Prem Chand Sharma

Prem Chand Sharma is a farmer and community leader from a tribal area of Dehradun district, and a folk poet who writes verses urging farmers to protect the land and try new methods. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of agriculture, from Uttarakhand ^[1].

From apple orchards

Sharma was born on 11 October 1957 into a poor farming family in Tyuni, a remote village in Dehradun district ^[2]. He studied only up to Class 5, and as a young man worked in apple orchards in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh ^[2]. He went on to become a technical expert for NABARD on farming in Uttarakhand and a member of the management committee of the horticulture and forestry university at Bharsar ^[2].

Anar wale Sharma ji

He was the first in Uttarakhand to grow pomegranates commercially, and to grow broccoli, cauliflower, French beans and capsicum out of season ^[2]. He developed a cheap mulching method for pomegranates and a staking method for tomatoes, and set up a nursery supplying apple, pomegranate and walnut plants to farmers in Uttarakhand and Himachal ^[2]. People call him “Anar wale Sharma ji”, the pomegranate man ^[2].

A model village

His efforts have made Attal village a model, with fruit and vegetable sales of more than Rs 1.5 crore a year ^[2]. He led the effort to bring water 7 km to the village under a government scheme, so that 200 farm families chose to stay rather than migrate ^[2]. He founded a fruit and vegetable growers’ group for off-season farming, and has started scholarships for tribal students ^[2]. More than 20,000 farmers have gained directly from his training, plants and market links ^[2].