Bathinda, Nov 16: Book-keeping (Behi Khatas), more commonly associated with industrialists and money lenders in a village, is drawing a new breed of followers-- farmers in the cotton belt of Punjab, who want to get rid of manipulative money lenders.
A cluster of over 3,500-odd farmers of 25 villages of this belt have started thinking the industry way to maintain their account books on their own--thanks to heightened awareness about its necessity.
"This is the only right way by which we can reduce our unnecessary expenses and plug the leakages in our income", says Jagtar Singh who is a post graduate and a farmer of village Kotha Guru in Bathinda district.
Gurmail Singh, a graduate farmer of Gehri Bhutter Village, too has a similar view. No farmer had earlier kept any detail of farming expenses, which was the main reason for their indebtedness.
"Only the arthiyas (commission agents) used to keep our records which they have been manipulating to squeeze out our profits from us" he adds.
Most of the farmers with graduation and above as educational qualifications still do not think it worth to write all the expenses incurred and profits made. But thanks to the effort of S P Oswal, chairman of Vardhman Group whose farsightedness has egged the farmers to treat agriculture as an industry in a serious manner.
Bureau Report
