National Award Winner Successful Farmer, Gurmeet Singh Creates Decomposer to Stop Stubble Burning

Punjab's land remains green with the sweat of hardworking farmers. Farmers here consider agriculture as their religion. Due to their hard work and dedication, the farmers of Punjab have made a special place for themselves in the whole world.

One such young and enterprising farmer is Gurmeet Singh, a resident of Village-Kattianwali, Block-Malot, District-Sri Muktsar Sahib. Mother Shimati Amrik Kaur and father S. Mahendra Singh's talented son Gurmeet Singh is farming successfully on his total 16 acres of land. After completing his studies, he opted for a profession in the Ministry of Railways of India as Train Ticket Examiner (TTE).

Despite working in the public sector, he has carved a niche for himself due to his farming experience. Gurmeet Singh follows a crop rotation of wheat, moong, and basmati throughout the year. The main reason for adopting this crop rotation is to absorb the wheat grain, basmati paddy straw, and mung bean roots into the soil to increase the carbon content in the soil.

According to Gurmeet Singh, the higher the organic matter in the soil, the higher the fertility of the soil. Apart from this, Gurmeet Singh has also planted some fruit trees on his farm like Kinnu, Guava, Musammi, etc, which fulfills the need for fruits at home.

Apart from this, it also keeps some animals for domestic use like 2 Sahiwal cows and 2 buffaloes whose milk is used for domestic use. Gurmeet Singh also sows fodder for these animals in his fields like Berseem, Maize, Saron, Napier Bajra etc. Gurmeet Singh's 4 acres of land were completely barren and full of colour, but Gurmeet Singh did not lose heart. A composter that digests field stubble and increases carbon content in the soil, gradually reducing soil fertility.

In the beginning, Gurmeet Singh brought straw from the fields of other farmers in that barren field. He mixed his field using a composter and succeeded in making that field fertile. Decomposer is a fungus that produces bacteria and increases soil fertility. It took Gurmeet Singh about five years for all this work.

After this, Gurmeet Singh now sows paddy, basmati, wheat, and moong in his fields and uses the residues of these crops in his fields. For this venture of Gurmeet Singh, the Department of Agriculture of the Government of India, and ICAR supported him. He was also honoured with the progressive farmer award in the year 2020. After, the support he received, he introduced this Decomposer to other farmers in the area. He made the composter himself and distributed it free and inspired other farmers not to burn stubble.

Other farmers also fully support Gurmeet Singh in this work. If we talk about crop irrigation, Gurmeet Singh mostly uses canal water, but apart from this, the fields are irrigated through tube wells if needed. Gurmeet Singh uses fertilizers every year after getting the soil of his fields tested and according to the soil health card. The soil of Gurmeet Singh's fields is also tested by Pusa University and proper advice is given regarding the uses of fields. Gurmeet Singh was honoured in 2022 for connecting with other farmers in the area.

Gurmeet Singh Farm Advisory Service Center, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ludhiana, University of Pusa, and Institute for Saline Water New Delhi are also fully affiliated. Gurmeet Singh's family, including wife Poonam Deep Kaur, son Gurmukh Singh, and daughter Guntas Kaur, also provide full support in all these farming activities.

In the future, Gurmeet Singh wants that there should be no stubble burning in the entire state. Crop residues should be mixed in the soil. Gurmeet Singh's main goal is to connect more and more farmers with him for this work. He also takes special measures to protect the environment, such as the use of organic fertilizers and medicines.

Even for the direct sowing of paddy, his efforts have been completely successful. He also does marketing of his agricultural products in a good manner; he sells wheat and paddy in the government market of his own village and sells peanuts in the markets of Abohar and Kotakpura.

Gurmeet Singh always motivates other farmers to reduce farming expenses. Gurmeet Singh has made his farm a field of experience in which he continues to impart information related to agriculture to other farmers. Gurmeet Singh's farming operations continued to run smoothly even in the bad times of lockdown and Corona and there was no major difficulty in marketing the goods. We wish Gurmeet Singh all the best for his successful farming and hope that he will make more progress and make his state shine all over the world.

By Dinesh Damathia