JAMMU, JULY 25: Passion to achieve big by availing the Government schemes has scripted the success story of orchardist Sham Singh of village Badoi, Samba district.
Once a marginal farmer, at present, Sham Singh’s net income per hectare is 6.5 lakh against Rs. 1 lakh cost production per hectare with 10 M T per hectare productivity.
Sham Singh has been cultivating Strawberries, Mangos, Litchis, summer apples (grown in sub tropic region), along with his traditional agricultural practices for cereals. His journey from a marginalized conventional farmer to a self-sustaining orchardist has made Singh a role model for other farmers of the area.
The Success story of Sham Singh life has two aspects one change in behavior and other change in economical status. In the early days of farming, Sham Singh used to cultivate only cereals with traditional agricultural practices and the rate of returns were very negligible. With the meager returns, it was very difficult for him to make the two ends meet.
His passion for success led Sham Singh to know about the government schemes meant for benefits of farmers especially in Horticulture sector. He would attend camps, seminars, awareness programmes and new about the rainbow schemes. He then approached the department of horticulture, Samba to explore his intuitions regarding upgrading his farming techniques besides switching over to cash crops.
Sham Singh took benefits of Central sponsored and state sponsored schemes including technological mission 2004-05, MIDH (Mission integrated Development of Horticulture), RKVY (Rashtra Krishi Vikas Yojana) 2018-19. He also got technical assistance from the department besides taking benefit of subsidized modern farm tools and equipments.
Sham Singh has been also facilitated with good agriculture practices, Shallow bore well water supply, quality plant material, fencing material, on farm handling unit (pack house) and like.
At present Sham Singh is recipient of National award, Krishi Rattan conferred on him on Feb 13, 2016. He is also a proud a recipient of trophies and mementos from the erstwhile J&K state government
