Khushi Ram hails from Tehri, Uttarakhand, here we present his journey of becoming a progressive farmer.

His parents used to practice farming using traditional farming and then he added scientific techniques to their old age experience which he acquired from KVK, Ranichauri. Until 2002 he didn’t plan to take up farming as an occupation but due to his parent’s health issues and being the eldest of five siblings he had to take up the responsibility. He later started to like farming and became fond of nature and started experimenting in his field by growing different crops.

He owns a total land of 4 acres, in this land, he cultivates a variety of fruits, vegetables and pulses which include tomato, capsicum, cucumber, eggplant, mushroom, wheat, Rajma, Strawberry and Kiwi. He has constructed 5 polyhouse, in two of the polyhouse he grows tomatoes, in one of the polyhouse he has planted a nursery and in the remaining two he cultivates cucumbers and capsicums respectively.

He also grows broccoli and a Japanese variety of Kale, Parsley and Mizuna. other than this he has grown 350 plants of the fruit peach on his land. In addition to this, he practices aquaculture and poultry farming on a small scale. He generally practices organic farming where he uses the excreta of the three cattle present on his farm and biofertilizers such as Trichoderma and Pseudomonas but sometimes he also uses insecticides as an integrated pest management technique as per the need.

 Khushi Ram lives in an area where there is shortage of water. However, to battle this problem he adopted improved production technologies including rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, plastic mulching and micro-irrigation.

He never stopped learning and kept experimenting with the new knowledge that he learned in the vast field of agriculture. His main purpose was to increase his income and that is how he initially started with poultry farming which couldn’t be successful and later shifted to mushroom cultivation which gave him profit.

His success became an example for others and motivated others to work hard and succeed. When the workload increases generally in harvesting season he takes help from the ladies of his village. Khushi Ram generates employment for the ladies and makes them independent to work and earn on their own. The women who worked in the previous season are not available in the next season as they don’t get time from their work rather a new group comes and he trains and guides them in the same way.

He is grateful for the government and all the schemes that it introduces and helps the farmers to increase their standard of living. All the five polyhouses and farming machinery are under 80% subsidy and had to pay 24000 ₹/- per polyhouse. Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ranichauri has helped him from the beginning in better understanding schemes and agriculture advancements. With the help of the horticulture department, he has planted 500 high-density plants of apples on his farm. As the level of snow is decreasing for a few years in his village he has planted M9 and M26 rootstocks of apple, he being the first farmer to grow them in his area is excited to see the yield in the coming season.

First of all, productivity is affected by the destruction caused by wild animals. There has to be a person inspecting the field from monkeys during the day and pigs at the night. Another challenge that he faces is the market linkage as it is smaller and ranges only to Chamba, Rishikesh and Dehradun, the profit earned is less than what is expected. The annual profit goes upto ₹ 7 Lakhs per annum but due to climatic disturbances like flood, cloud burst etc. there is more loss than what is earned in most of the seasons.

He advises farmers to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers which has led to so many harmful diseases in humans. If a farmer uses it in lesser quantity or switches completely to organic farming, the lifespan of humans can be increased.

His main motive will be of increasing the market. And following the Integrated Farmer System to increase his income.