Tag: Chrysanthemum

Jaswant Singh Sidhu

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Jaswant Singh Sidhu Sizing up Organic Farming with Floriculture

It was Jaswant Singh’s grandfather who passed on the interest of floriculture to him and today Jaswant Singh is a progressive farmer who is practicing flower farming along with organic methods. The journey of Jaswant in the field of farming started at a very young age when his grandfather used to ask for his help while gardening. Slowly the interest of Mr. Jaswant Singh also turned towards flower farming. But for commercial purpose, his father was cultivating Paddy and Wheat like his ancestors, and due to less land and weak economic condition of the family, his father was least interested in taking any risk and adopting any new thing.

Besides knowing the family conditions, Jaswant Singh enrolled himself in the horticulture training organized by PAU, just after completing his 12th studies. Although he took the training of horticulture, his father never allowed him to practice floriculture on their land due to the fear of crop failure and loss. For some time, Jaswant Singh also continued with wheat and paddy cultivation, but soon he convinced his father for flower farming (Marigold, Chrysanthemum, Gladiolus, Rose, & Local Rose) and in 1998 he started it on a small patch of land (2 Marla ≃ 25.2929 square metres).

“When my father agreed, at that time I was totally steadfast about floriculture and decided to expand it with the time and reap good profit from it. Although there was no good market nearby to sell the flowers still I was determined and didn’t want to step back.”

When the time of harvesting came, at that time Jaswant Singh visited the houses in his nearby villages in which marriage ceremonies or any celebrations were going to be held, and took the contract of decorating their houses and car with the flowers. In this way, he earned a profit of Rs. 8000 to 9,000 over his income. Seeing the progress of Jaswant, his father and other family members were very happy and this boosted up the courage of Jaswant Singh. Gradually he expanded flower farming in 2 ½ Kanal and presently it’s in 3 acres. Time-to-time, Jaswant bring some new flowers and plants from the nursery, to add variety to his farm. Now, he has also started preparing nursery of flowers, from which he is earning a good income and even today also he manages the marketing part on my own.

Well Jaswant Singh’s hard work did not go in vain, for the tremendous efforts he has been awarded Surjit Singh Dhillon State Award (2014)

Future Plan:
In future, Jaswant Singh is planning to expand floriculture and also venture in the field of poly-house farming by taking land on lease.
Message
“Instead of depending on the government plans and subsidies, farmers should start putting their own effort in agriculture.”

Nanil Chaudhary

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Meet Next Generation’s Flourishing Farmer Who Is Fostering Local Employment in Uttar Pradesh

View of Nanil Chaudhary’s farm will blow away anyone in the dreamy aromatic world… Well, you must be wondering what other than crop, cows, buffalo, dirt, and dung will be seen there? Then you guys are mistaken, because Nanil Chaudhary is a booming floriculturist from Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh, and in his farm, you are only going to find colourful flowers of Gerbera, Rajnigandha, Gladiolus, and many more.

Coming from a conventional farming background, the farming journey of Nanil Chaudhary started like other farmers with the cultivation of Wheat, Bajra, Potato, Barley, and Mustard till 2014-15. Although he started like a conventional farmer, he never let his mind confined in those stereotypical thinking, and in the year 2015-2016, he entered the field of floriculture.

Nanil Chaudhary came to know about the Gerbera plantation in poly-house near Iglas tehsil in Aligarh district. After making some inquiries he came to know that large land holding is required to establish it. Since, his mother, Smt. Krishna Kumari holds large land holding, so in her name, the project was sanctioned; and this is how the Krishna Biotech was established.

“For the establishment of climatically controlled poly-houses, I invested around 1.10 crores out of which 75 lakhs were financed by RBL Bank Ltd and this was a great help for me.”

Aiming towards generating employment to improve the rural economy, he moved towards floriculture and today he has his own climatically controlled two poly-houses where he has planted around 40,000 plants of Gerbera in 2 acres; outside the poly-houses he has planted Gladiolus in 6 acres, Rajnigandha in 6 acres, Brassica in 1 acres and Chrysanthemum in 3 acres.

And how these flowers are turning the business of Nanil Chaudhary into riches:
One Gerbera plant gives 25 flowers a year which ultimately turns the production number around 1000000 flowers, and when these number of flowers are sold at the rate of Rs. 2.50 the income is Rs. 20 lakhs a year. After deducting all the expenditures there is a net profit of 6-7 lakhs per year to Nanil Chaudhary. This profit is only from the Gerbera flower, other than this Rajnigandha gives profit around Rs. 2 lakhs per acre, Gladiolus around Rs. 1.50 lakhs per acre and Chrysanthemum gives profit around Rs. 3.00 lakhs per acre.

“Excluding expenditure of labour charges, bank instalments and other input costs, this floriculture business is giving me profit around 14 lakhs per year.”

Marketing was a bit difficult in the beginning for Nanil Chaudhary, as it was difficult to deliver flowers to Delhi, but later, in 2017-18, Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Buses were the best means through which flower marketing was done mostly.

Few people who were always there standing like supporting pillars for Nanil Chaudhary throughout his floriculture journey are his mother, Dr. Mam Chand Singh (Scientist and Head of Protected Cultivation Division at IARI, PUSA, New Delhi), and Shri Kaushal Kumar (District Horticulture Officer, Aligarh).

Knowledge diffusion is the most important thing in which Nanil Chaudhary always believes and has expanded floriculture to various farmers in Etah, Hathras, Meerut and Ghaziabad districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Currently, Nanil Chaudhary’s farm is equipped with a force of 20-22 skilled workers, who make the working of the farm totally mechanized with the help of modern equipment like specially designed planter, drip irrigation system, solar power irrigation pump and much more.

In future Nanil Chaudhary has few sets of plans:
• Planning to explore the possibility of extracting essential oil from Rajnigandha,
• Expand floriculture in Uttaranchal on a larger scale
• Venture into large-scale production of Gladiolus bulbs, Rajnigandha bulbs and Chrysanthemum nursery for commercial cultivation

By venturing in floriculture, Nanil Chaudhary has observed a big change in his area, people get regular income due to the cultivation, harvesting, packing, and transportation of flowers, income of those people shows the real happiness on their faces…Concludes Nanil Chaudhary

For putting tremendous efforts in floriculture field, Nanil Chaudhary has been honoured with –
• Received Progressive Farmer Award by the Divisional Commissioner, Aligarh in 2016-17
• A documentary was also prepared on Krishna Biotech Farm, by the Doordarshan, Delhi and telecasted in Krishi Darshan Programme on 22 November 2016
• Later in the year 2017-18, another documentary was prepared by the Doordarshan and telecasted on DD Krishi Darshan on 27 December 2017
Floriculture expanded through Krishna Biotech farm with the determination and hard work of Nanil Chaudhary has attracted remunerative prices leading to set a quality standard for his family and the people living around.

Vipin Yadav

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Story of Vipin Yadav a farmer and a computer engineer who chose hydroponics over traditional farming method to bring revolution

Today is an era where if farmers don’t have fertile land or even land, then also they can exist; and for this, Indian farmers have to realign their priorities and agriculture practices to overcome the stereotypical conventional methods.

Technology has taken the agricultural practices up to an advanced level so that no constraints like pests or disease can affect the crop yield, and this is a positive growth in the agriculture sector. The only thing that keeps the farmer away from their own progress is their fear – “The fear of losing the investment in technology and maybe the thinking that what if, it does not work out well and lead to a huge loss.”

But this 20-year-old farmer understood the prerequisite demands to progress in agriculture field and is now doing something beyond traditional farming.

Hydroponics is a good way of farming because no disease can affect the plants as the farming is done soil less. Moreover, we prepare the plants in poly-house, so no environmental disease can affect the plants at all. I am happy with this method of farming and I want other farmers also to adopt hydroponics –Vipin Yadav.

Unsatisfied from the job salary package after completing his engineering degree in Computer Science, Vipin decided to start farming, but definitely not like his father, who was practicing conventional farming methods.

Like a responsible and aware youth, he chose to go for an online training through Agriculture Skill Council of India, Gurugram. After passing the initial online eligibility test he went to the main training centre in Gurugram. Out of 20 candidates, only 16 were passed for face to face training of hydroponics, and Vipin Yadav was one of them. He also took protective cultivation training from KVK Shikohpur to improve his skills.


“In 2015, I introduced the new technique of soil-less farming to my father for whom soil was the only base to grow the plant. –Vipin Yadav”

To implement what he learned during training, he started with just mere 50 trays containing small plants of two main varieties, with the investment of Rs. 5000 to 7000.

“I allocated 800 sq ft area for the hardening unit and 1000 sq ft for preparing plants by taking space on rent in Gurugram and also built poly-house in it. –Vipin Yadav”

His experimentation with 50 trays in hydroponics leads him to great success which motivated him to start it on a huge scale. The next big investment with which he started hydroponics was Rs. 250000 with the help of friends and relatives.

“Currently, I can prepare 250000 plants or more on order.”

Hydroponics is not practiced from April to mid-July due to warm climatic conditions, but still, profit is good enough to recover this gap. Vipin Yadav is growing almost all types of crops – grains, oil-seeds, vegetables, and flowers in his hydroponic farm. Machinery like sprinkler and fogger are some of the implement which he is using to make his farming easier. His flower produce is very healthy and has good yield, due to which it was even sent to President’s Secretariat.

For soil-less farming, he uses three components: Coco peat, Perlite, and Vermiculite in the ratio of 3:1:1. In 35-40 days the plants are ready and then they are kept in hardening unit for 1 week. Nutrition like NPK, zinc, magnesium, and calcium are given to the plants through the water. In Hydroponics there is no use of pesticides as no soil is used for farming, moreover, Vermicompost is used which can be easily prepared at home.

Future Plan: My future plan is to cultivate other species of cactus plants, medicinal plants and ornamental plants in my hydroponic farm for better income.

Vipin Yadav is an example of how the youth of India is saving the future of agriculture by using the proven advanced technology.

Message

“Before starting anything new in the field of agriculture, farmers must take training from KVK to enhance their skills and make themselves trained.”

 The nation needs more young and creative mind to venture in the agriculture field for better economic development and if we continue to meet such young people like Vipin Yadav, then this is a positive indication towards the future.

Prem Raj Saini

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HOW A UTTAR PRADESH FARMER IS BLOOMING HIS BUSINESS WITH FLORICULTURE

Floriculture is a profitable livelihood choice and it is booming lives of many farmers across the country. One such farmer- Mr. Prem Raj Saini from Peer Nagar village of Uttar Pradesh is an emerging floriculturist and he is an ideal example for the rest of the farmers in our society.

Prem Raj’s father was the biggest inspiration behind Prem Raj being a floriculturist. It’s a matter of the seventies when his father used to bring different varieties of flower seeds from Delhi to grow it in their farm. He used to observe his father very closely and from that time only he wanted to do something related to flower farming. Although, Prem Raj Saini is a B.Sc graduate and he could have chosen a different occupation other than farming, but he chose to follow his dreams.

On 20th May 2007, his father got expired and just after that Prem Raj decided of starting what his father left in the middle. At that time the family was financially stable and his brothers were also settled. He started farming and his elder brother opened a wholesale flower shop through which they will be selling their farming produce. The other two younger brothers were doing jobs but later on, they also joined Prem Raj and elder brother in their venture.

One initiative taken by Prem Raj united the whole family into one thread. The eldest brother is managing two flower shop in Kanjipur Phul Mandi, Prem Raj himself manage the whole farm work, and the two younger brothers are managing the shops in Sabzi Mandi of Noida. In this way, they have divided all their work, resulting in increased income. They have kept only one permanent labour and they hire more when they need in the harvesting season.

Prem Raj farms every type of flowers and vegetables according to the season. For better yield, he is following Net house farming and Bed farming method. Moreover, for good quality of yield, he avoids the use of chemical and use pesticide very rarely when required. In this way, his expenses are also reduced to half. He use all the latest farming equipment like tractor and rotavator at his farm.

Future Plan-

Saini brothers are planning to establish more shops at the different location for better income. Their future plan is to expand their farming area and business.

Family-

Currently, he is living with his full-fledged complete family (Mother, Wife, two sons and one daughter) in his village. He is very open-minded and he never enforces his thinking on his children. With floriculture business and income, today, Prem Raj Saini and his brothers are supporting every need of their family.


Message
“Nowadays, there is job scarcity, because if there is one job vacancy then there are thousands of applicants to apply for it. So, if you have land, then it’s better to start farming and reap benefit from it. Take farming as your job rather than as a low profile occupation.”

S. Bharpur Singh

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Bharpur Singh Chose Floriculture Blossoms to Reap Profit from Farming

Agriculture is a diversified field and farmers can reap good profit out of it even in less land, all they need to be aware of is the modern way of farming and the right way to do it. This is the story of Bharpur Singh an ordinary farmer from Kheri Mallan village of Patiala, who always wanted to do something different than the cultivation of wheat and paddy.

Mr. Singh after completing his studies (school) decided to help his father- Sardar Ranjeet Singh in farming, but he was never satisfied with the trend that other farmers were following (wheat-paddy cycle). Although he helped his father in the fields, but his mind and soul wanted to do something different.

In 1999, he visited Gurdwara Rara Sahib with his family and bought some flower seeds of Chrysanthemum and that was the time when he entered in the field of floriculture. In the beginning, he started growing Chrysanthemum on a small piece of land and slowly with the time he found this venture profitable, so he increased the flower farming area.

With the time, as his sons grew up they also started taking interest in his father floriculture business. Now both the sons of Bharpur Singh is equally engaged in the floriculture.

Floriculture
Currently, they are growing four types of flowers in their farm- Chrysanthemum, Marigold, Jafri and Gladiolus. They use all the modern implements on their land. Floriculture is spread in 10 acres and sometimes they also take land on lease for farming other crops.

Seed Preparation
Other than farming they have also started preparing seeds of Jafri and Chrysanthemum flowers by themselves, and they import Gladiolus seeds direct from Holland, and Marigold seeds from Kolkata. Seed preparation helps them make a good profit, sometimes they also provide seeds to their friends and relatives just to promote floriculture.

Investment & Profit from Floriculture
Rupees 2 lakhs is the investment cost for Gladiolus in 1 acre and in return he gets Rupees 4 – 5 lakhs from one acre of Gladiolus, which means almost 50% profit or more.

Marketing
They are not dependent on the third person for the marketing. They market their produce themselves in the mandi of Patiala, Nabha, Samana, Sangrur, Bathinda, and Ludhiana. Their brand name is Nirman Flower Farm. Several camps related to agriculture are also organized by horticulture department at their farm in which many progressive farmers participate and training is provided to the regular farmers about floriculture.

Sardar Bharpur Singh gives most of the credit of his successful farming venture to Dr. Sandeep Singh Grewal (Horticulture Department, Patiala), Dr. Kulwinder Singh and Dr. Ranjeet Singh (PAU) because without their help and advice he would not be able to reach this stage in his life.

He gives a message to the farmers that they should not opt agriculture as to compete with other farmers but they should do it for themselves and with full interest then only they will be able to earn profits as desired.

Starting from a small level and achieving this much success in life, Bharpur Singh sets an example as a role model for the farmers who are looking towards adopting floriculture.

Message
“My message to farmers is that they should seriously think about the benefits of diversification. The vicious circle of wheat and paddy farming has left farmers in a bad shape and under lots of debts. The fertility of the soil is decreasing and farmers are being forced to use more and more chemicals to increase production. Diversification is the only way by which farmers can achieve success and gain more profits and raise their standard of living. Moreover, farmers should not opt agriculture as to compete with other farmers but they should do it for themselves and with full interest then only they will be able to earn profits as desired.”