Two farmers of Sangrur district have been awarded for adoption of innovative agricultural techniques and commercialisation of agriculture. Tirath Singh of Sandaur village in Ahmedgarh block and Jagdeep Singh of Kanoi village (near Sangrur) were recently conferred with the “Innovative Farmer Award” at Agricultural Science Fair by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. Both the farmers are associated with the Krishi Vigiyan Kendra (KVK), Kherri (Sangrur). Tirath (40), a matriculate, is a small farmer with just a five-acre landholding. On half of his land, he has put up net/poly net houses, where he grows capsicum and cucumber (seedless). He also runs a nursery of vegetables such as onion, chilli, capsicum, cauliflower, tomato and brinjal using vermi-compost. The other awardee, Jagdeep, uses resource conservation technologies in agriculture. He has been using Laser Land Leveller, Happy Seeder, bed planting and leaf colour chart to do his bit for environment conservation for many years. Deputy Director, KVK, Kherri, Dr Mandeep Singh said Tirath had earned a sum of Rs 3.80 lakh in 2012-13 by putting about three acres of his land under nursery production. He produced the vegetable nursery on beds using low tunnel technology and carried out seed production of chilli and onion. “By adopting innovative technologies, he has been generating an income of about Rs 7.40 lakh annually, which is four times the income he was earning from paddy and wheat crops in a year,” he said. He said Jagdeep on the other hand, besides cultivating crops on 26 acres of land, was hiring out modern farm machines to farmers. Jagdeep had also installed a solar panel of 1.5 KW to recharge his domestic inverter. During 2012-13, he had earned a net income of Rs 5.40 lakh from farming and Rs 7.07 lakh form hiring out machins to farmers.