Coriander Archives - Progressive Farmers

How This Farmer Made Farming a Real Profitable Venture with Sustainable Agriculture Practices

Well, farming is a profession by thinking of which everyone imagines a tough life where the farmer has to work for hours under the scorching sun or pouring rain. But you will be quite surprised to know that Gurmail Singh finds his peace and satisfaction of life in Organic Farming.

Gurmail Singh, 68, started farming in 2000 and has been going steady ever since. But before organic farming, he opted his hand on multiple professions of Motor Mechanic, Electrician, and he also learned the work of fabrication and welding, but none of the jobs suited him well and provided him a sense of fulfilment and happiness.

In 2000, when his ancestral land was getting distributed among him and his other two brothers, at that time, he also received one-third part of the property i.e. 6 acres land. Thinking of getting settled with the farming he left his job again as an electrician and began with conventional farming practices of wheat and paddy. Gurmail Singh did everything in his field of whatever he was capable of, with full dedication, but the yield was never satisfying. Fulfilling the input cost of conventional farming (chemical) practices till 2007, he was so badly submerged in the loan debts that it was almost impossible for him to come out of it. At last, he was disappointed with the farming.

But after going under the spiritual enlightenment – a Sikh ritual process of Amrit Sanchar (Amrit Chhakna) in 2007, his perception of the farming was totally changed. He decided to start organic farming on 1 acres of land and slowly its expansion in throughout the acreage. Finding of Gurmail Singh’s intention of organic farming his whole family boycotted him and he started living alone.

Adopting the path of organic farming on a land where chemical farming has been practiced ever since is a very difficult task. As a result, the yield reduced, but Gurmail Singh’s intentions for organic farming were as strong as a mighty mountain.

Watching Subhash Palekar’s video helped him a lot in the beginning, and after that in 2009, he joined multiple organizations like Kheti Virasat Mission, Nabha Foundation, and NITTTR, which educated him with the best suitable results and marketing approach to go organic. Gurmail Singh attended many events and programmes on the national level which made him aware that organic farming practices globally. Gradually with the time yield also got better and he also got the opportunity of selling his produce at a good platform. With the help of NITTTR, in 2014, Gurmail Singh got his own stall in the Chandigarh vegetable market where he can sell his produce on every Saturday. In 2015, with the co-operation of Markfed, he got another opportunity to sell his produce.

“With the time, I won my family support back and they were happy with my way of farming. In 2010, my son also joined me in my farming venture and from that day onward he is with me at every step of my farming life.”

He sells more than 20 harvested crops of his farm which includes Peas, Sugarcane, Bajra, Sorghum, Mustard, Potatoes, Green Grams, Pigeon Pea, Maize, Garlic, Onion, Coriander and much more. Other than cultivation, Gurmail Singh also started processing food processing after taking Bakery Training for 1 month from Punjab Agriculture University.

Gurmail Singh not only processes his own produce but also help other group members of Nabha Foundation by processing their produce. Flour, Multigrain Flour, Pinniyaan (Indian sweet dish), Sarson Saag and Makki Roti are some of his processed food items which he sells along with the vegetables.

When it comes to marketing, it had always been a smooth thing for Gurmail Singh, because of his determination, hard work, and well-known personality among the officials and organization members. Currently, he is living with his family in a village of Nabha, where with the help of 4-5 workers he manages all the labour work at the farm, and for processing, he employees 1-2 workers according to the need.

Future Plan:
In future, Gurmail Singh is planning to form a new group where all the members will do organic farming, processing, and marketing.

Message

“Farmers has to understand that quality matters, not quantity, the day when they will understand this thing, at that day all the problems of yield, marketing, and other issues will get resolved. And today farmer should focus on demand and supply rather than growing conventional crops aimlessly.”

In the beginning, there were many problems that Gurmail Singh faced, moreover, his family also abandoned him, people used to call him mad for adopting organic, but the desire to do something different has made him achieve the present success in his life. He is one of the modest people for whom award or appreciation never mattered, for him his yield is the only award for his work.

Gurmail Singh is happy that he is playing his part very dedicatedly and he wants others to do it as well.

Graduated From Symbiosis This Husband-Wife Duo, Giving a New Definition to Agribusiness with Their New Concept of Dairy Farming

What life do you imagine after doing MBA in Agribusiness from a prestigious university of India, maybe an Agricultural Analyst, Farm Appraiser, Market Analyst, Quality Controller, or Agribusiness Marketing Coordinator?

Well, all these are dream job profiles for MBA Agriculture graduates and it will become cherry on the top if you have done your MBA from an esteemed university like Symbiosis, Pune. But there are very few people who instead of being part of a multinational organization, prefer to emerge as a start-up which gives true meaning to their skills and adequacy.

Urban Dairy- An initiative taken by a power couple- Ankur and Ankita with the mission to redefine the concept of dairy farming with their distinctive idea of selling milk in raw form. This farm is located in district Unnao, 55 kilometres from Kanpur city.

Before starting this milk venture, Ankur was working as a Bio-technologist and Agriculturist in different companies (total work experience 2 years). In 2014, Ankur tied love knot with his friend Ankita, who also did MBA from Symbiosis, Pune with him.

Well, this idea of selling raw milk came into accomplishment after Ankur’s nephew came from abroad to visit him. As this was the first experience of Ankur’s nephew in India, so he decided to make it special.

Ankur especially bought an indigenous breed of cow- Shahiwal and started rearing her for milk purpose. Although the purpose of raw cow milk was only for Ankur’s nephew as he had realised that unpasteurized cow milk is more healthy and tastier than packed milk. Slowly, the whole family started drinking the cow milk and everyone liked it.

Ankur was fond of animals since childhood, but after this instance, he thought why to compromise with the health, and in 2015 both husband and wife (Ankur & Ankita) decided to start their own dairy farm. Ankur attended a short training at NDRI Karnal before starting dairy farming and in the meanwhile, his wife Ankita looked after all the construction work of the farm. They began with 6 Holstein cross breed cows, and now it has been 3 years and they have 34 Holstein/ Jersey cross breed cows and 7 indigenous cows (Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparker) at their farm.

Urban Dairy is what they thought of naming their brand, blending the rural theme with the city, a fusion of two regions, which are completely opposite to each other. From managing dairy farm to product marketing & development, they did not leave even a single step to reach where they are today. The whole farm is build-out in 4 acres of land and there are 7 workers for its maintenance. Bathing, feeding, maintaining hygiene of cows and other farm-related work are done manually by the worker and milking is done by the milking machine as well as manually by hands as per the comfort of cow. Both Ankur and Ankita make it a point to visit the farm once daily without fail. They not only like to spend most of their time at the farm but also it helps them supervise the workers in a better way. The entire milling and bottling and transport is under strict supervision of the founders.

“Ankur: We also prepare the cow feed ourselves, because milk yield & cow’s health totally depends on the feed and we never compromise on this. The cow feed formula that we follow is- 33% protein, 33% industrial waste (choker), 33% grains (maize, chickpea) and extra minerals.”

Other than dairy farming they are also actively involved in organic farming of vegetables. They have leased an extra 4 acres land. Earlier Ankita used that land as a kitchen garden. She never used any fertilizer/pesticide on that land other than cow dung. Now the land has totally turned into an organic piece of fertile acreage which they are using for farming wheat, chickpea, carrot, garlic, chillies, coriander, and seasonal veggies. They use farm crops for the cow’s feed and home purpose.

“In the beginning, my HF crossbreed cow was giving 12-litre milk, after second pregnancy she started giving 18-litre milk and now she is pregnant the third time and we are expecting 24-litre milk. There is a possibility of increase in milk production imminently.”

Marketing:

Instead of carrying milk in large milk containers to the customers and using primitive milk measuring ladle, they have come up with an innovative concept to enhance their product image. They pack the raw milk directly into glass bottles after filtration process and then deliver it to the door of the customers.

People have accepted their product with open arms. Till today, i.e. 3 years and they haven’t used a single marketing strategy or advertising to allure the customer to use their product. The entire market they are catering to, has been formed through word-of-mouth publicity by their existing customers. The response has motivated them to a level that they have started with the production of paneer, ghee and other milk based dairy products. The positive response from customers has increased their sale.

They have their own distribution network in the city for milk sale and by seeing their advancement slowly with the time it will increase to manifolds.

Future Plan:

Indigenous cow breeds milk production capacity is not that high, and he wants to develop a new cow breed by cross-breeding indigenous cows which have good milk production capacity as the milk of our Indigenous breeds is considered better in quality and proven to have multiple health benefits for humans.

According to him, milk can be kept at 2 degree centigrade for one week in healthy condition, and for that purpose, he wants to invest in chiller storage in the coming time, to store the milk for long time and use it for multiple purposes.

Message:
“Dairy farmers should never neglect the hygiene and care of their cows, they should care about them as they care for their own health. And before starting dairy farming every farmer must acquire knowledge and keep themselves updated with the current dairy farming trends for better future. Dairy farming can only be profitable if the animals in your farm are happy. The selling price of your product wouldn’t get you to earn profits, but a happy animal can definitely help you earn good profits.”