Gorakhpur, January 1 : To enable farmers to select the right crop in the right season, Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group
(GEAG), a voluntary forum of Chauri Chaura town near Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh has prepared an agriculture calendar.

Claimed to be first of its kind, Krishi Panchang is based on conventional knowledge and scientific methods.

"This calendar is mainly for marginal farmers and women farmers. Actually, the information that the State Agriculture Department and various agriculture universities publish, remains with big farmers only. The information never reaches small and marginal farmers,” said Dr. Siraj Vaji, President, Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group.

“Also this information revolves around wheat and paddy and fertilisers and seldom has it spoken about mixed farming. Hence, to bridge this gap we have made a Krishi Panchang," Dr. Vaji added.

"We have published about lucrative agricultural patterns, like what should be sown, irrigated and harvested when and what manures and pesticides are good for which crop. This Krishi Panchang is a combination of traditional practices and scientific methods," added Dr. Vaji.

The calendar provides comprehensive information about beneficial agricultural practices apart from dates and holidays for the year
2008.

Starting with January, the calendar includes the crops that should be sown in a particular month, information about the pests that may harm the crop, potential cure for the pests, irrigation needs, time of harvest, ways of storing the crop and even marketing avenues.

Several NGO members are visiting one village to another in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur District to disseminate information about the Krishi Panchang.

The Krishi Panchang is distributed free of cost to the women farmers, who are also given detailed information to understand it, during special camps by the NGO members. The women are supposed to explain the same to their fellow men at home.

Women farmers are happy to receive such a calendar devoted to their actual needs in arranging livelihood.

"I have seen something like this for the first time ever. In future, we would be able to reap the benefits of this Krishi Panchang, as now we have started using the fertilisers and pesticides mentioned in this calendar as per a schedule, said Hakikun Devi, a women farmer.

“Earlier whatever little information we used to get about profitable agricultural practices, it used to go into oblivion with time. But now, if we forget something, we can always see it in this Krishi Panchang," she added.

"This Krishi Panchang is helping us a lot. Earlier, we were unaware of various crops and the right time to sow and harvest them but this calendar has everything in it. Now we can read it and choose our next step accordingly to get a good crop," said Manorama Devi, another women farmer.

This agriculture calendar also informs about various manures, ways to make vermipost, information about pesticides and fungicides. It also has conventional proverbs in vogue about various agriculture related facts. (ANI)