Tag: Crop

Jagmohan Singh Nagi

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Corn King of Punjab

Jagmohan Singh Nagi is an avid farmer and food producer who hails from Batala, Punjab. His father was a factory mechanic and always wanted him to get into the food industry. Kulwant Nutrition started in 1989 with a single plant and a small batch of corn and is now a thriving business with annual sales more than Rs 7 crore.

Contract farmer Jagmohan (now 63) cultivates 300 acres (about half the area of Central Park in New York City) of land, growing corn, mustard, wheat, and various vegetables such as carrots, cauliflower, tomatoes, and beets. For this he is associating and working with 300 farmers in the Indian states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, supplying food to companies such as PepsiCo, Kellogg’s and Domino’s Pizza. Outside the US, he also ships to the UK, New Zealand, Dubai, and Hong Kong. Years before the partition, he and his family were Karachiites.

Before settling in Punjab, Mr Nagi, Jagmohan’s father, moved to Mumbai with his family. Despite the widespread need, there was an acute shortage of technicians to maintain the grain mills. Because of this, his father jumped at the chance. One of Jagmohan’s father’s goals was to get his son a job in the restaurant business. However, he went to Birmingham University in the UK to study grain milling and grain/food engineering as there were no suitable programs in Punjab at that time. Back in India, he established Kulwant Nutrition Farm. Things did not go well at first as he struggled to harvest enough corn without help. However, at that time there was not a good corn crop in Punjab, so their factory collapsed. Therefore, despite the astronomical cost of shipping from there, he started buying corn from the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh. He then worked with Punjab Agricultural University to connect the school with businesses to ensure a successful harvest. The institution has provided high-quality seeds to farmers, and Mr. Nagi said he often buys agricultural products from these farmers. There is an old saying that effort is never wasted. Kellogg’s was his first customer.

In 1991, Jagmohan started working as a contract farmer trying to learn how to farm on his own. Mr. Jagmohan began working at PepsiCo in 1992, producing corn for the Kurkure snack. He says he needed about 1,000 tons of corn a month. He has also been supplying Domino’s Pizza since 1994. Mr Jagmohan started growing and producing vegetables and other preserves in 2013.

Although his farming business was thriving, COVID presented several challenges. When the pandemic broke out, the supply chain was immediately affected by COVID. Grocery stores have remained open, although many other businesses have closed because they are considered a basic service. Therefore, Jagmohan Singh focused on basic products such as organic corn flour and wheat flour. He wants to cultivate mustard oil, grains and chia seeds.

His company employs 70 people and thanks to him, farmers and agricultural students receive free training. They teach farmers about the latest cultivation methods and profitable marketing strategies. He wants to spread his learnings from an anecdote, which explained that selling ghee and cottage cheese are more profitable alternatives to selling milk.

As Jagmohan put it, “Government must nurture and promote agricultural enterprises at the local level” if it wants to encourage young people to enter farming. Food and agricultural technology are also to be supported. He advises farmers that strictly following instructions is the best way to achieve good results and avoid financial losses. Instead of following trends, farmers should carefully select the crops that will grow well in their area. A step will greatly improve their bottom line.

Message for farmers 

Being a farmer himself, Mr Nagi encourages other farmers to learn as much as possible and try new things. Those who cultivate the land must prioritize profitable crops. Millet, vegetables, and fruit trees should surround these fields. Instead of selling raw milk, he advises farmers to process the milk into products like barfis and other Indian sweets.

Kanta Desta

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THIS WOMAN FARMER REALIZED HOW SHE IS SPREADING DISEASES TO THE PEOPLE, BY DOING CHEMICAL FARMING AND MADE WISE DECISION BY SWITCHING TO ORGANIC

It is said that we should always be thankful to farmers because if you ate today something, it just because of a farmer’s hard work and the sweat that he sheds in the fields. But what if the farmer himself becomes the diseases distributor instead of food!

Today, chemical farming has become a trend to boost the agricultural yield. Agriculture has more become a business rather than fulfilling the basic food necessity. Producers and consumers of food, both have forgotten the basic purpose of farming.

In this situation, a well-said line by a famous agriculturalist- Masanobu Fukuoka explains the true purpose of farming-

“The ultimate goal of farming is not growing crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”

By going through the same situation, a woman- Kanta Desta, realized that how she has become a disease distributor and then she made the wisest decision of her life by switching to organic farming.

Kanta Desta from Samala Village was a common farmer who use to grow vegetable and fruit and many time she used to distribute it among her relatives, neighbours and friends. But one day, she came to know about the harmful effects of crops grown by using chemical fertilizers and pesticides and then she felt very bad. From that day, she decided that she will stop using chemicals and will adopt organic farming.

To make her step towards organic farming more effective she joined a program which was being run by Morarka Foundation and the Agriculture Department in 2004. She started growing many types of fruits, vegetables, grains and spices like apples, pears, Plum, peach, Japanese Apricot, kiwi fruit, nuts, peas, beans, eggplant, cabbage, radish, coriander, red pepper, onion, wheat, maize, urad, barley, beans and Baladi crops are also grown.

Her switch to organic farming positively affected her income and it was increased to 4 to 5 lakhs annually. Not only this, but with the help of Morarka Foundation, Kanta Desta created a group of women in her village and provided them with knowledge about Organic Farming, and also got them registered under the same foundation.

“I believe that providing knowledge to people in a group is better because it costs less and we can impart knowledge to more people at a time.”

Today her name come across the list of successful organic farmers. She has 31 bighas irrigated land through which she is being productive and is earning the profit in lakhs. Later she also visited NONI University, Delhi, Jaipur and Banglore to get more information about Organic Farming. And for her fervent effort, she has been honoured twice with state honours by the Himachal Pradesh Government. Other than this she has been awarded as the Best Farmer Award in Shimla on 15 August 2008 and she also got appreciated and awarded for her contribution in the field of organic farming on 13th June 2013.

Despite getting so much appreciation on a huge level, this woman never takes the whole credit to herself and she believes that all the credit for her success goes to Morarka Foundation and the Department of Agriculture who guided her on the right path.

Other than farming, Kanta also rears 2 cows and 3 buffaloes and use their dung and farm residue in small vermicomposting plant established in the area of 30x8x10 at her farm. She also use herbal spray aperture wash, jivamrit and NSDL in the place of pesticides, to improve the land conditions and reduce the expenses.

Now, Kanta feels happy and privileged while distributing vegetables and fruits among her relatives and friends, because she knows that what she is growing and giving to her closed ones is free of harmful chemicals and they will stay healthy by eating this.

Message
“Organic Farming is very important to if we want to keep our environment clean.”