In a unique example of community farming when families are disintegrating fast, the entire agricultural land of the village Mann Chopra (Gurdaspur), tilled by at least 60 families, is divided among only nine teams. The teams, led by seniormost family member of the particular group, are managing the affairs in approximately 550 acres of their cultivable land.

Brothers, in all families, live separately. However, agriculture is done in unison. All dairy farming ventures by the families are also done collectively. Besides, the panchayat land of approximately 300 acres, the village has approximately 550 acres of fertile land.

Jagir Singh ploughs his land along with three brothers. Niranjan Singh, another villager, ploughs his field along with three brothers. At least six families have four generations dependant on the common family land.

Impressed with the results of collective farming, Master Harpal Singh, a resident of adjoining Dilluana village, asked Prof M.S. Kang, vice-chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University (Ludhiana), recently to conduct a survey on the functioning of the uncommon farming pattern. He has raised the issue at many university meetings and seminars.

All adults, including growing children, participate in the farm activities. Nirmal Singh said: “We never felt the need for daily labourers in our fields, particularly the labour rush from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. We never thought of working without each other”. When questioned about the functioning of the collective farming pattern during times when land share per person was rapidly decreasing, Sukhpal Singh said: “We have never thought about division”. Bakhshish Singh, a retired teacher, said: “The village had only 20 acres of fertile land when the originally allotment was made. Through sheer hard work, it now has more than 400 acres of absolute fertile land”.

Pargat Singh, a senior citizen, said: “For me, the biggest achievement for the village is freedom of youth from the bane of drug abuse. Youngsters are very conscious about its ill-effects”.