The Problems
Punjab has gone through some tough times with “Green Revolution” agriculture, with high levels of the use of water, chemical herbicides and pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and decreasing soil fertility. At the same time, farmers have been left with little support in terms of extension work that would help them transition to better practices.
So what is Pagri Doing?
That is why PAGRI is transitioning this project to one that provides “Extension for good agricultural practices, environmentally friendly practices, lower cost cultivation and residual free crops”. For this we have been fortunate to find a very capable, experienced, motivated, sincere and active person in Gurbinder Singh Bajwa, who was already doing such activities, but now Pagri is supporting him to do better and, as good results are seen, expand the project.
Our Approach
Gurbinderji will be educating and demonstrating to farmers the basics of better agricultural practices by personal onsite visits to farmers within easy travel distances to his base in Gurdaspur district – sowing, care and harvesting. Although the current planting season has passed, next year this will include the direct seeding of rice (DSR) without the water flooding technique. For the remainder of this year, it will be directed at wheat, sugar cane and other crops. He will be teaching farmers how to use different pesticides and herbicides (made on the farm) instead of the poisonous chemicals. He is very practical and his advice is good for farmers that want to transition away from damaging agricultural practices.
Some More Specifics
He will be teaching farmers the use of machines specially designed for small farmers. Also, how to not burn the stubble after harvest and use it for mulch. The techniques he teaches will be reduce the costs to farmers (as the use of expensive chemicals and machines will be reduced) and reduce the use of water – a major issue for Punjab. High cost of inputs for green revolution agriculture is a major cause of farmer suicides. The harvested crops will be free of poisonous chemical residues, which will promote the health of consumers and improve water quality of water table. He will provide guidance to Pagri on how to organize food processing activities for the farmers he helps.
What we have posted
Also see the photos of him that we have posted. Watching the short YouTube video sent to us from Gurbinderji will give you an overall familiarity with what he is doing with the support of PAGRI. We hope that you will support this PAGRI project and very worthwhile activities of the project led by Gurbinder Bajwa by donating generously!!
https://youtu.be/jgd3wv6Vu3c
Also see his frequent and good postings on FaceBook where he is very active:
https://www.facebook.com/bajwagurbinder
September 12, 2022