Farmers Movement Archive

Protesters at Burari ground start farming

Farmers protesting at Burari — the official spot for agitation designated by the Delhi Police — have begun farming on the ground premises itself. While on Saturday they sowed onion bulbs on a small part of the land right next to where they are camping, the farmers said they intend to delve soon into full-fledged farming by using tractors to till the soil at the huge ground.“If we find the soil to be fertile, we’ll start growing other vegetables also that we grow in our fields in Punjab. If not, we’ll look to plant vegetables that can survive in poor soil,” said Binder Singh, the Faridkot district president of Bharatiya Kisan Union.According to police estimates, there are between 250 and 400 farmers from Punjab camping at the Burari ground, who had arrived here from the Tikri Border on the first day of the agitation. While some farmers from Uttar Pradesh too had arrived here from the Chilla Border, they had returned after a few days. The Delhi government had set up tents to accommodate thousands of farmers at Burari initially. However, the government removed them earlier this month after farmers refused to avail the facilities, instead choosing to protest at Singhu, Tikri and other border points of Delhi. Farmers here said that last month they had a lot of idle time, which they have decided to utilize by farming. “Looks like we are going to be here for some more months and a few seasons. We’ll grow seasonal vegetables and crops,” said Binder Singh. On Saturday, they only sowed onion bulbs in a land about the size of 30×5 feet. “It took us about two hours to finish the entire work. We are still understanding the nature of soil here, but it is a hard ground,” said Darshan Singh, a farmer from Gollawale village in Faridkot.The produce will be used for cooking for farmers here, the people camping at Burari said. The farmers have asked those in Punjab to bring seeds of different varieties to start their farming. “If the results from the soil are encouraging, we’ll use our tractors to plough the ground. This ground is our home for the time being and the areas around will be our farm land,” said Baldev Singh, another farmer from the same village. The rectangular ground where the farmers are camping is nearly the size of 15 cricket fields. Despite the presence of police and paramilitary personnel near the farmers’ camp, there was no objection to the farming exercise.“The farming they have done so far hasn’t really made any real impact to the field. If we find any serious damage being done by them, we’ll take a call,” said a police officer at the ground.

Hindustan Times

27-12-2020

Delhi