Raghbir Singh Brar
Faridkot
Allegedly debt ridden farmers are trying a way out to earn some money from their land without transferring the ownership of land.
They want to keep the land but want to earn some amount of it by selling the upper layers of soil.
The soil or earth is being sold either to the brick kiln owners, for earth work in the low lying plots in the towns and at large scale, it is being transported to the national highways projects of roads which are coming up in the state at a fast pace.
But the step is much more harmful than advangeous.”If the land is dug up two to three feet deep, the permanent damage is done. It is irversible.No body at any cost can once again make it the same.If the land is somewhat higher than the adjoining lands and has bad quality soil in the upper layer, then it can be justified,otherwise it is a damage done permanently,” the intelligent farmers said.
Mainly debt is behind this.
“Actually, these farmers want to retain the ownership of land but at the same time, they want to earn some money as an additional income. But if the land is already at the level of the adjoining lands, it can not be justified. In this way, one can just earn between Rs 2.50 lakh and 4 lakh. The brick kiln owners buy the earth for mould bricks out of it at the brick kiln sites, otherwise, it is dumped into the low lying plots or roads etc,” said Kulbir Singh Matta,former Deputy General manager Punjab Mandi Board.
“If the land is dug up lower, the rainwater rushes into it damaging the standing crops. It cannot be raised upto the earlier level at any cost. It could be only justified when the sandy layers covered the upper part of the land. But now we see, the farmers are selling good quality earth just for the sake of some money,” said another farmer not wishing to be named.
“The upper layer of the soil, which is about 6 inches deep, the depth upto which we plough, is very useful. All the useful bacteria are activated into that part of land. When we grow crops, their roots flourish into the part of soil.But if this very upper layer is disturbed or dug up deeper for commercial purpose, the layer beneath this dug up land is infertile. Then we have to apply farm yard manure and green manure to make it fertile again.It takes about 4 years to become fertile again,”said Kulwant Singh,chief agric;lutre officer Faridkot.
‘Microflora is mainly active in the upper part of land where tillage is done, at about 6 inches deep, this is the main issue,” said Kulwant Singh,CAO Faridkot.
