REAPING REWARDS WITH ROTAVATOR
Gurraj Singh Virk, 64, of Kotkapura in Faridkot district was called a sarkari (government) agent when he refused to burn paddy and wheat residue.
Virk owns 40 acres and he grows paddy in 20 acres. He grows citrus fruits in the rest of the area.
The Faridkot district administration honoured him this Republic Day for not burning stubble since 2003.
“Initially, it was difficult due to the unavailability of machinery. I ploughed the residue into the field before irrigating it and let the straw decompose in the soil. In 2007, I tied up with six factories that had baler machines. They took the straw from 10 acres, while I used the residue from the rest of the 10 acres in the citrus garden,” he says.
“In 2013, the companies offering the baler service started charging
₹2,000 an acre to fetch the straw. I decided to move on and prepare the field with two rounds of the rotavator per acre. Later, wheat was sown mixing diammonium phosphate and urea through the Happy Seeder machine,” he says.
The diammonium phosphate and urea help in decomposing the paddy residue. “The best output is achieved by not burning paddy stubble. Compost enhances soil fertility,” he says.
He advises farmers with small landholdings to sow the crop with the Happy Seeder and prepare the field for the next crop with the rotavator. “This process may be costlier initially but it will reduce the consumption of fertilisers by half in three years,” he adds
He says farmer unions often mislead rather than guide farmers on the right way to manage the stubble without burning it.