But laying the foundation for this model required serious trolling through the fields for the right set of farmers. “We wanted young, innovative farmers who were not involved in local politics and had some experience in horticulture,” says Dev Dutt Singh, director, fruit and vegetables, GMED, which is headquartered in Jaipur.

Once the farmers were on board, it was time for expert guidance. GMED flew in Benzoin Havkin from the US, an irrigation and vegetable expert, to Malerkotla for six months in February last year, and flew out three farmers—one from each cluster—for a 17-day training at California.

Rajeev Sharma, an ITC extension officer at Malerkotla, says Havkin tested the soil and prepared a fertiliser as well as an irrigation schedule for the farmers. “He found that they used too much urea and completely omitted potash. So he made sure that they started using potash as well.”

He also introduced the farmers to drip irrigation system. Chamkaur Singh of Soian village, who got the system installed on 1.5 bighas of land, is all praise. “It not only reduces water and fertiliser inputs, but also keeps weeds at bay and increases the output.”

While drip irrigation is yet to catch on due to the prohibitive cost—Dev Dutt Singh rues that the Central government gives 50 per cent subsidy to fruit-growers, but none to horticulturists—planting of seedlings in trays has become the norm in this belt.

The villagers, says Narinder Singh, an ITC extension officer, have also gotten used to grading their vegetables and the refrigerated truck that visits the four collection centres at Jamalpura, Delelgarh, Narike and Soina every day to collect their produce and take it to Chandigarh.

... contd.