During the Commonwealth Games, players and visitors will have an opportunity to relish pesticide-free vegetables of high quality, as farmers here prepare to cash in on the higher demand during the event with a bit of help from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI).

The IARI has been training farmers from Delhi and nearby areas in protected cultivation technology.

According to officials at the Centre for Protected Cultivation Technology at IARI that is providing the training, there will be an additional demand of 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes (1 tonne is 100 kg) of vegetables during the two weeks of the Games to feed 7,000 players and delegates and about 100,000 visitors.

“We are in the process of training some 300 farmers from Haryana and outer Delhi, who want to cash in on the extravaganza in October,” said Balraj Singh, principal scientist with the centre.

The technique involves growing vegetables under protected environment using nets and shades, and comes at a negligible cost.

“As the net around the cultivated land prevents all kinds of pests, we do not require pesticides. Thus, the vegetables we produce are pesticide free,” says Singh.

The centre has already provided training to 200 farmers from Najafgarh, Karnal, Gurgaon, Bhanot and Sonepat.

The centre is also using the technique to grow quality vegetables at its own farm. The vegetable produced here will be served to the athletes and delegates. “We will use five acres of our farm land to produce the quality vegetables,” says Singh.

The vegetables that are expected to be in demand are purple cabbage, special broccoli, multicoloured peppers, cherry tomato with at least seven percent sweetness, French radish and seedless cucumber.

The centre has been advising farmers to start the cultivation in May-June to get the produce ready for October.

Of course, the trained farmers will continue to produce pesticide-free vegetables after the Games, for people like us too.