Sukha Singh Wala (Bathinda), June 30Inspired by the worldwide famous slogan given by the legendary prime minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”, an ex-serviceman of this village, Nirbhai Singh Khalsa is now not only known for introducing hybrid variety of vegetables but has also emerged as a role model for a number of progressive farmers of the region.
The 43-year-old Nirbhai is now running a 30 kanal nursery of hybrid varieties of chilly, onion, cauliflower, brinjal, tomato, capsicum and others. The nursery was spread over just one kanal when it was set up in 1993, when he was serving the Indian Army in Maharashtra.
Having a passion for agriculture, he started bringing seedlings of hybrid variety of onions and chillies from Maharashtra, which were reportedly not much popular then in Punjab.
After serving the country as an Armyman, one day he made up his mind to make efforts to promote diversification of agriculture in Punjab.
Sharing the turning point of his life with TNS, Nirbhai Singh Khalsa said, “Being a son of the soil, I was getting worried after coming to know that people in Punjab were suffering losses as they were confined to regular crops like wheat, paddy and cotton only. Observing the success rate of diversification in other states, I wanted to replicate it in Punjab also.”
“Meanwhile, focusing upon the slogan of Jai Jawan Jai Kisan, I realized that the importance of service in the agriculture sector was equivalent to that in the defence services. The same day, I made up my mind to go for farming and applied for pre-mature retirement, which was sanctioned in 2003,” disclosed Nirbhai Singh Khalsa.
Immediately after returning to his village Sukha Singh Wala, the last village of Bathinda district located on Mansa road, Nirbhai started making efforts to nourish his small nursery. Taking the first step, he joined a three-month training course conducted by the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana, where he learnt new ways to protect environment and earn a good income by switching to diversification in agriculture.
“I was not in haste to earn profit but the agenda was to take a step towards giving new variety of vegetables to the region. Naming the nursery as Khalsa nursery, initially I thrived upon the seedling of hybrid onion and chilly, which became popular within a short span of time,” he said.
“Then, I started farming of hybrid onions, which had longer shelf life. Liking the variety, now people from far off places including those from Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana visit here to purchase seedlings as well the ‘special’ onion crop,” he added..
Though, 30 kanal is not a big chunk of land, Khalsa claims to earn profit almost equivalent to more than 10 acres of regular crops in the state.
The success rate and a number of awards he received for the hard work, not only made him expand the nursery but also proved a motivation for large number of youth, who under his guidance, adopted diversification of crops and set up their own nurseries.
Besides giving credit to his family members for helping him at every step, Nirbhai Singh Khalsa is now providing employment to 10 youth of his village at his nursery.
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