Rawal Singh is a progressive farmer from village Nathana in Punjab who took to growing vegetables over 10 acres to supplement his income from rice and wheat.

He cultivates chillies, bitter gourds, brinjals and cabbages in rotation through the year.

Potatoes are one of the most important staple food crops of the world and the late blight of potato caused by Phytophthora infestans is a traditional scourge of the crop. A disease which has altered the course of world history in the past – the infamous, late blight of potato.

Farmers in the village of Gihri Butter near Bathinda had traditionally grown green chillies for supplying to the nearby city. This crop was grown over 250 acres in this village but over the years, farmers faced the onslaught of deadly soil borne fungi which decimated their yields. They tried all possible fungicides available in the markets but the disease would recur in a more serious form after every application of chemical fungicides, this rendered the cultivation of this hitherto profitable crop, unviable. This saw the decline in acreages of chillies in this village to just 20 acres.