Visit to Punjab Agricultural University (PAU)

Visit to PAU Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana by Lamba
(March 6, 2023)
 
I would like to thank Dr. Milkha Singh Aulakh (and Lal Singhji who put me in touch with him) for organizing my tour of parts of PAU and taking me around. Now retired, Dr. Aulakh was the Dean of the College of Agriculture at PAU and later Vice Chancellor of the Agricultural University at Banda, U.P. We visited department of organic and integrated farming, and department horticulture and then went for a meeting with the Vice Chancellor Dr. Gosal.

VISIT TO SCHOOL OF ORGANIC & INTEGRATED FARMING
At 2:00 pm we went to the School of Organic and Integrated Farming and met with Dr. Sohan Singh Walia, head of the school.

Description of 2.5 Acre Integrated Farm while sitting in the office of Dr. Walia

The whole farm that has been used for demonstration and research has following details:
They use every inch of land!
Farm size – 2.5 acres
Crops – 1.5 acres
Horticulture – 0.5 acres
Fish Farm – 0.25 acres
Other – 0.25 acres (poultry under development)

Overall: Input cost is Rs. 3.5 lakhs. Earning have been Rs. 4.5 lakhs (average of 5 years)
Last year, the earning were Rs. 6.04 lakhs

The Dairy Shed was 200 sq, m. (square meters) or about 650 sq. ft (square feet) with small area of vermi compost. Two cows and one buffalo (initla cost Rs. 2 lakhs)

Agro-forestry (poplar trees) occupied 300 sq.m. – that were along with crops.
-       After 6 years the poplar trees sell for Rs. 75,000 
-       Labor needed is about 283 mandays per year
Horticulture – Krownda and lemon trees were on the periphery (border)
Krwonda – bristles are sharp  that keeps the animals out and it has good iron content.
They grow Guava around Fish Farm
Guava and Lemon occupy about 0.5 acres and they grow crops in between.
Sale of fruit of Rs. 30,000 per year (with an initial cost of Rs. 2.25 – 4 lakhs)

Poultry: Will introduce a few years later
Plan is for 10 ft x 10 ft shed for 200 birds. Will first start with 100 birds
Cost per bird chick (45 days old) is Rs. 150 – Desi breed
Desi eggs are more nutritious and fetch a better price.
They grow Guava around Fish Farm
Guava and Lemon occupy about 0.5 acres and they grow crops in between.
Krownda and galgal makes good achar

Fish Farm
Fish Farm earns about Rs. 30,000 per year
They recycle all the wastes. The wash from the dairy shed goes to the fish farm – no extra feed for fishes
They have three varieties of fish – Rahu, Catla and Mrigal. They get fingerlings from the hatchery and each fish grows to be about 0.5-1.5 Kg (kilograms).
Twice a week with the net they get about 60 Kg of fish
December the tank is emptied of fish, and they stock up in January.
After 3 years they dredge up the soil in the fish farm and use it as ferilizer

Crops
Crops assume 5-7 family members as labor
500 Sq. m. (1 kanal)– oil seeds and pulses
1,000 sq. m – Burseem
Maize followed by wheat
800 sq. m. – Rice by flooding and transplanting technique – can do DSR
Traditional farming method – rice
Moong grows well after oilseeds, but not wheat

ENERGY
Solar Panels on roof with batteries, used for tube well – excess electricity sold to grid
Bio-Gas Plant – Need only two buckets of cow dung and that produces methane cooking gas that is enough for a family of 6-7 members. Plant uses a submersible pump to get the slurry out after all decomposed (excellent fertilizer). Earning equivalent about Rs. 20,000 per year. Can be used for heating animal sheds during winter.

Bio-wastes
Rice residue is used as bedding material for cows and goats
1 Kg absorbs 2.5 liters of urine. This is combined with cow dung to make compost also.
Neem based biological pesticides and herbicides made – commercially available as Ecotin

AT FARM
Dairy: HF breed gives 15 liters of milk a day. HF plus Sahiwal Plus Jaspreet breed gives 32-33 liters per day – can be milked three times a day
Goat Shed – There was whole section with goats that very robust. There was also a goat shed to protect them in winter.

Then we drove over to the school of fruit sciences – horticulture (4:00 pm)

VISIT TO SCHOOL OF FRUIT SCIENCES (HORTICULTURE)

Dr. Aulakh than took us for a visit with Dr. Harminder Singh (director) and Dr. Gurtek Singh. Punjab. Dr. Harminder Singh communicated the following: Punjab has potential for 97,000 Hectares of fruit with the following percentages.
Kinnu – 55%
Guava – 10%
Mango 7%
Pear – 4-5%
Lychee – 4-5%
Peach and Plum – 4-5%
Bair – 4-5%
Others – the rest

What is favored for the various areas and districts are:
Lychee – Pathankot and Gurdaspur
Mango – Hoshiarpur
Pear – Amritsar
Citrus – Faridkot

New Fruits
1.     Dragon fruit: bears fruit in 3 years and has a 40 year life. Initial expense is high Rs. 5 lakhs per acre as it needs concrete pillars (will post photo and video of this).
2.     Jamun – bears fruit in 6-7 years
3.     Papaya – in one year
4.     Krownda and Galgal

For Faridkot he recommended Kinnu, Guava, peaches and plums. Average costs about Rs. 100 per plant. One acre can have 100 plants at 20 foot spacing. Initial costs per acre are:
Kinnu – Rs 2-3 lakhs
Peaches and Plums – Rs 1.5 lakhs
Guava – Rs. 1-1.5 lakhs

(Note: They provide fruit plants at a subsidized rate to farmers along with training)
 
In all of the spaces in between plants there can be inter cropping with vegetables, wheat, etc. as per department of organic and integrated farming.

For all fruits, they provide POP (Package of Practices) consisting of:
Manuring, Pest Control, Disease Control, Training and Pruning and Irrigation (with drip irrigation).
(Note: Balwinder had earlier sent information and videos of fruit fly traps and brushing of copper sulfate solution on trunks of young fruit trees to protect against fungus – organic methods of pest and fungus control)

Note: Both schools or departments provide free training for farmers on campus, providing these are scheduled in advance. They charge Rs 300 per farmer for training that is conducted at the location of farmers in their district. Such trainingsmakes the farmers eligible for subsidies of various kinds. We need to utilize these services.

MEETING AT OFFICE OF VICE CHANCELLOR – DR. SATBIR SINGH GOSAL

We sat in his office along with most of the members of the Agricultural Policy Committee. He stated that PAU can do much but that scientists have limits. He talked about the first ever Sarkar/farmer meeting on their campus that was attended by thousands of farmers and their input was sought. About 15 farmers met with DC, SDM and BDO and discussed problems and issues including Patwari created problems. He said that government needed to take timely action like the release of water on April 2 for cotton. He called for help in marketing by government. Also, for crop diversification, about 20 plus crops needed MSP, marketing and storage support – this included rice, wheat, pulses, cereals, vegetables, sugar cane, etc.

COTTON: In the four districts growing cotton they had recommended that the Krishi Vigyan Kendras organize the farmers in 200-300 farmers per group. PAU and the government officials needed to help the farmers with plant diseases, water not released on time and tube well problems.

For Organic and Integrated Farming here needed to be outreach to the farmers to help them implement what has been learned in the 2.5 acre demonstration and research plot at PAU. He mentioned that GOATS were hardy and if managed properly could give 4 Kg of milk per goat.

He urged Pagri’s help organize a meeting of Punjab’s farmers with NRI farmers in USA and Canada for an interface meeting so they could learn from each other and also establish a role for NRI farmers to help with farming practices and food processing.
NOTE: Lal Singh has given this activity a high priority – we will try and help PAU with this
 
NOTE: He clearly stated that since PAGRI was foreign based organization, they could not sign an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) and because PAU was not registered as per FCRA (Foreign Contributions Regulation Act), they could NOT channel PAGRI funds for our projects in Punjab.
 
Their staff photographer took photos, and they published our meeting in their PAU newsletter, which Gurbinder Bajwa picked up and shared on Pagri WhatsApp.

I thank Dr. Aulakh for the visit, the stay with him at night and for arranging my taxi to Faridkot in the morning. His standing with PAU helped so that everyone was very responsive.

Harinder Lamba, Secretary, Pagri