Major Manmohan Singh Verka

Major Manmohan Singh Verka (2016)
Progressive Farmer, Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar, Punjab Major Manmohan Singh Verka is a leading farmer of Punjab. He served the nation as an army officer for about 21 years and took premature retirement and is now serving the nation with innovative techniques in Agri-Hort crop production developed at his Verka Farm. After successful production of traditional crops, Major Singh adopted Horticulture as a commercial farming enterprise. In the area where Kinnow was not a traditional fruit crop, he successfully grew it and self-marketed it by grading and waxing with his own installed unit. He planted Kinnow at a close distance of 6 × 3 m resulting in doubling the number of plants per unit area which resulted in significant increase in productivity. Litchi, a non-traditional fruit crop of Amritsar area was successfully adopted by him producing quality fruit and good income. His pear orchard has produced a 70 MT per hectare i.e. about 2.5 times more than 27 MT per hectare the average state yield. Major Manmohan Singh developed a technique to plant pear orchards after keeping the plants for 2-3 years in the nursery at a distance of 1 × 1 m. The technique has now been adopted by the Horticulture Department of the state. Major Singh has received several recognitions/ awards such as Bharat Krishak Samaj Award in 2009, Chief Minister Award by PAU in Horticulture in 2010, Punjab State Horticulture Award in 2012, Mahindra Samridhi Award in 2013, Dr. NG Ranga farmer Award for diversification in Agriculture in 2013, Farmer Fellow Award of IARI in 2015, and ICAR Jagjiwan Ram Puruskar in 2015. Major Singh is widely travelled in his quest for learning advances in Horticulture from countries like USA, Canada, Pakistan etc.