Odd man out stands tall

‘‘But this is what I believe in. I am not into chemical farming, nor even into organic farming. I simply depend on conventional farming methods and let nature guide my crops. My wife and daughter pitch in by deweeding land the old-fashioned way, with their hands.’’

Even to the casual observer, Jeeva Singh’s fields look different from the neat, manicured lands of his neighbours. It’s hard to discern much order in the medley of cotton, tinda and maize that grow on his land, but it becomes clear on talking to the farmer that he has a bigger picture in mind.

‘‘The basic idea is to keep our own needs in check. I know there’s a blind race on for commercialisation and mechanisation, but just as I prefer to use a bicycle and tackle various jobs around the farm with my own hands instead of hiring labour, so I prefer to grow what I can look after myself,’’ says Jeeva Singh.

And it’s not much, he is the first to acknowledge. ‘‘Some local farmers get 45 bales of cotton from each hectare of land. I get maybe 20, or at most 25, bales. But because I don’t use hired labour or chemicals, my input costs are much lower than theirs’. And while their land-holdings have been dropping every year, I have actually been able to add two acres to my original three acres of land,’’ says Jeeva Singh.

And as for the feeling of satisfaction that comes from coaxing life out of earth the way nature meant it, it’s priceless.