Zero-Budget Farming

After completing our workshops in Guru Harkrishan School in Nangal-Ghoman, our team had the opportunity to meet with S. Gurmukh Singh (in picture, with TeamUP members) who showed us around his 11 acre organic "zero-budget farm." This farm in the village of Rangilpur, near Batala, gave our team a perspective on how change can be made within the agricultural industry of Punjab.

The current state of farmers in Punjab is harsh due to high prices of fertilizers and pesticides along with the low selling prices of their crop yields. Gurmukh Singh showed us what he believed to be his solution to this problem. Instead of using synthesized fertilizers or pesticides, his farming operations make use of simple resources such as cow dung, tree leaves, and many other readily available supplies to provide the land with all that it needs to be sustainable organically.

It was very impressive to see that Gurmukh Singh had taken it upon himself to become educated on agricultural methods that have little to no cost and provide the same effects of products that farmers are struggling to purchase. Gurmukh Singh hopes to continue his efforts to educate the farmers of these techniques for free in his area and was excited to see that TeamUP members shared the vision of a Punjab where an uplifted lifestyle is not the exception but the norm.