IIT researchers turn farmers to change agriculture

A group of researchers at IIT Kharagpur have turned farmlands near the campus into a ‘laboratory’ to experiment with new agricultural technologies and help farmers whose land they have “adopted” to improve their yield.

Around 10 kilometres away from the campus, the team adopted 14 acres of land from a group of farmers at Khentia village.

Most of the land, in small fragments, was lying barren for the last few years. With hope in their eyes, the farmers agreed to turn in their farmlands to the IIT team.

The work began last November with tilling, ploughing and levelling of the fragmented plot to make it a single unit.

“We are introducing new technologies like SRI to increase rice yield with less water. To promote crop diversification, cash crop like sweet corn, peanut and soybean have been introduced,” project in-charge Prof P B S Bhadoria told a news agency.

To encourage organic farming, they have started creating vermicompost units.

The IIT team has dug up a tubewell and also made a pond for rainwater harvesting and pisciculture.

48-year-old Jagannath Das, who owns less than 20 decimal land, says he is now learning new things about growing crops.

“We allowed them to take charge of our land because of the trust we have on such a large institution like IIT. Now we are learning new things as if our farmland has become a classroom,” Das said.