rice and wheat

From Amristra we headed south east this morning towards Ludhiana. Our first stop was with a group of farmers, on a typical rice/wheat farm. It was so fantastic to talk to them, and also was more relative to me with the cereal farming. They planted all their rice and wheat by hand, and also sprayed and harvested by hand. They irrigated everything, and their water levels are dropping at a dramatic rate! A huge concern! They yielded 5t/ha and they received a fixed price for their wheat of $350/t set by the government. It was hard to converse with the language barrier, but we were able to ask a few questions, and have a good look around.

Our second stop was 3 much larger and wealthier potato seed growers. They were very clever guys, and although in India you are only allowed to own a maximum of 7ha, they are able to lease a lot more land for a relatively cheap price. They were innovative farmers looking for ways to improve their production, and looking also for value adding. They were concerned about their water table dropping so quickly, and also how they were going to continue providing enough food for the ever growing population. Very interesting people to a talk to, and I will update more info later!

IN the afternoon we visited a freshfield factory, which is a company which packages fresh produce and exports it overeas. They packages mini corn, basil, coriander, and many more herbs. It was interesting to see the many ladies on the packaging line, earning $4/day, but they were happy and offered us many smiles which was nice!

We are now booked into a 5 star hotel and it is very,very nice. Malhi is showing us fancy Indian style! We have had a cruisy nigh with dinner downstairs and now early to bed!