Amravati: A village in Maharashtra's Amravati is emerging as an inspiration towards organic farming by producing over one thousand quintals of wheat annually without using chemical fertilisers.
Masondi village in Chikhaldara Taluka of Melghat is emerging as the 'granary of wheat'. The village with a population of 500, located in a dense forest at an altitude of 1,180 meters above sea level, has now turned very green. Wheat traders frequent the village to buy quality wheat and that too in abundance.
Talking to ETV Bharat, Maruti Gayan, former Deputy Sarpanch of the village said that the main occupation of the residents of Masondi village, which is located on a high mountain, is agriculture, and no other crop is grown in the fields of this village except wheat.
Teacher Malhar Talankar said that the Lokwan variety of wheat is grown in the fields of this village. “What is special is that only cow dung is used in the fields, and without the use of any kind of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. very good quality wheat is grown in Masondi village," Talankar said.
Gayan said that the village of Masondi is divided into three parts and the fields of the villagers at the beginning of the village produce about 400 quintals of wheat. The villagers produce three hundred quintals of wheat from the fields adjacent to the village, while 500 quintals of wheat are produced in the fields near the dam at the back of the village, he said. “The village produces one thousand to one and a half thousand quintals of wheat Annually," informed Gayan.
The wheat grain of Masondi is slightly firmer than the wheat grain of the general area and is sold at the Achalpur Agricultural Market Committee. The wheat in Masondi is in such a high demand that traders from Achalpur and Baitul Districts of Madhya Pradesh come directly to the farmers to buy wheat.
Wheat farming at the Maharashtra village has also received a boost from the government after the local administration built a small dam near the village two years ago to ensure irrigation.
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