Malwa trio cashes in on strawberries
Three progressive farmers from Muktsar district decided to veer off the path of conventional crops to try something exotic in their fields. They tried their hands at strawberry and succeeded in a farming belt known more for cotton and wheat crop rotation.
Hailing from Kauni village in Giddarbaha sub-division, Jaskaran (40), Ravinder (32) and Sunny (31) have become the first farmers in Malwa region of Punjab to cultivate strawberry. They claim that even agriculture scientists from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, are approaching them to explore the idea of strawberry cultivation in other parts of the state.
The three say they were exploring other options in farming when they met Surinder Singh, a farmer from Hisar in Haryana, who exhorted them to grow strawberries. Following his advice, the trio sowed the first crop in September and the fruit is ready for picking now. News about their effort has spread in surrounding areas and drawn many others to follow their footsteps.
The three, all of whom are undergraduates, own 25 acres of land each in Kauni. However, they started their experiment by growing strawberry in Jaskaran's one-acre plot and spent nearly Rs 5 lakh for that.
"More than a year ago, we had come to know that a farmer in Gurdaspur was into strawberry farming, but we failed to get much information about the best way to grow the fruit. Then we came across Surinder, who provided us strawberry seeds. We spent Rs 2 lakh in purchasing the seeds, and installed a sprinkler and drip irrigation system in the field to sow it. About 24,000 small plants of strawberry seeds were sown in one acre in the middle of September, when the temperature was hovering at nearly 30-degree Celsius. "For strawberry cultivation, the temperature was maintained at nearly 25°C. For the first 20 days, we irrigated it using the sprinkler and after that we opted for drip irrigation," said Jaskaran about the initial effort to grow the berry .
Ravinder said the fruit was ready and they expected it to yield around 70 quintals. "We are marketing our produce to fruit dealers of Bathinda and Muktsar at nearly Rs 150 per kg, and expect to sell the total yield for over Rs 10 lakh - twice our input cost," he said.
Even Mukstar horticulture development officer (HDO) Sukhdev Singh was all praise for the effort of three young farmers. "We hope more farmers can take to strawberry cultivation and earn handsomely inspired from their success story," he said.
===============================================================================
