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Change farm practices, Prince tells Punjab

Sarabjit Pandher

`Farmers capable of meeting challenges'

PATIALA: Prince Charles of Britain began his two-day visit to Punjab on Monday with a bit of advice: if the State wanted to retain its claim to being the food basket of India, the farmers here must change their field practices to make agriculture more sustainable and remunerative.

Addressing a gathering here at the Yadvendra Public School (YPS) stadium after launching the Bhumi Vardaan Foundation at the Food Park Complex in Sirhind town, along G.T. Road in Fatehgarh Sahib district, Prince Charles said he was confident that Punjabi farmers with their world renowned entrepreneurial and innovative spirit were capable of meeting these challenges.

The Prince expressed his concern that numerous farmers during his visit to Shamsher Nagar and Bhatt Majra villages in Fatehgarh district were worried at the steep decline in the water table and low crop yields. "Over and above the frightening implications for the environment, there is a dreadful human cost as well. I have been appalled by what I have heard about the terrifying numbers of farmers who, having become so ensnared in a vicious spiral of debt and declining incomes, have been driven to take their own lives. So if we do not heed these warnings, I fear we all face a bleak and barren future,'' he added.

Prince Charles said it would be tragic if the wonderful countryside he had seen on Monday could no longer support the families who had lived there for generations and would be a disaster if this "great State'' could not continue to feed the people of India.

The Prince hoped that the Bhumi Vardaan Foundation would go a long way to give a new direction to the agriculture to protect environment and generate decent returns for the farming community. "My own experiences in the United Kingdom, both as a farmer myself and through my food company, Duchy Originals, have convinced me that natural farming is a genuine alternative, with real commercial opportunities for farmers,'' he said.

Earlier, the Prince visited the Punjab Agri Food Parks Limited (PAFPL) and the Punjab Agri Ventures Limited (PAVL), which are two special purpose vehicles created under the public private partnership by the UK-based NRI promoter Idma Group and the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation.

At Bhatt Majra village, the Prince exhibited keen interest in the Khadi operations, especially watching Ranjit Singh use his family's three quarters of a century-old handloom to weave a "khes'' (cotton blanket) and watched Chhinder Kaur and Joginder Kaur use their "charkha" to spin the yarn required.

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