Farmers Movement Archive

Phillaur farmers’ mini-fire tender is deft in saving crops from raging fire

Tribune News ServiceJalandhar, October 8Troubled with frequent fires in fields causing huge losses, a group of farmers in Phillaur block have come up with a smaller version of a fire tender.Awarded by DC, Agri DepartmentFarmers, who are educated and are involved in farming for the past 10-15 years, were of the view that instead of sitting and waiting for the government’s help to eradicate the problem, they should use their resources to find a solution on their own.Subsequently, the idea of mini-fire tender occurred to them as during any fire incident, their first call goes to the Fire Department only.Navdeep Singh, a farmer, said: “Fire extinguisher is the basic need of our village. Most of the times our crops catch fire due to short-circuit or some other reason thereby damaging a good proportion of the field. After doing some research, we created one for our use. Due to its small size, it can enter any narrow street of the village and with a capacity of 5,000 litre water, the flames can be doused within a few minutes. The water tank attached to it with around 100-ft pipe is carried through a tractor. Until now, there wasn’’t any fire tender in our village and it takes a lot of time for the fire tenders to reach here from other blocks. Before they can do anything, much of the damage is already done. So, this was the only reason to push us to develop a mini-fire tender. Even the Phagwara Fire Department has appreciated us for our effort after they saw the machine. They said it was equally efficient like any fire tender.”As per farmers, fire tenders used to arrive from Phagwara and Jalandhar and it takes roughly around half an hour for fire extinguishers to reach Phillaur from Phagwara and around an hour from Jalandhar. Apart from Navdeep, farmers involved in the project include Jasvir Singh, Kuljinder Singh, Kamaldeep Singh and Sukhjinder Singh among others.The mini-fire tender was designed with the contribution of every farmer for Rs1.65 lakh and it’’s been nearly two years, since they have been using it. They also help farmers in other villages with this little invention of theirs.

The Tribune

2020-10-09