Israeli tech transforming lives of farmers

Ashis Sinha/Bokaro: Meet, Khush Mohammad and Manohar Mahato, farmers of Chandha village under Chas block of Bokaro district who have created a benchmark in the field of agriculture. Both of them not only changed their lives but transforming the lives of other farmers too.

Farming has never been so exciting and rewarding for them in the last 35 years. Thanks to Israeli farming technique, Khush, Manohar and hundreds like them have spotted a financially viable vegetable farming opportunity.

By adopting Israeli farming techniques both of them are producing vegetables in huge quantity in their fields and earning a good deal of money. Not only they are earning only for their own but also have given employment to dozens of villagers in their work.

Under the state government initiative, both Khush and Manohar went to Israel on a four-day trip in the month of September last year to learn modern farming methods and started farming in Chas.

“Unlike in the past, now we can have better quality and increased yield of vegetables. Today, we are producing large quantities of vegetables using better technology and earning in lakhs,” said Khush Mohammad.

“We have also given employment to dozens of villagers in our works,” he added.

“During our trip to Israel, we have learnt how to get maximum produce by using water efficiently.

We had also learnt how to use traditional farming methods in a scientific way to increase our production,” said Manohar.

“Earlier we have used to cultivate a little bit, but the government helps and our Israel visits changed our vision. Now our interest increased in agriculture and gradually our productions are also increasing,” they said.

“In Israel we have also learnt the use of a variety of tools that helps in producing a better crop on less land. We learnt various techniques of farming, fishery, fruit production, other farming techniques along with animal husbandry, Cow and Goat rearing there,” said Manohar.

“Now we have planted lady finger, gourd and maize on 4 acres of our farmland and now producing maize 50 kg daily. While about two quintals of ladyfinger and gourd were producing weekly,” which increased our income significantly today, Khush said.

Recalling their experiences at Israel Khush said, a team of 26 farmers was sent to Israel by the state government on in last September to learn modern techniques of farming with limited resources.

“The most remarkable thing is that people in Israel have been getting bumper produce by purchasing water from the government, whereas we in India still lag far behind despite having plenty of water available free of cost. They are making optimum use of water by giving respect to each and every drop of it,” he added.

Whether it is paddy farming, fish farming or dairy farming, every activity is done jointly in a scientific way, utilizing minimum resources after forming a cooperative of at least 100-200 farmers, said Manohar.

“Despite adopting modern scientific ways of farming, they are still practising traditional ways of farming, making minimum use of chemical fertilizers and getting bumper crops. I learnt that technique and implemented here and got better produce,” he said.

“One more thing we have observed there that, they do everything in a planned way to earn maximum foreign currency, in spite of getting the entire produce sold out in their own country,” they added.