Mohammad Arsalan
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7th
February’17- After a-two-day international conference on “Media and Sustainable
Development: Key Issues and Challenges” organised by the department of Mass
Communication, Aligarh Muslim University on 5th and 6th
February, 2017, a delegation of faculties, students and 25 guests from
different countries visited Mukundpur village of Aligarh district where organic
farming is done.
The
village has an estimated population of 3000 and a thousand people owning lands.
Villagers make vermin compost naturally by collecting and nurturing fertilizers
from specialised earthworms and husks. Natural gas plants are also installed at
many spots used for cooking purpose-cow and buffalo dung is mostly used in
producing the same.
“There
is a larger space for organic farming but it is not apt in fulfilling the
requirement of the poor to feed. Hence, chemical farming is also done for more
production. In chemical farming external inputs like urea, DAC etc. are used”,
says Pratiyush Varshney, an ISI graduate who works in the village and
promulgates the idea of scientific farming. Further he adds that farmers are
not well acquainted with scientific farming and are averse to it. They rather
prefer traditional techniques, which apparently acts as debacle to the farming
output. On asking about the government’s incentives and subsidies on seeds,
fertilisers etc. provided to the farmers, Mr. Pratiyush blames corruption and
says, “The government plans and initiatives are good, but in reality complicit,
the big land owning farmers enjoy all the priorities, leaving others toiling”.
Majority of the farmers are landless and suffer the negation.
A major population of Mukundpur is illiterate and those who are educated, most of them have migrated to towns and big cities for earning their bread and butter. The literate families generally have kitchen gardens where they grow crops and vegetables for feeding the family and not for selling it out in the market. The rest of the population is involved in commercial farming.
Despite small huts and seemingly poor condition prevalent in the village, the house of the up-pradhan Sunil Singh looked wealthier than many. Mr. Sunil owned more than 40 buffaloes, cars and motor-bikes. He had a-two-story building along with a lawn in front of his house, where a prerogative salutation was provided to the delegates and the framing technicalities were demonstrated. Ostensibly, Mr. Sunil talked about the village farmers and claimed to have helped most of them in providing government subsidies but prima facie his efforts seemed apathetic.
Organic farming was fostered by the delegation. The purpose of the visit was to practically observe and gather ideas for sustainable development. As farmers by profession delegates from Yemen exchanged their ideas of farming with the locals. A generous reception was given to the team by the villagers and Chaach and Gud were served as beverages. The village was surrounded by wheat fields; the ambient was peaceful and tranquil.
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