हिंदी
Barnala, July 9 :-
Harbant Singh, a farmer from Thullewal village of Barnala district is making waves for cultivating dragon fruit by using drip irrigation technique, thereby saving upto 90 percent of water and earning handsome profit out of it.
62 years old Harbant Singh has graduated from cultivating the fruit in around one-fourth of acre area to 3 acres currently. He got motivated to cultivate dragon fruit while watching TV. As the fruit crop requires water lesser than conventional crops, it struck Harbant that cultivation of fruit will also save the precious underground water. In 2016, he visited Ahmedabad (Gujarat) where he bought about 70-80 buds of dragon fruit and conducted trial. In 2018, he started cultivating this crop on larger scale. Around 1300 cemented poles were erected in 3 acres land to give support to the dragon fruit plants, which are climbers.
For this purpose, 2 feet deep trenches were dug to accommodate a 7X12 feet cement pole vertically. Harbant spent around Rs. 4 lakhs per acre on poles, irrigation system, labor etc but the crop has given him high returns. He claims to have recovered the initial investment in first two years itself.
He said that in the first year about one to 2 kg of fruit can be obtained per pole while second year about 4 to 5 kg fruit per pole can be obtained. Harbant claims that he hasn’t faced any problem in marketing as the entire crop was sold on order from his farm and a kilo fetch up to Rs. 200 to 250 per kg. Last year he earned profit of Rs 3 lakhs per acre.
Harbant advocates farmers to take up dragon cultivation and use drip irrigation system for saving water. At that time he was not aware about subsidy on drip irrigation but now he has applied subsidy for another crop.
Harbant is an example for other farmers to emulate: Deputy Commissioner
Deputy Commissioner Dr. Harish Nayar lauded the efforts of farmer Harbant Singh of village Thullewal and appealed other farmers to adopt crop diversification and low water consuming crops. He said that at present the water level was declining rapidly for which such initiatives were essential.
Deputy Director call upon farmers to adopt new techniques
Deputy Director Horticulture Nirwant Singh lauded the farmer’s initiative. He called upon more farmers to come forward to adopt water saving crops. He said that the best time for transplanting crop is July-August, while plucking of Dragon Fruit takes place from September to December. Horticulture Development Officer Narpinder Kaur said that the first harvesting is done 45 days after flowering and the second and third is done 30 days later. He called upon the progressive farmers to take inspiration from Harbant Singh.
Up to 90 percent subsidy on drip irrigation
Soil Conservation Officer Barnala Mandeep Singh said that farmers can save up to 80% of water by adopting drip irrigation technology. He said that the department provides 90 percent subsidy to women and small/marginal scale farmers who own up to 5 acres land while the rest was given 80 percent subsidy on drip irrigation technique
