A brief note on the functional educational activities at the Young Farmers Association Punjab, Rakhra.
Young Farmers Association Punjab was founded in the early 1960s by late Dr. Amrik Singh Cheema former Vice Chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University and the Agriculture Commissioner of the Govt. of India. The NGO was formed to exploit the creative ability of the young farmers to provide practical training to them and to make them adopt latest technologies and farm practices. The Association set up a Training Centre on land measuring 71 Bighas 11 Biswas which was given to it by the Gram Panchayat Rakhra as a gift. The training centre was named as ”Young Farmers Training Centre”. A building was constructed by the Association on this land which was barren and Banjar — later on reclaimed by the association.
The Young Farmers Training Centre Rakhra is run by the association. During the 1970s and 1980s, 30 courses on various subjects involving over a thousand trainees were conducted with the help of the Punjab Agricultural University and the Punjab Govt. Department of Agriculture. The FAO under its ‘Freedom form Hunger Campaign’ approved financial assistance of Rs. 3 lakh. Strengthened with this assistance the association gave practical training to 20 young farmers every month in addition to introducing and exposing them to agricultural machineries. The association after the mid -1970s, started organising Kisan Melas for educating farmers and equipping them with new technologies and latest farm resarch. The Melas were held twice a year, once before the sowing of Rabi and the other time before the sowing of Kharif crops. The association’s extension staff and volunteers told the farmers: “There is more in you than is in your land”. Thus a novel experiment in agricultural development through people’s participation was started through the association. The willingness to learn on the part of the active farmers gave birth to new concept of agriculture reconstruction which later transformed the countryside. To achieve the objective of increasing agricultural production and farm income a number of education courses for different sections of farmers were organized at Young Farmers Training Centre Rakhra during the 1970 and 2000. Thus hundreds of farmers were given orientation by holding training camps. This equipped them to take to new types of farming and different varieties of crops.
The Association at its training centre organized four training courses for officers entrusted with the work of agricultural finance in commercial banks. The officers stayed in the villages around YFA campus for a week which changed their outlook and built up their confidence to work with a ‘new type of clientele – farmers. These officers after receiving training worked in senior positions in the agricultural finance departments of various banks.
The association during the period from 1978 to 1988 took about 250 farmers to South East Asia and other countries to study the latest techniques in agriculture. The study included their visits to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Los Banos, Manila in the Philippines and the Lincolns’ Land Reform Training Institute in the Republic of China. It sent 8 farmers to USA and Netherland for receiving training in agriculture and animal husbandry. Also it sent a few farmers after training at the Young Farmers Training Centre to study rural development and Agriculture marketing in Taiwan. These farmers served as Catalytic agents to other farmers in the villages and were instrumental in making rice as a principal crop of the state. The area under rice cultivation in the state increased to 31 lakh hectares which resulted in augmenting the farmers’ income.
The association prepared several farmers to go to ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi to get “Innovative Farmer awards” and “IARI –Fellow Farmer Awards”. Many of them were successfully honoured with the awards.
From March 2020 onwards, five special training camps for farmers were organized and the participating farmers were given practical training and were introduced to the new research, new varieties of crops and the package of practices both for the Kharif and Rabi crops.
Hundreds of farmers are visiting the association’ campus every month to see and learn from the standing crops of new varieties both in the kharif and Rabi seasons. The association’s staff shows them the plots which were growing crops. Here all package of practices and new research had been applied. They were made to study in detail the sowing practices & growth of the new high yielding varieties of rice & wheat crops. The association’s staff explained to them in detail the various practices which were followed. They used the new research & technology at their farm and thus gained both in income & productivity.
The association had also conducted an agriculture training course for a few agriculture sub-inspectors and Beldars and a few of them were selected in the agriculture department for promotion. The certificates issued by the Association were honoured and considered valid.
The technologies and varieties of crops developed by the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi have reached the farmers in the state through the Association’s educational programmes. The excellent educational work done by the association was recognized by the ICAR-IARI who has set up the Indian Agricultural Research Institute –Collaborative Outstation Research Centre at the association’s campus at Rakhra and posted technical staff to train farmers and educate them with the latest research and technologies. The Collaborative Outstation Research Centre is training hundreds of farmers by giving orientation. The participating farmers have increased their farm income after receiving orientation at the CORC at Rakhra Campus. Recently Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister Shri Narinder Singh Tomar conferred the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute’s its ‘Life Time Achievement Recognition’ Award for making a large number of farmers adopt and promote its high-yielding varieties of rice & wheat and promote production and wider dissemination of Institute’s technologies.
The association is bringing out a monthly publication “The Young Farmer” which is being sent to hundreds of farmers every month to provide agricultural education and latest research and information about the successful varieties and farm cultivation practices. The association’s Secretary-General writes a weekly agricultural column in the widely circulated The Daily Ajit and Ajit Samachar which are widely read by the farmers. This has enabled them a lot to know the latest research & varieties of crops and about their profitability.
Renowned scientists and the officers of the agricultural department have visited the Young Farmers Training Centre Rakhra to impart agricultural education to the farmers. This has enabled them to have full access to the newly agricultural research and package of practices.
Simultaneously with the Kisan Melas and special agricultural Camps the association has organized agricultural exhibitions which have benefited a large number of farmers and helped them to adopt new successful products & machines.
Special Camps on Mango cultivation have been organized at the Young Farmers Training Centre Rakhra which have gone to guide some farmers to plant hybrid dwarf mango varieties developed by the ICAR-IARI and demonstrated at Association’s farm. It has helped closing the wide gap that exists between Kinnow and fruits cultivation by persuading some growers to plant mangoes along with other fruits.
