(#2 Blog Assignment) Hug a Farmer.

Hello everyone as I come from an agricultural country and that too, I come from a farming lineage I will be talking about my grandfather who has been farming his entire life and about my brother who is also a farmer. In this blog assignment, I would like to share about their life journey, hard work, struggles, and their sacrifices.

This is Milkha Singh Purewal my grandfather and his age is 95 and he still does farming with his son’s name is Santosh Singh Purewal who is 37 in age both of them are farmers and they farm in my hometown Kadiyaan near Harchoval in Punjab, India. My grandfather became a farmer as it was a family tradition and it is important for him to keep this traditional skill alive and passed it from one generation to another and also its the best work in the world according to them. He became a farmer as this make him feel more connected with the mother land.

Crops grown.

Their Primary crop is Sugarcane, Wheat, Corn, Mustard, Cauliflower, Potatoes, and Green Peas and they grow these vegetables as per the atmosphere and for crop rotation so in winter they grow vegetables as it is the perfect climate for growing vegetables and during summer, they grow sugarcane and wheat, etc. as it is a perfect climate to grow such crops and they grow organic crop and vegetables as they avoid the use of pesticides and make their own fertilizers which they make from compost and cow dunks which help them to make their soil fertile and crop rotation helps in increasing the fertility of the soil.

Philosophy of organic farming

Their philosophy of farming organic food is “If your children cannot eat the food then how can you serve it to others”. They consider this to be their moral values. They support organic farming even when they don’t get any benefits or support from the government. They avoid growing just cash crops as it may affect the soil quality and to avoid soil degradation practices they use crop rotation and the government gives MSP(minimum selling price) on certain cash crops which makes them a better option to grow even after this they still grow crops as per crop rotation. Even at such a wisdom stage of his life my grandpa still works in fields. The government gives MSP on cash crops like wheat, rice, and cotton, and even after this they avoid growing cash crops.

Price of crops

They sell their produce at a great price as their produce is organic and they have a nice reputation in the market and even the wholesalers as they know the quality of the product and as they have a nice relation with the wholesaler they sell their crops at the highest price available in the market which makes it easier for them to sell their products and as they have a huge farm so they can grow in huge quantity which makes them stand at a good position in the market and also gives them an upper hand. So in my view quality plays great importance and as people are getting more aware about the food they are consuming and they getting health conscious which makes it important for us to provide quality products to the customers and even as per our moral values we must provide the best product to our customer.

My experience after this journey

After going through the whole process and seeing their efforts I was able to see the efforts sacrifice, patience, and dedication required to grow crops the techniques used to maintain the fertility of the soil and I respect their perspective and way of thinking about their land and the way they think their product to be their children and the way they care for their produce. In my view, this is not a job but a lifestyle in itself, and not everyone can become a farmer. I am a chef as I also wanted to be connected with food.