I am Davinder Singh from Nakodar, District Jalandhar. As I was from a farming background, so after 10th class I started farming vegetables. Like other ordinary farmers, I was also following the traditional farming methods and my income was enough to according to that time. But for the future, I was not sure.

In 1990-91, I came in contact with Punjab Agriculture University and learned about some new farming techniques which could help in generating good profit from farming without expanding the farming area. I was very much interested in adopting these farming techniques, as there was no requirement of high tech machinery or chemicals.

After some time I also took the beekeeping training from KVK- Noor Mahal, Jalandhar and started beekeeping. Beekeeping business made me good profit and I continued it. I implemented many farming techniques (bed farming, tunnel farming, and diversified farming) which were new to me.

I experimented with the crop pattern in diversified farming by growing cabbage and onion together. Results of this initiative were positive (high yield of good quality). That season I harvested 375 quintals of cabbage and 125 quintals of onion. This initiative helped many experts in their research. I also intercropped “onion, tomato, coriander”; “onion, cucumber, capsicum” and “cabbage, marigold” together. All these intercropped patterns were great success

In the meanwhile, I never stopped my learning. I visited many progressive farmers of Maler Kotla to learn the basics of vegetable farming and also attended every type of meetings and camps organized by Punjab Agriculture University.

As we know that nowadays water management is an important thing to work on. So, I implemented drip irrigation for better water management. I also started using Tatio meter for paddy farming and Jantar to increase the yield of the soil.

Including me, there are six members in my family- my mother, wife, two daughters and one son. I already had 2 acres of land of my own and I also took 1-hectare land on lease.

Recently, I have started diversified farming of cucumber and watermelon. Many farmers visit my farm to see and learn from. I want to experiment more with diversified farming and spread my learning with other farmers so that they can also take benefit of it.

For the future, I have many ideas related to diversified farming and I want to implement them soon.