activities and directly reached out to farmers to help them.

Pagri has three projects now - one has just been added.

We are working on revising our website

We are working to develop our Social Media presence - FaceBook and YouTube.

Here's a summary update for the organization:

1. We have added a new project: Mini Integrated Farming in Faridkot - We have found two very dynamic Sevadars in Manjit Singh and Jaspal Singh, who have helped farmers via soil testing to reduce costs, helped about 40 farmers with about 1,000 Desi (RIR variety) chickens raised for eggs, and are helping about 300 farmers with ortganic kithcen gardens. This will show up as a new project of its own shortly.

2. We are excited to tell you that we have started a new Pagri Organic, Horticulture and Integrated Farming Demonstration and Training Centre near Faridkot. The project leader for this project is Balwinder Singh, who is a high level expert of oreganc farming and is continuing to learn and teach others. He is assisted by Gurlal Singh, who is a knowledgeable farmer himself.

The objective: Teach farmers high quality methods of the proper techniques so that they become fearless farmers who can grow organic crops at a lower cost, through clean (non-chemical) methods, use less water, and understand the ecology of the soil, plants and insects.

It has started with organic horticulture with about 180 fruit trees and planting of sugarcane. It will be planting other crops organically and vermi-composting. It has been teching farmers about all this and will be teaching themn more. 

3. We are resetting our Project for "Exrtension for Good Agricultural Practices", the leader of which is Gurbinder Singh Bajwa. He is the only one who is addressing the big problems of growing rice without water flooding technique, no burning of straw, using straw as mulch for next crop, reducing use of chemical fertilizers and fungicides, pesticides and herbicides. The aim of the resetting is to better align Gurbinder with Pagri aims and objectives and to find new ways of cooperation and support.

Harinder Lamba

Secretary, Pagri

Pagri has continued to learn from its farmers in Punjab and use it to change its strategy and expand its activities. Its two existing projects are gping through a reset and revitalization, while another activity has been added. For the two existing projects, please read the Updates on those projects themselves Extension for Good Agricultural Practices) and Educating Farmers for Organic Farming. We are excited to tell you that in Faridkot we have added a project to mainly help landless farmers and laborers increase their incomes. We have started by procuring 1,000 baby desi chickens of the RIR variety from the Punjab Agricultural University and these have been distributed to farmers based on the condition and capacity of their "Khuddas" or small enclosures to look after the baby chickens. This project has initiated a very extensive program of soil testing, the results of which will be used to advise farmers so they only apply the fertilizer they actually need - hence saving them money. Soon, the farmers will be helped with organic kitchen gardens so as to make sure that they grow good, healthy and clean food for their own families - this will also save them money. This project is being headed up by a farmer named Manjit Singh with a very able asisstant named Jaspal Singh. This will be added as another fundraising project for Pagri soon.

Pagri has continued to learn from its farmers in Punjab and use it to change its strategy and expand its activities. Its two existing projects are gping through a reset and revitalization, while another activity has been added. For the two existing projects, please read the Updates on those projects themselves Extension for Good Agricultural Practices) and Educating Farmers for Organic Farming. We are excited to tell you that in Faridkot we have added a project to mainly help landless farmers and laborers increase their incomes. We have started by procuring 1,000 baby desi chickens of the RIR variety from the Punjab Agricultural University and these have been distributed to farmers based on the condition and capacity of their "Khuddas" or small enclosures to look after the baby chickens. This project has initiated a very extensive program of soil testing, the results of which will be used to advise farmers so they only apply the fertilizer they actually need - hence saving them money. Soon, the farmers will be helped with organic kitchen gardens so as to make sure that they grow good, healthy and clean food for their own families - this will also save them money. This project is being headed up by a farmer named Manjit Singh with a very able asisstant named Jaspal Singh. This will be added as another fundraising project for Pagri soon.

Visit to PAU Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana by Lamba
(March 6, 2023)
 
I would like to thank Dr. Milkha Singh Aulakh (and Lal Singhji who put me in touch with him) for organizing my tour of parts of PAU and taking me around. Now retired, Dr. Aulakh was the Dean of the College of Agriculture at PAU and later Vice Chancellor of the Agricultural University at Banda, U.P. We visited department of organic and integrated farming, and department horticulture and then went for a meeting with the Vice Chancellor Dr. Gosal.

VISIT TO SCHOOL OF ORGANIC & INTEGRATED FARMING
At 2:00 pm we went to the School of Organic and Integrated Farming and met with Dr. Sohan Singh Walia, head of the school.

Description of 2.5 Acre Integrated Farm while sitting in the office of Dr. Walia

The whole farm that has been used for demonstration and research has following details:
They use every inch of land!
Farm size – 2.5 acres
Crops – 1.5 acres
Horticulture – 0.5 acres
Fish Farm – 0.25 acres
Other – 0.25 acres (poultry under development)

Overall: Input cost is Rs. 3.5 lakhs. Earning have been Rs. 4.5 lakhs (average of 5 years)
Last year, the earning were Rs. 6.04 lakhs

The Dairy Shed was 200 sq, m. (square meters) or about 650 sq. ft (square feet) with small area of vermi compost. Two cows and one buffalo (initla cost Rs. 2 lakhs)

Agro-forestry (poplar trees) occupied 300 sq.m. – that were along with crops.
-       After 6 years the poplar trees sell for Rs. 75,000 
-       Labor needed is about 283 mandays per year
Horticulture – Krownda and lemon trees were on the periphery (border)
Krwonda – bristles are sharp  that keeps the animals out and it has good iron content.
They grow Guava around Fish Farm
Guava and Lemon occupy about 0.5 acres and they grow crops in between.
Sale of fruit of Rs. 30,000 per year (with an initial cost of Rs. 2.25 – 4 lakhs)

Poultry: Will introduce a few years later
Plan is for 10 ft x 10 ft shed for 200 birds. Will first start with 100 birds
Cost per bird chick (45 days old) is Rs. 150 – Desi breed
Desi eggs are more nutritious and fetch a better price.
They grow Guava around Fish Farm
Guava and Lemon occupy about 0.5 acres and they grow crops in between.
Krownda and galgal makes good achar

Fish Farm
Fish Farm earns about Rs. 30,000 per year
They recycle all the wastes. The wash from the dairy shed goes to the fish farm – no extra feed for fishes
They have three varieties of fish – Rahu, Catla and Mrigal. They get fingerlings from the hatchery and each fish grows to be about 0.5-1.5 Kg (kilograms).
Twice a week with the net they get about 60 Kg of fish
December the tank is emptied of fish, and they stock up in January.
After 3 years they dredge up the soil in the fish farm and use it as ferilizer

Crops
Crops assume 5-7 family members as labor
500 Sq. m. (1 kanal)– oil seeds and pulses
1,000 sq. m – Burseem
Maize followed by wheat
800 sq. m. – Rice by flooding and transplanting technique – can do DSR
Traditional farming method – rice
Moong grows well after oilseeds, but not wheat

ENERGY
Solar Panels on roof with batteries, used for tube well – excess electricity sold to grid
Bio-Gas Plant – Need only two buckets of cow dung and that produces methane cooking gas that is enough for a family of 6-7 members. Plant uses a submersible pump to get the slurry out after all decomposed (excellent fertilizer). Earning equivalent about Rs. 20,000 per year. Can be used for heating animal sheds during winter.

Bio-wastes
Rice residue is used as bedding material for cows and goats
1 Kg absorbs 2.5 liters of urine. This is combined with cow dung to make compost also.
Neem based biological pesticides and herbicides made – commercially available as Ecotin

AT FARM
Dairy: HF breed gives 15 liters of milk a day. HF plus Sahiwal Plus Jaspreet breed gives 32-33 liters per day – can be milked three times a day
Goat Shed – There was whole section with goats that very robust. There was also a goat shed to protect them in winter.

Then we drove over to the school of fruit sciences – horticulture (4:00 pm)

VISIT TO SCHOOL OF FRUIT SCIENCES (HORTICULTURE)

Dr. Aulakh than took us for a visit with Dr. Harminder Singh (director) and Dr. Gurtek Singh. Punjab. Dr. Harminder Singh communicated the following: Punjab has potential for 97,000 Hectares of fruit with the following percentages.
Kinnu – 55%
Guava – 10%
Mango 7%
Pear – 4-5%
Lychee – 4-5%
Peach and Plum – 4-5%
Bair – 4-5%
Others – the rest

What is favored for the various areas and districts are:
Lychee – Pathankot and Gurdaspur
Mango – Hoshiarpur
Pear – Amritsar
Citrus – Faridkot

New Fruits
1.     Dragon fruit: bears fruit in 3 years and has a 40 year life. Initial expense is high Rs. 5 lakhs per acre as it needs concrete pillars (will post photo and video of this).
2.     Jamun – bears fruit in 6-7 years
3.     Papaya – in one year
4.     Krownda and Galgal

For Faridkot he recommended Kinnu, Guava, peaches and plums. Average costs about Rs. 100 per plant. One acre can have 100 plants at 20 foot spacing. Initial costs per acre are:
Kinnu – Rs 2-3 lakhs
Peaches and Plums – Rs 1.5 lakhs
Guava – Rs. 1-1.5 lakhs

(Note: They provide fruit plants at a subsidized rate to farmers along with training)
 
In all of the spaces in between plants there can be inter cropping with vegetables, wheat, etc. as per department of organic and integrated farming.

For all fruits, they provide POP (Package of Practices) consisting of:
Manuring, Pest Control, Disease Control, Training and Pruning and Irrigation (with drip irrigation).
(Note: Balwinder had earlier sent information and videos of fruit fly traps and brushing of copper sulfate solution on trunks of young fruit trees to protect against fungus – organic methods of pest and fungus control)

Note: Both schools or departments provide free training for farmers on campus, providing these are scheduled in advance. They charge Rs 300 per farmer for training that is conducted at the location of farmers in their district. Such trainingsmakes the farmers eligible for subsidies of various kinds. We need to utilize these services.

MEETING AT OFFICE OF VICE CHANCELLOR – DR. SATBIR SINGH GOSAL

We sat in his office along with most of the members of the Agricultural Policy Committee. He stated that PAU can do much but that scientists have limits. He talked about the first ever Sarkar/farmer meeting on their campus that was attended by thousands of farmers and their input was sought. About 15 farmers met with DC, SDM and BDO and discussed problems and issues including Patwari created problems. He said that government needed to take timely action like the release of water on April 2 for cotton. He called for help in marketing by government. Also, for crop diversification, about 20 plus crops needed MSP, marketing and storage support – this included rice, wheat, pulses, cereals, vegetables, sugar cane, etc.

COTTON: In the four districts growing cotton they had recommended that the Krishi Vigyan Kendras organize the farmers in 200-300 farmers per group. PAU and the government officials needed to help the farmers with plant diseases, water not released on time and tube well problems.

For Organic and Integrated Farming here needed to be outreach to the farmers to help them implement what has been learned in the 2.5 acre demonstration and research plot at PAU. He mentioned that GOATS were hardy and if managed properly could give 4 Kg of milk per goat.

He urged Pagri’s help organize a meeting of Punjab’s farmers with NRI farmers in USA and Canada for an interface meeting so they could learn from each other and also establish a role for NRI farmers to help with farming practices and food processing.
NOTE: Lal Singh has given this activity a high priority – we will try and help PAU with this
 
NOTE: He clearly stated that since PAGRI was foreign based organization, they could not sign an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) and because PAU was not registered as per FCRA (Foreign Contributions Regulation Act), they could NOT channel PAGRI funds for our projects in Punjab.
 
Their staff photographer took photos, and they published our meeting in their PAU newsletter, which Gurbinder Bajwa picked up and shared on Pagri WhatsApp.

I thank Dr. Aulakh for the visit, the stay with him at night and for arranging my taxi to Faridkot in the morning. His standing with PAU helped so that everyone was very responsive.

Harinder Lamba, Secretary, Pagri

Dear Pagri supporters and well-wishers,
 
Summary
 
We have made much progress in the last quarter. We are getting better at defining and undertaking meaningful activities in Punjab, both in terms of transformation of agriculture towards better practices and in helping small farmers with organic and integrated farming.

One of the things that we have learned is that we need better and regular reporting by our project leaders from Punjab. We will be transitioning to that in the near future – this will help us bring more specifics to you regularly.

Here's a summary list of what we have achieved:
1.     We have a better version of our website up and running with good basic information that will be in parallel with what is posted on Dasvandh www.pagri.org
2.     Earlier, we had posted our first every Newsletter using Mailchimp that was included in our last update. This had included our tentative plan for the year.
3.     Earlier our President, Lal Singh, had also visited Punjab and held a couple of very meaningful meetings with farmers and supporting organizations.
4.     Then recently, our secretary, Harinder Singh Lamba, from the US visited farms and farmers in Punjab in March to get to know them better and to have a better understanding of the activities we are doing and the ones we need to do.

Description of Visit to Punjab and Proposed Actions

Here’s a summary of proposed new actions and a description of the visit by our secretary to Punjab.

Based on my trip to Punjab (March 4-8, 2023), the following plan has been proposed. Based on detailed notes that I took, I will also publish a full description of my visits to make sure I pass on the education I received and important information for others.

TOP LEVEL ACTIONS (More actions are proposed in the Projects)
1.     Faridkot: It appears that the best increase in incomes would be achieved by Free Ranging Organic Desi Chickens by selling their eggs. These Desi chickens are very robust, integrate well with an organic farm in terms of mostly eating insects and green materials, providing organic fertilizer through their droppings, and in a small area generate the most income – the free ranging Desi eggs are in high demand and command a premium price. Broiler chickens are generally less robust, need special feed from companies and need anti-biotics and mor medical care – their eggs are less in demand. We will begin this with 2-4 farmers and expand as we learn.
2.     Punjab Agricultural University (PAU): Here we can learn through training from both the departments of Organic/Integrated Farming and that of Fruit Sciences (Horticulture), and by getting subsidized Desi chicks and fruit trees. Our two project leaders have been connected and will need to follow up.
3.     Gurdaspur: Here we need to continue extension for good agriculture practices (that use less water, less tillage, less fertilizer and pesticides, and are lower cost). To this needs to be added food processing and fruit processing activities. This activity is more geared for transformative practices and are good for all sizes of farmers. Also, food processing can be added for the new FPO, “Batala Foods”.

Here is a description of the Action Items regarding PAU.

Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana – Action Items
 
In a meeting with Vice Chancellor Dr. Gosal (arranged by Dr. Milkha Singh Aulakh), he clearly stated that since PAGRI is as a foreign registered organization, PAU cannot sign an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with us, and since they are not FCRA (Foreign Contributions Regulation Act) approved, they cannot channel funds for us. Once we have an organization registered in India, they can fully cooperate. Thanks to Dr. Aulakh, we visited with Dr. Walia (Director Organic and Integrated Farming – at his office and on their 2.5-acre demonstration plot) and Dr. Harminder Singh (Director Fruit Sciences or Horticulture – on their plot).

The following activities should be pursued by our project leaders in Punjab as follows:
1.     Training for farmers (free at PAU and Rs. 300 per group at their site – the latter should be immediately pursued as it makes the farmers eligible for subsidies).  
2.     Supply of Desi Chicks and fruit trees and at a discounted rate
3.     Extension work by PAU personnel on the farms of our farmers for the two above areas – Faridkot and Gurdaspur.

MANY MANY THANKS TO THOSE WHO DONATED & SUPPORTED!

THANKS TO YOU WE WILL BE ABLE TO DO MUCH MORE!

We will certainly be reporting and letting you know the benefits of your donations!

Please stay engaged. Special outreach events will occur in June (Worl Environment Day), October and then the "Power of Giving" event in November.

We start by thanking our donors, supporters, advisors and those active on the ground in Punjab. For those of you who donated in 2021 and 2022 and especially those who donated via Dasvandh Network in November 2022, we thank you from the bottom of our heart. The success of the November 2022 fundraising on Dasvandh Network for Pagri was due to the matching funds arranged by Dasvandh and because many of you responded to appeals by our president and others. Thanks for giving us the resources to be effective in 2023! We will keep reporting on our progress, and the extent to which we are helping Punjab’s farmers.

Background

Early in 2021, we registered as a nonprofit organization in the state of Illinois, USA, with Lal Singh as president, Kuldeep Singh Sra as treasurer, and Harinder Singh Lamba as secretary. Since then, thanks to the contacts developed by our president, we have developed extensive contacts in Punjab and a network of supporters in the US and Canada. In 2022, we used this information to launch two projects in Punjab that we describe briefly below.

Pagri’s mission is to help transform the agriculture of Punjab to one that is better environmentally and economically, to help its farmers (especially small farmers) increase their incomes, to help consumers get clean and healthy nutritious food, and then to help with all the post-harvest methods from storage to food processing.

Important News!

Our president, Lal Singh, visited Punjab recently, solidified relationships, held meetings in a couple of places and got feedback on how best to proceed. It also became clear that Pagri should be at the table in convincing the new Punjab government to change policies to help transform agriculture and to benefit farmers. We will be engaging in this process.

Our Plans for 2023

1.     Expanding Current Projects
a.     Extension for Better Agricultural Practices – Leader, Gurbinder Bajwa
This project provides a much-needed extension activity to guide farmers on lower cost agriculture, environmentally friendly practices and (chemical) residual free crops. An example is to use the direct seeding of rice (DSR) that uses much less water and then mulches the straw (instead of burning it), and then plants the wheat seeds among the mulch without tillage – savings all around in water, fertilizer, diesel fuel, and pesticides and herbicides – all expensive inputs. This project will help in those areas that are favorable for high value basmati rice, while helping all other areas of Punjab transition out of rice.
b.    Educating Farmers for Organic Farming – Leader, Balwinder Singh
Here we are working to identify and support willing farmers who will implement new lower cost organic farming type practices, so that these farmer’s fields can act as demonstration sites and motivate other farmers to change their practices from the current wheat-rice monocultures. The objective here is to create a revolution among small farmers through actual ground level action. This also needs a parallel activity to convince consumers of the higher value of organic produce, so that they are willing to pay more for it (as now happens in the US).
2.    Addition of Project for Integrated Farming – Leader, Dr. Rachhpal Bajwa
This project will be added to Pagri projects and will be posted on Dasvandh Network and the Pagri website. We are looking for good ways to implement this project activity and emphasis. The benefit of such an approach is that it helps farmer incomes on small areas of land by adding, say, poultry, dairy and fodder crops, with use of manure as fertilizer.
3.    Addition of Project for Food Processing
Through bad agricultural policies, Punjab lags way behind Haryana in food processing, which is a high value-added post-harvest activity that also helps mop up surpluses that depress prices. With the advice of above project leaders or food processing experts such as Harpreet Singh Bhatti and Puneet Singh Thind, and our project leaders, we will attempt to define how a small activity can be started here.
4.     Information Technology Tasks
This will aim at revamping the Pagri website to act as decisive center for disseminating information (education, news, project activities, articles, videos, feedback, etc.) and encouraging interactions. After completing that we will be establishing pages for Pagri on FaceBook and YouTube so as to have a dynamic presence of Pagri on social media. All future newsletters will also be published on the Blog page of our website.
5.    Online Marketing
Online technology development will be looked at through the development of, say, a Farmer to Consumer App (so consumers can contact area farmers and by directly) – take this App and have it beta tested and then rolled out. Another activity that has been conceived is to provide online advice on FPOs (Food Processing Organizations) to farmers from experts and for farmers to communicate amongst themselves and use it as an organizing tool.

Others who will be providing core support in Pagri are:

Birender Singh
Manny Singh – Strategic Adviser
Sheena Sawhney – Outreach and host of online events

We look forward to your increasing support in 2023 so that we can implement our expanded activities and do even more.

We will certainly be reporting and letting you know the benefits of your donations!

Harinder Lamba
Secretary, Pagri

Dear Donors who donated during the Dasvandh "Power of Giving Week" - Nov. 11-20, 2022

Many many thanks from our fearless president, Lal Singhji and the entire Pagri team, for supporting Pagri activities and projects by donating. That is a vote of confidence in Pagri, and believe me, we will live up to your expectations by doing good work to transform Punjab's agriculture and to increase the incomes of farmers. We will provide you here with very regular feedback on the progress we are able to achieve and the benefits to farmers and agriculture. Your donations will be spent well and to make the most focussed impact to acheive meaningful results.

We are also geting geared to send you regular Newsletters using Mailchimp, where you should see more personalized communications. 

Our two project updates and thanks are also being provided - these are the "Extension for Good Agriculturla Practices" and "Educating Farmers for Organic Farming", which you can also see to the right of our main Pagri organization description. 

Harinder Lamba

Secretary, Pagri

Dear Pagri Supporters,

We will be adding a new project soon for an Integrated Farming Project, that you will be seeing as soon as we have it fully defined in terms of a photo and description. 

In the new year, our President Lal Singhji wants to expand our activity. So, we also will be defining project activity relating to food processing, and using your donations to improve our online technology, both the US and in Punjab - direct communications between farmers and consumers and an online way for food processing experts to advise farmers about Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs).

Harinder Lamba

Secretary, Pagri

Dear Pagri Supporters:

We have transfromed our two projects to the ones as follows:

1.Extension for good agricultural practices, environmentally friendly practices, lower cost cultivation and residual free crops - Project Leader, Gurbinder Singh Bajwa, Gurdaspur

2.Education and help to farmers to transition to organic farming - Project Leader, Balwinder Singh, Faridkot.

Please visit the two projects of Pagri to see all the exciting details of these two great projects with two expert, motivated and sincere leaders.

All of this is being achieved under the very able leadership of our Pagri President, Lal Singhji, who got us in touch with these persons and motivated us to start these projects. We need your donations to support these projects!

Harinder Lamba

Secretary Pagri

Dear Friends,

We are finally ramping up our activities with significant actions being initiated in the following areas:

1. Drirect extension to farmers so that they can implement better agriculturla practices.

2. Online support to farmers in their efforts to form Farmer's Producer Organizations (FPOs)

3. Online App to directly link farmers to customers

4. Further developing direct marketing by farmers and possibly setting up a demonstration site

5. Direct support for FPO formation for crops like Basmati rice and Sugracane.

Harinder Lamba

Secretary, PAGRI