Started business by cultivation of turmeric, success story of farmer Dhunda Singh who settled in India from Pakistan

The soil in many parts of the country is not very fertile. In such a situation, growing only cereals in the traditional way will neither increase productivity nor profit. Dhunda Singh, a farmer from Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, started cultivation of turmeric on the advice of scientists and today he is counted among the successful farmers due to his business.

Dhunda Singh is also one of the people displaced during the Indo-Pak war of 1971. Dhunda Singh is originally from Pakistan, who migrated from Pakistan to India in 1971. He settled in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir. In Sultanpur village here, the state government allotted him 4 acres of land to earn a livelihood. On this he started cultivating many cereal crops. The production that was produced made it difficult to run the household expenses. Then on the advice of the Agriculture Department, Dhunda Singh started the cultivation of turmeric in a scientific way. This changed his life completely and he managed to become a successful farmer.

It was difficult to survive with cultivation of cereals 

Dhunda Singh used to grow maize, bajra, mash and green fodder in Kharif season on 4 acres of land acquired by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, while cultivating wheat and mustard in Rabi season. Since the land was not irrigated and fertile, Dhunda Singh earned very little from agriculture. It was difficult to make arrangements for daily food requirements. After some time, canals and borewells were built by the government for irrigation, after which Dhunda Singh started cultivating paddy and some vegetables, due to which there was a slight increase in income. 

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Turmeric cultivation changed 

In 2012, the Agriculture Department advised Dhunda Singh to cultivate turmeric. Seeds were provided to him. Along with this, a subsidy of Rs 3.80 was also provided under the centrally sponsored scheme Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) for setting up grinding and processing units on a small scale.

Dhunda Singh earned good income from turmeric cultivation and processing, which improved his socio-economic status. After this he started cultivating and processing turmeric under his label ‘BDS Brand’.

Then in 2019, Dhunda Singh attended a 15-day training program at the Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) Kozhikode, Kerala. Here he was advised by experts to adopt better packaging and integrated pest management strategy in turmeric cultivation. Some of the techniques suggested by the ICAR-IISR Institute are:

• Healthy rhizome should be used for sowing, otherwise the crop may be destroyed due to disease. 
• Rhizomes are kept with mancozeb (0.3%) or carbendazim (0.3%) for 30 minutes before storage and planting. This can prevent damage caused by diseases and pests.
• Sandy loam soil is suitable for turmeric cultivation, which has proper drainage system. So take special care of drainage.
• It is good to use mulching to retain soil moisture and reduce weeds.
• To protect the plants from diseases, Trichoderma harzianum should be mixed with Neem cake.
• To get more crop of turmeric, a balanced amount of organic and chemical fertilizers should be used.

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By using the above techniques of IISR, Dhunda Singh got amazing increase in turmeric crop and his profit also increased. Now Dhunda Singh himself is advising other farmers to adopt these techniques along with adopting it. By adopting the advanced techniques of IISR, farmers of Kathua and Sambha districts are earning good profit from farming. 

Contact us: If farmers want to share information or experiences related to farming with us, then they can do this by calling us on the phone number 9599273766 or by writing an email to kisanofindia.mail@gmail.com or by sending your recording. Through Kisan of India, we will convey your message to the people, because we believe that if the farmers are advanced then the country is happy.