Patna : The prestigious Jagjivan Ram Kisan Purushkar was awarded to a Bihari Farmer, Sudhanshu Kumar of Nayanagar, a remote village in Samastipur district. This national award consisting of a citation and cash of rupees one lakh was presented by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in New Delhi.
Director General of Indian Council of Agriculture Research, S Ayyappan made a special mention of this achievement of Bihar’s young farmer and noted agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan who delivered key note address on this occasion advised the DG, ICAR to invite farmers like Sudhanshu and others as a visiting faculty in this premier institute to get real field level feedback.
Recently, Sudhanshu, a Delhi University alumnus has emerged as a Change Agent in Samastipur district by advocating and practicing many innovative tools and skills of modern farming. He successfully raised the productivity of his Mango orchard from mere ten thousand to nine lacs in a period of three to four years and similarly experimented the innovative modern techniques to his litchi orchard.
“I have improved the quality and productivity of Litchi by using sprinkler and drip irrigation system in our farm. People from surrounding villages get inspired by this experiment and keep in touch with me from time to time†said Kumar
He told BiharTimes that recently he invested about 35 lacs in purchasing modern harvesters and other machines to modernize age old labour intensive farming practices in his village.