Agricultural scientists dwelt on advanced organic farming techniques during a workshop organised by Earthworm foundation at a city hotel on Wednesday.
The foundation members said spreading awareness regarding chemical-free farming and curbing use of pesticides in the coming cotton crop season in the state would be their main target.
“With excessive and constant use of pesticides in farming, the soil health has deteriorated and if continued for longer duration, then the volume of crop production would not only fall, but also result in decreased agricultural area, said, Naresh Chaudhary, country head of Earthworm India.
Talking to Bathinda Tribune, Chaudhary said, “Due to the excessive use of pesticides and chemicals in farming, essential organisms die which otherwise help maintain the fertility of the soil and retain the required water in the ground. It is high time that we start adopting organic farming. Our organization has already taken steps in this direction and we have convinced farmers and managed to do farming with organic methods in approximately 500 acres of land in Punjab and Haryana. We have undertaken initiatives under our flagship programme ‘Mitti Bole’. We work to improve soil health, enhance biodiversity, seed bank creation, market linkages and animal husbandry.”
The agricultural scientists conceded that not only soil health has degraded over the years but also bio-diversity of the region is affected adversely with migratory birds vanishing from the region. The overdoes of pesticides and chemicals have resulted into degraded soil, contaminated ground water and have made Punjab a home to the highest rate of cancer in India.
The organization members said that they have been conducting water and soil testing in regular intervals to work on shortcomings and improve soil health.
“Since cotton alone accounts for approximately 60 percent of total pesticide used for farming, our main emphasis would be to spread awareness and convince farmers to curb the use of pesticides for cotton farming in the coming season. Initially, farmers can start-off with smaller tracts of land and then if it is profitable then replicate the same in entire area later. Improving soil health with organic farming is the need of the hour.
Surendrapal Singh, organic farmer, Jarnail Singh, conventional farmer, Dr Grewal, soil scientist, Haryana Agricultural University, Gaurav Kaushik, Earthworm India program manager, were also present.
Source: The Tribune, India Thursday, 14 February 2019