The wheat sowing season is about to begin. In recent years growing wheat in the western Madhya Pradesh region has become a headache. Primarily because electricity for running the motors to pump up water from rivers, streams, wells and tube wells has become increasingly scarce. Moreover the cost of chemical fertilisers needed for growing hybrid varieties of wheat too has gone up as has the amount to be applied. Thus often the crop suffers towards the end near harvesting time due to lack of enough water. The Wheat Research Station in Indore has addressed this problem and developed a dry land variety of wheat that requires just one watering in the beginning at the sowing time and gives an yield of about 30 quintals per hectare. Even though this is less than the 55 quintals per hectare that the hybrid variety gives it still turns out to be more profitable because of the savings in electricity and pesticide costs. What is even more commendable about this dry land wheat is that saves on scarce water resources. However, as is usual in a government agency the Wheat Research Station has not bothered to popularise this wheat and so it has not spread among the farmers.
This year we have launched a campaign to rope in more and more farmers to sow this wheat so that it spreads over a large area and provides both economic and environmental succour to the adivasis of the region.
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