FRUITS OF A JUGAAD

An ingenious solution by a bureaucrat helps augment livelihood opportunities for horticulturists in North Bengal

- ARKAMOY DATTA MAJUMDAR

When a bureaucrat is a number-cruncher, the warp and weft of digits throw up solutions to problems that would pass others by. Subrata Gupta, who has a PhD in electronics and telecommunication from IIT Kharagpur, is additional chief secretary in the government of West Bengal in charge of the food processing industries and the horticulture department. He tweaked a Union government scheme to help horticulture farmers in the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong multiply their produce.

The key intervention was erecting over 2,500 polyhouses-using the concept of greenhouse farming, the practice involves fully or partially covering crop fields—in the steep terrain in the past 15 months. Functioning within the ambit of the central polyhouse subsidy scheme, this was achieved without the farmers having to pay the mandatory half the total cost. Before Gupta shone the light, farmers had to work as domestic helps or labourers for nine months of the year since the farming season lasted for only three months. In the past 15 months, with the polyhouses insulating them from inclement/ cold weather, around 2,500 farmer families have been able to farm for nine months.