Farmer lauded by PM for diversification backs agitation

Tribune News Service

Hisar, December 26

Hari Singh Bishnoi (50), a farmer from Nadhori village of Fatehabad district, who had interacted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to share his experience over crop diversification recently, stated that he supported the farmers' protest.

Talking to The Tribune today, Bishnoi, who had sown paddy in 26 acres of his 40 acres land said he wanted to raise the issue of minimum support price (MSP) with the PM but could not get the opportunity to share his thoughts as it was a brief interaction.

Brief meeting with modi

• Farmer Hari Singh Bishnoi wanted to raise the issue of MSP with the PM but could not get a chance as the meeting was brief
• "Being a farmer, I stand in support with the agitating growers," he said
• He added there was a need for crop diversification as water-guzzling crops have depleted the groundwater

"Being a farmer, I stand in support with the agitating growers," he said adding that interacting with the PM was a good experience. He said he started practicing crop diversification about ten years ago, with guava orchards sown over two acres and now has cultivated lemon and guava in ten acres. Bishnoi said he was not bothered about the market for guava or lemon as he rented out the fields to contactor during picking season for one-time cost. He said he gave one acre of guava field yield to contractor for picking and selling for Rs 1.5 lakh once in three or four years. Besides, he said, he also grows crops in the same field which supplements his income. He claimed that guava yields nearly one and a half times more income compared to paddy/cotton or wheat.

He said most of his yield was sold by contractor through a retain chain in Fatehabad and Hisar districts at a good price of approximately Rs 50 per kg. "I have also taken the produce to the nearby mandis in Bhuna or Tohana towns but never to markets in Delhi or Hisar," he said. The farmer maintained that there was a need for crop diversification as water-guzzling crops such as paddy and wheat had depleted the groundwater.

from The Tribune https://ift.tt/3poJIkn