National-level Sopan symposium on farming

                                       K R Suhaman/ Dehradun

The India Foundation for Rural Development Studies (Infords), which brings out Sopan Step monthly magazine, had inter-active session with experts to highlight the possibilities that existed to take advantage of the unique ecosystem particularly in hilly state of Uttarakhand to make farming profitable

Sopan Step a non-government organisation working to improve the lot of rural population organised a national symposium in Dehradun to create awareness among farmers in the surrounding areas the various options available to make farming profitable.

Farming is a risky venture in India as most part of the country dependent on the vagaries of weather. Sometimes standing crop about to be harvested gets destroyed by floods, tornado, cloud burst and the like in on time putting farmers into great difficulty making all his labour, resources go waste. At time poor monsoon results in drought like condition causing another kind of calamity. Sometimes pests attack making farming a losing proposition.

The India Foundation for Rural Development Studies (Infords), which brings out Sopan Step monthly magazine, had inter-active session with experts to highlight the possibilities that existed to take advantage of the unique ecosystem particularly in hilly state of Uttarakhand to make farming profitable. The symposium, the first of its kind to have direct inter-action with farmers, was inaugurated by the state Chief Minister Harish Rawat.

Experts who participated in the symposium highlighted the options available for farmers to earn more money taking advantage of the climate and terrain at the foothills of Himalayas. Presently farmers go in for traditional cultivation of rice and sugarcane, which do not make farming that profitable because of the risks involved in the region. To mitigate the risks, the best solution, the experts said, were to go for aromatic and medicinal plants cultivation in between tradition a crop cultivation by adopting inter-cropping. This will ensure additional income as some of thees plant are weather resistant and do not interfere with main crop. Also these plants fetch more income as they are in great demand and required special ecosystem, which is prevalent in the region. There is also scope using a portion of their farm land to cultivate fruits and vegetables, some of them exotic, as the area is ideally suited for horticulture. As these being cash crops earnings go up substantially making farming a losing venture now into a a profitable one. Dairy is another option that could be looked at along with farming. In this part including western Uttar Pradesh, selling milk by farmers is a taboo. This however needed to be overcome by forming cooperatives as in Gujarat, Southern states and elsewhere in the country to augment their income as pursuing only traditional farming do not provide income stability.

These are some small steps that could be taken but farmers by and large particularly in this part of the country are averse to deviating from tradition and this awareness  campaign served as an eye opener and the alternatives suggested brought about some changes in the thinking of farmers to look at options available to make their farming sustainable and profitable. One issue that cropped up was the Nilghai menace in the region, which destroy standing crops resulting in all their efforts going waste in one go. To overcome this problem chief minister promised to step up fencing of farm land and he announced Rs 100 crore in the state budget this year. This may not be adequate but a beginning has been made. The day long symposium too made a beginning to make some of the farmers rethink their strategy to make it 'Munafe ke kheti from the present Ghate ke Soudha.