Karsog farmer gets Padma Shri

April 8, 2023

President Droupadi Murmu had awarded Padma Shri to Nek Ram Sharma, a farmer of Nanj village in Karsog subdivision of Mandi district, in Delhi.
He has been conferred the award for reviving the traditional crop system of nine foodgrains.
Sharma started an Angora farm in 1990, which continued till 1995.
He then switched to organic farming to revive the traditional crop system of nine foodgrains.
By 2000, he made good progress and developed finger millet, foxtail millet, barn yard, proso millet, kodo millet, buck beat, sorghum and pearl millet.
- These traditional foodgrains were on the verge of extinction.
These nine foodgrains are known as Nau Anaj, which is a natural inter-cropping method in which these are grown on the same piece of land without using any chemical, cutting down water usage by 50 per cent and raising land fertility.