IIT Kharagpur researchers turn farmers to revolutionise agriculture

A group of researchers at IIT Kharagpur turned farmland near the campus into a living laboratory — adopting fields from local farmers to demonstrate new agricultural technologies and lift yields.

About 10 km from campus, the team adopted 14 acres from farmers at Khentia village. Much of the land, in small fragments, had lain barren for years. Work began in November with tilling, ploughing, and levelling the fragments into a single unit. "We are introducing new technologies like SRI to increase rice yield with less water. To promote crop diversification, cash crops like sweet corn, peanut, and soybean have been introduced," said project in-charge Prof. P.B.S. Bhadoria.

The team set up vermicompost units to encourage organic farming, dug a tubewell, and built a pond for rainwater harvesting and pisciculture. Jagannath Das, 48, who owns less than 20 decimals of land, said he was learning new things about growing crops: "We allowed them to take charge of our land because of the trust we have in such a large institution like IIT. Now we are learning new things as if our farmland has become a classroom."

Abhishek Singhania, who studied metallurgy at IIT Madras and left a job with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Saudi Arabia to join the project, worked on convincing farmers to adopt the new methods — and planned to help them get fair prices after harvest so they wouldn't fall into middlemen's traps. "They need the right people to guide them at every stage of farming and marketing. I am trying to make this model a sustainable one so that once we leave they are able to do everything on their own," he said.

Project officer Tanumoy Bera said the team used sustainable technology for optimum resource use with minimal environmental impact. SRI — the System of Rice Intensification — needs 30–40% less water and pesticides while giving higher yields.

The three-year project aimed to develop Khentia as a model village under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, with sensor-based irrigation, sprinklers, and soil-testing kits in the next phase. Produce would be shared among farmers in proportion to their landholdings — and neighboring farmers, enthused by the results, were already asking IIT to replicate the model.

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Based on reporting by the Indian Express, April 2015.