RAJKOT: There’s a new kind of green revolution sweeping western India. We’re not talking contract farming. Some farmers in the wild, wild west have gone hi-tech. Can’t believe? Pack up and drive down the Bhuj-Ratual highway in Kutch.
Tucked away in a farm along the highway is the dates farm of Rahul Gala, a 28-year-old new-age farmer. Back from Australia, where he completed his graduation in horticulture from Queensland University, Gala grows dates with the help of computers.
How? He feeds data on his personal computer and the rest-right from sprinkling of fertilisers to watering of crops-would be taken care of by the system. A few kilometres away, 25-year-old Vimal Nisar has been growing mangoes by using modern horticulture methods. Nearby, another young farmer, Prakash Savla (28), is grows aloe vera using scientific methods.
The three represents a growing breed of confident youngsters who are not only willing to take up farming as a career, but are changing the rules of the game. No wonder, many traditional farmers are falling for modern farming technologies.
Gala plans to export dates to Europe and Saudi Arabian countries. He feeds data for a week and the installed system works according to the command. "Here electricity is a major problem, otherwise I could feed data for few months. It’s faster and highly mechanised farming for today’s agriculture," says Gala.
This six-month old installed technology gives him sufficient time and scope to study other crops. Here, he’s grown ‘barhi’ (a fresh variety of dates) over 12 acres of land and sown 600 date plants. Each plant is ex-pected to produce 50 to 70 kg of dates. He plans to grow grapes, pome-granate and fig (anjir).
source: Economic Times
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