Govt. pushes for High Josh among Farmers with 10 Padma Shree Awards in 2019

The ten farmers that were awarded the Padma Shree

Continuing with its ‘common touch’ when it comes to civilian awards, the latest round of Padma Shri winners have a fair mix of people from all walks of life, with an extra stress on people doing work on the ground. 10 are farmers, giving the community a well deserved recognition for their efforts. The farmers are:

1. Kanwal Singh Chauhan, Haryana: He  lives in Sonepat,  Haryana. After LLB, he preferred agriculture instead of advocacy. Every year thousands of foreign farmers also come to learn from Kanwal Singh, who is famous for the cultivation of baby corn and mushroom.
2. Babulal Dahiya, Madhya Pradesh: Babulal Dahiya, a farmer of Pithaurabad village in Satna, is 75 years old but is famous in his community as a poet and a farmer. After retiring as a postmaster, Babulal started cultivating organic farming in his own 8 acres of farmland. He has a treasure house of 110 varieties of indigenous paddy. These varieties give good yield even in low water areas.
3. Hukumchand Patidar, Rajasthan: Patidar is the founder of Swami Vivekananda Agricultural Research Farm and is into organic farming at his 40 acres farmland in Jhalawar. His products are exported to 7 countries in the world. Aamir Khan has talked about him in his show called Satyamev Jayate. Hukumchand cultivates wheat, barley, gram, fenugreek, coriander, and is a well-known figure in Rajasthan today.
4. Rajkumari Devi, Bihar: People from Muzaffarpur, call Rajkumar Devi , as Kisan Chachi. She is popular for her expertise in assessing the soil quality to ensure successful harvest and travels from Village to village via her bicycles. She educates women as well Organic farmers, and helps sell their products like marmalade, gooseberry pickle.
5. Bharat Bhushan Tyagi, Uttar Pradesh: Bharat Bhushan made his marking by increasing his income 4 times. A common farmer of the country earns only 50 thousand to one lakh rupees a year from one acre of land. Bharat Bhushan Tyagi who has also been honored with the Mother Earth Award for teaching organic farming and mixed farming to others.
6. Ramsaran Verma, Uttar Pradesh: A progressive farmer from the village Daulatpur, Ramsaran Verma cultivates banana, tomatoes, potatoes and menthol through crop rotation. He uses his 10 acres of land but also help cultivate about 110 acres of land on lease. More than 50 thousand farmers have been trained in crop rotation and hybrid vegetable farming. Farmers from abroad also come to learn. In the districts surrounding Barabanki, Ramsaran is known for his famous banana cultivation.
7. Jagdish Prasad Parik, Rajasthan: Jagdish Prasad, is famous for his unsurpassed experiments in organic farming, which gave him an extraordinary 15 kg Cauliflower. The feat was tested by IIM who certified that the cauliflower was grown without fertilizers. His name is also recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.
8. Vallabhbhai Vasarabhai, Gujarat: When 96 years old Vallabhbhai Vasarabhai Marwania got involved with agriculture he was only 13 years old. And was the first one to introduce carrots in Gujarat.
9. Kamla Pujari, Odisha: Kamla Pujari, a tribal woman farmer of Koratpur district, who was appointed a member of the Planning Board last week by the Odisha government. Kamala has been working for years to protect the species of extinct species of paddy in the state.
10. Venkateswara Rao Yadavalapalli, Andhra Pradesh: Venkateswara Yadavappalli is a cultivator who designed an app for organic farming. The app educates and informs farmers about the right use of natural fertilizers and pesticides.

These awards are a continuation of the recognition this government has been according to people in common walks of life, rather than the ivory tower experts and ‘privileged’ achievers that was becoming the trend. More importantly, it doesn’t take any major effort to realise that the awards are clean and fair, and not the result of lobbying. So credit to the Modi government for it.

With inputs from gaonconnection