Builders take up organic farming of capsicum on plot for real estate project

siliguri: It is now a complete reverse. A group of real estate builders have converted their real estate development land to a farm near Siliguri. They are now growing different varieties of organic capsicum on this land.

With speedy urbanisation the number of farmers along with farms is steadily decreasing. Many have already shifted to other professions, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anil Kumar Agarwal and Pradip Singhal, two real estate developers from Siliguri are cultivating different types of organic capsicums in an automated method on a land in Radhajyot in Ranidanga near Siliguri. The land had been bought for real estate development.

The duo built a polyhouse or greenhouse on an acre of land in the 15 acre-plot. In the polyhouse, they are growing yellow and red colored capsicums in hydroponics. The Hydroponics method is a method where anyone can grow vegetables, fruits organically without soil. Cocopeats are being used instead of soil. They bring substrates from Chennai. The substrates have contained the cocopeats.

Recently Hari Krishna Dwivedi, the chief Secretary of West Bengal had visited the farm and assured of all cooperation from the state government. “We bought the 15 acres of land five years ago. That time we thought of using the land in the real estate field. But COVID-19 has changed our outlook. We found out that during that period of crisis many farmers and especially the people in village areas have lost their jobs. They were unable to manage a livelihood. Then we thought of using the land for agriculture. It will help in boosting agriculture. We have indulged local females in the cultivation to empower them,” said Anil Kumar Singhal.They had bought capsicum seeds from Netherlands. A machine is being kept in a separate room from where the combination of fertilizers and water is produced. From there, the mixture reaches to the substrate through drip lines.

With this process, the plants have started growing without any manual plantation work. The plants take around nine months to grow.

In the primary stage, the color of the capsicums is green. Slowly, the color changes to yellow and red.

Presently, there are 8,500 plants at the Poly house. Approximately, 10 capsicums grow in each tree. About 16000 kilograms of capsicums will be produced in the whole poly house. They have installed automatic temperature detector machines. To save the plants from high temperature, they have placed fans inside the polyhouse. 17 local people, including six women, have been employed in the farm. Karan Sahel, the manager of the farm said: “We have used this method because it gives great result. We can get good quality capsicum with this method. We have started with two colors of capsicums. Soon we will start growing more three different varieties of capsicums.”