Per drop, more vegetables: a teacher’s passion for innovative farming

Dr. Parveen Kumar

‘Where there is a will, there is a way’. This has been proved by Davinder Sharma, young government teacher at Government Middle School, Kasal in district Ramban. He hails from village Dhalwas which is four to five kilometers from his school and as such Mr. Sharma gets ample time in the morning and evening to pursue his passion for farming. From small vegetable plots he produces quintals of different vegetables through natural farming practice..

Ramban district which came into existence in the year 2007 after its bifurcation from erstwhile Doda district is also a gateway to the valley of Kashmir. The district is mostly rural with only 4% of population residing in towns. The district comprises of 11 blocks spread over 129 Panchayats and 132 villages. The climate ranges from intermediate in low altitude areas to temperate in high altitude hilly areas. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood in the district along with horticulture also as an important contributor of farmers’ income. Livestock is also as other important sectors contributing to the livelihood security of the population of the region. As far as size of landholdings is concerned, the average size of landholdings is very less. Of the total farm operating families, more than eighty percent are marginal one having less than 1 ha of land. About 15% of them are small having 2 ha of land, 1.67% fall in semi medium category having land up to 4 hectares and less than 1% falling in the medium category with land up to 10 hectares. Crops are grown from an elevation of 723 meters (Ramban) to 2590 meters in Mahu above mean sea level (amsl). The cropping intensity is >150%. The Net Sown Area of district is only 16% of Total Geographical Area (TGA). One of mightiest rivers of state, the Chenab passes through the district with many of its tributaries gushing with water. Despite this only 7% of cultivated area of district is under irrigation.

Agriculture cannot be desirable unless it has a dependable source of irrigation. Ramban district with more than 90% of area under rainfed conditions faces acute moisture stress and water scarcity in absence of timely and adequate rainfall. Recent year have witnessed lack of timely rainfall and even if it happens it is deficient to give adequate moisture to soil for germination of seeds. The farming community thus has come out with innovative solutions for conservation and judicious use of water. An innovative solution to the problem of water scarcity is ‘Koraj’. ‘Koraj’ is the name of a spring in local dialect. It is a particular spot, a natural exit point from which water emerges and flows across the ground surface as surface water. The water from the ‘Koraj’ in the fields of Mr. Davinder Sharma regularly oozes out in the form of small drops.

In the hilly terrains like Ramban such springs are a common thing where water from underground oozes out and in most of the cases the water goes waste. Mr. Davinder Sharma found out an innovative solution by collecting every single drop coming out of this fountain. Through a small pit where the drops get collected, he stores all the drops in a water tank through plastic pipes. The storage tank is placed at a height whose level is lower than the fountain so ta water easily flows down to the tank. Mr. Davinder says that during summer about 4000 litres of water can be stored in 24 hours and in winters about 2500 litres of water is stored in 24 hours. This quantity of water is sufficient for Mr. Davinder to grow vegetables on an area of 01 kanal (0.05 ha).

Mr. Davinder Sharma in his small vegetable plots

From small plots of 50 m2 each, he is able to harvest 25 kilogram of chilli, 10 kilogram of Garlic, one quintal of Brinjal, Knolkhol, and Turnip. He also has harvested about 2 quintals of Tomatoes and 1.5 quintals of Onion each. Besides this he also raised about one quintal of Pumpkin (Sitafal). On the whole he harvested about eight to nine quintals of different vegetables from an area of 500 m2 i. e 0.05 ha. This when calculated in monetary terms is equivalent to thirty to thirty five thousand per kanal and about seven lakhs if vegetables are to be raised on one hectare. He does not hire any labour and also spends very less amount of purchase of seeds because for most of the vegetables he produces his own seeds. He also gets high yielding and hybrid seeds from Krishi Vigyan Kendra-Ramban as well as agriculture department. .is produce is totally free from any chemical because it is done under Natural Farming with microbial preparations like Beejamrita, Jeevamrita, Brahmastra and Agniastra. He has got technical knowledge of different microbial preparations of Natural Farming from KVK-Ramban. Mr. Sharma by virtue of his passion for farming has proved that in this water scarce rainfed agro-ecology of the region, it is possible to get a rich harvest with judicious use of natural resources.

The author writes on agriculture and social issues; can be reached at [email protected]