ATMA Archives - Progressive Farmers

A farmer, who started medicinal plants’ farming as his hobby and now has become a Doctor

Surinder Singh Nagra is a resident of Village Kohala of Jalandhar District, Punjab and now-a-days, he is running a medicinal nursery at Kartarpur Sahib. Mr. Nagra has made his popularity among people by cultivating different varieties of medicinal plants.

Surinder Singh is singleton of Pehlwan Nasib Singh and Ramesh Kaur. Besides doing farming, Mr. Nasib Singh used to carry goods from aadtiya and unload it at Jalandhar on the cart from where he got the financial support for family. Due to financial hardship at home, Surinder Singh started driving a taxi for offering a helping hand to his father at the age of 18. When family conditions were getting propitious, he got married. But due to some issues with his wife, he got divorced. After a while, he again got married to Nashatar Kaur. He began working as a supervisor on a liquor shop in order to fulfil his family responsibilities more effectively. But after a while, he realised that the liquor trade is a crime and so Mr. Nagra left this job. Meanwhile, sudden dismiss of his father was a great mislaying for him, as the burden of whole family was now on his shoulders. For the sake of his family, he inaugurated a fertilizer and chemical shop. But there also, he faced a great loss because of thievery at his shop.

Because of theft at my shop, everyone was woeing, but I smiled and said, it was earning of my sins which went out, so everything happens for our good – Surinder Singh Nagra.

After this loss, he started working as an agent (aadtiya) and side by side, he also started transportation work. The thing of concern is that, he never charged any sort of interest to the farmers, instead he provided money to the farmers. This was somehow benefiting the farmers but greatly effecting the finances of Surinder Singh. Considering these things, he focused on the transportation business and due to his hard work in this, he owned 4-5 luggage carries at the end.

Besides the family responsibilities, he have a unique interest which made him popular amongst people. From the very young age, he was fond of learning about medicinal plants and spend most of his time in the same.

Interest of learning about medicinal plants arose from my fast friend Shiv Kumar, who is now working as Kanungo at Jalandhar – Surinder Singh Nagra

When the life was coming on its track, at the eleventh hour, a mishappening occurred due to which he lost his one leg. The moment his friend Shiv Kumar got to know about this misery, he straightway went to meet him. Shiv Kumar was diabetic and at that time, he had blisters and ulcers but still he came to see his friend. He gave him Rs 10,000 and a watch as token of love.

Due to diabetes, Shiv Kumar had a horrible death, which shivered my inner soul. For that reason, I decided to do something in favour of society so that people need not face such a painful situations – Surinder Singh Nagra

Afterwards, he started illuminating himself about medicinal plants with more conscious mind. For this purpose, he went to the hills of Kerala, along with his son so that he couldn’t face any sort of problem in language which is not native to him. For completion of this work, all his luggage carriers were sold. Bank officials started insulting him as he was unable to pay the bank loan which he took for initiating a shop business.

Then I came to know about joining of a new manager in Bank. I met him and told about my state of affairs. He helped me as a noble person and gave me sanction for loan of 12-13 lacs to pay off my earlier loan- Surinder Singh Nagra

Getting liberty from this, he planted stevia plant, which he bought from Palampur. After this, he started planting more medicinal plants. His kids helped him a lot in this business.

Gradually he started making medicines from the medicinal plants, which benefited a lot to the patients. He feels glad for having success in such a business. This is handled by his daughter Ms Gurdeep Kaur. Younger son of Mr. Nagra is running business of dairy farming. He make products from milk and sell them in the market. Every member of the family is serving their potential in making powder from medicinal plants and taking care of it.

Medicinal herbs grown by Nagra:

Isoline
Stevia
Swajna
Small cardamom
Large cardamom
Brahmi
Bankshap
Bamboo
Camphor
Arjun
Tez patta
Magh
Geranium
Hadd jod buti
Sada Bahar
Ashwagandha
Satawar
Ajwain
Odomas
Sita Ashoka
White sandalwood
Rudraksh
Putranjeeva
Garlic vine
Camphor basil
Rose Marie
Indian snake-root
Mount Atlas Daisy
Night-flowering jasmine

We also provide free medicines to patients who cannot afford medicines. – Surinder Singh Nagra

Due to his efforts in this stream, many a times he has been honoured by Shromani Vaidya Committee and he has built a good relationships with ATMA. Now, he along with Central Government is working on projects for enlightening people about the medicinal plants.

Future plans

Surinder Singh wants this business of medicine to be handled by his saplings as well as the treatment and help of people should go on the same track.

Message

“Youngsters should get knowledge about the medicinal plants so that every home should have one doctor and people need not to pay heavy pockets to the doctors for medicines. It is belief of Mr. Nagra that no one else is a better doctor then a farmer. For that reason farmers should step up towards organic farming.”

Leaving M. Tech in middle of his studies, why this young man started farming?

Every parents’ dream is that their children should get a good job so that their future is secure. Similar was the dream of Amarjeet Singh Dhillon’s parents. So they taught him in a good school for his good future and got him enrolled in higher education for B.Tech mechanical. After completing graduation in Mechanical Engineering, Amarjeet decided to pursue his Masters in M.Tech. and also got admitted. But he was not having any particular interest in the study of M.Tech., so he decided to leave the studies in between.

Amarjeet’s family had 12 acres of land on which his father and brother used to practice conventional agriculture. For one year Amarjeet also used to do farming with his father, but due to being a young man, Amarjeet did not want to get enrolled himself in the traditional agriculture. To further increase his knowledge in agriculture, he started visiting Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.

He joined the Young Farmer Course in PAU. After the completion of course, he decided to do horticulture. He first started fruit farming at his farm named “Green Energy Farm”.. Later on, he also started vegetables cultivation, flower farming and beekeeping.

Within one year, I decided to grow only fruits and vegetables leaving all other kinds of farming, because the marketing of fruits and vegetables is easily done in the same local market. It helps in getting daily living like a shopkeeper – Amarjeet Singh Dhillon

Amarjeet has set up a time-table for the whole of the year, according to which he harvests the crops sown in different months.

Amarjeet does not do organic farming. At first he tries to control insect-pests and diseases using organic methods only but if further needed, he use sprays as recommended by the PAU in recommended amount. Even today, Amarjeet participates in all KVK, university and district level training programs. Whenever he gets in trouble, he always seek advice from PAU experts only.

According to me, fruits or vegetables should be plucked before spraying and there should be a minimum of 24-48 hours gap between fruit plucking and applying spray – Amarjeet Singh Dhillon

Achievements

Amarjeet has received many honors at the state level and national level, some of which are mentioned below:

Chief Minister Award from PAU (2006)
State level Award from ATMA (2009)
State Award in Agriculture Summit, Chappadchidi
Zonal award from International Institute of Vegetable Research (2018)
National Award from PUSA (2018)
Innovative Farmer Award from IARI

Future Planning

In the future, Amarjeet Singh Dhillon wants to focus all his attention on the self marketing and processing of fruits and vegetables.

Message

“Those young people who want to get themselves enrolled into horticulture, should first get proper education and training in agriculture. They should start farming at very small level rather than investing huge lump-sum in the starting. They must read agricultural related books and should always keep learning.”