Tag: Himachal Pradesh

Mandeep Verma

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How a Farmer is earning Lakhs of money from barren land

Land is everything to a farmer. Yield of the crop will directly depend on how fertile the land is. But if the land will be barren, then there would be no hope left for a farmer. There is a farmer from Himachal Pradesh who is earning good money by doing farming on barren and unproductive land.

Mandeep Verma, after completing his MBA, served 4-5 years in Wipro Pvt. Ltd. But he was not satisfied with his job and returned to Solan with his wife. He decided to do farming on his land, in Solan, which was not productive. He didn’t want to do conservative farming like all the farmers generally do. He decided to do something different from others and ended up at choosing horticulture.

To make this view a reality, he first got complete information about the weather in his area, then he met the doctors at Agricultural University and got the knowledge about horticultural crops cultivation. Then he decided to do Kiwi farming.

To know everything about Kiwi, i went to the university library and read a number of books on Kiwi farming. I also met University professors and then i started the Kiwi farming – Mandeep Verma

After meeting with Horticulture department of Solan and professors in Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University, he decided to prepare Kiwi orchard in 2014. He made the Kiwi orchard in 14 bigha land.

In this garden, he planted the Alicene and Hayward varieties of kiwi plant. He invested about 14 lakh rupees on his kiwi farm and then in 2017, he made a website to sell the kiwi fruit.

The attempt made to bring fruits directly from orchard to the customer was successful – Mandeep Verma

The supply of Kiwi is done after the online order is received from the website. The delivery is available in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.

All the information regarding harvesting and packing of the fruit is given on the box. A packing of 1 kg fruit is prepared and sold at Rs 350 but price of kiwi in Solan is Rs 150/kg.

According to Mandeep, kiwi cultivation in India is originated from Himachal Pradesh. But now Arunachal Pradesh contributes 60% of the total Kiwi production in India.

Mandeep cultivates the kiwi using organic methods only. He knows the importance of organic farming that’s why he prepares the vermicompost himself.

The kiwi that we grow in our farm, does not get perished for 2 months – Mandeep Verma

After successful results in Kiwi farming, he started Apple farming in 2018. He believes in “Zero Budget Farming”

Achievements

Due to getting success in Kiwi farming, in 2019, Mandeep was awarded with “Progressive Farmer Award” in Kisan Mela, HP.

Future Planning

Currently Mandeep Verma has two nurseries and he want to increase the number.

Message
“Before doing any type of farming, weather related information of the place should be obtained. Every type of information is available on social media, so we must use it properly. To get more profits, we should go for organic farming and Zero Budget Farming.”

Hariman Sharma

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Story of a Farmer Who Did His Karma and Achieved Sweet Taste of Success through His Hard Work

It is said that nothing can withstand the power of human will. With the same will and consistency there came a man who with his continuous effort developed a new variety of apple on a land where it was almost impossible.

Mr. Hariman Sharma is a successful farmer having orchards of Apple, Mangoes, Peach, Coffee, Litchi, and Pomegranate. Coming from a subtropical place (Village Paniyala Kothi, district Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh) where temperature goes up to 45 degrees and land consist of 80% rock and 20% soil, growing apple there was almost impossible, but the consistent effort of Hariman Sharma’s made it happen.

Earlier Hariman Sharma was not a farmer and the success that he has achieved today, for that he has faced many challenges and difficulties in his life. From 1971 to 1982 he was a labourer; from 1983 to 1990, he did rock breaking and vegetable cultivation; from 1991 to 1998, he also started nurturing mango orchard along with vegetable cultivation.

In 1999 came a turning point when he observed an apple seedling sprouted in his courtyard. He preserved that seedling and started nurturing it with the knowledge that he gained during his farming experience. To improve the quality he grafted the branch of the apple tree on the stem of the plum tree and the results were exceptionally good. After two years the apple tree started giving fruits. Ultimately, he developed a different variety of apple which can be grown commercially at very low hills with a warm climate.

Slowly with the time words got spread about the discovery of a new variety of apple by Hariman Sharma. Most people rubbished these reports and some were surprised. But on 7 July 2007, he went to Shimla and offered a basket of apples grown by him to the Himachal CM. The CM immediately gathered his cabinet colleagues and all of them tasted those apples. And soon the CM named this apple as “Hariman”. Many experts from Horticulture University and department especially visited his orchards and were truly amazed and convinced by his work.

He has grown 8 apple trees of the same variety and they are growing alongside the mango trees in his orchard and are also giving good yield till date. The apple variety that Hariman Sharma has invented is named after him – HRMN-99. So far, he has distributed more than 3 lakh of saplings to farmers, gardeners, entrepreneurs and government organization across the country and 55 apple saplings of HRMN-99 is also planted in Rashtrapati Bhavan.  He also has fruit orchards of Mango, Litchi, Pomegranate, Coffee and Peach trees.

The apple variety that Hariman Sharma has created, requires low chilling and produces flowers and fruits under subtropical plains experiencing high temperatures. His achievement is a huge thing in the field of horticulture. Today, Hariman Sharma’s contribution towards the society is simply great and he is like an inspiration for others farmers.

Today Hariman apple are being grown and nurtured in almost every state of India. His hard work has proved that apple can be grown commercially at very low hills with a warm climate. Mr. Sharma has been sharing and spreading improved technologies and his innovation among the fellow farmers of his area.

Hariman Sharma’s work dedication in the field of agriculture has made him achieve many awards and accolades, some of them are listed below-

• Awarded as progressive farmer at Indian Agricultural Research institute (IARI), Delhi.

• Received an award for his innovation from the President of India by National Innovation Foundation for the ‘In-Residence’ programme at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

• Best Himachali Kisan Title 2010

• Prerna Srot Samman Puruskar, August 15, 2009

• State Level Best Farmers Award, August 15, 2008

• Successful Apple Production Award in Una (2011)

• Board Level and District Level Award 2007 & 2008

• Krishi Pandit Award on 19th January 2017

• Best Farmer Award 29.4.2017 on the auspicious occasion of IFFCO’s Golden Jubilee.

• IARI Fellow Farmer Award by Union Agriculture Minister of State – Pusa Bhawan – 17.3.2010

• National Innovative Farmer Award by Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ministery, Government of India – Given by Radha Mohan Singh on 21 March, 2016

• Awarded for the apple production by Governor of Himachal Pradesh on 3 February, 2016

• National 2nd Award by President on 4 March, 2017, Sponsored by National Innovation Foundation, India.

• Received Farmer Scientist Award by Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Bikaner on 9 March, 2017

MESSAGE TO FARMERS
“Karma is the right of human beings. Karma is not done for achieving the fruits. In a field, farmer’s work is to sow the seeds, but growing grains is not in the hands of the farmer. The farmer should never leave his work incomplete and should try everything to make his best effort. I tried to nurture that apple seedling and do something innovative with it, that’s why I’m here and that’s why an apple variety is named after me. Every farmer should try his best and do his karma.”

Krishan Dutt Sharma

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HOW ORGANIC FARMING HELPED KRISHAN DUTT SHARMA SCRIPT HIS SUCCESS IN THE FIELD OF AGRICULTURE

There are situations in life which make people realize the missing objective of their lives and inspire them to achieve it. The same thing happened with an ordinary farmer- Krishan Dutt Sharma, of village- Chikhar (Shimla) and motivated him to adopt organic farming.

Achievements of Krishan Dutt Sharma in organic farming has made him so popular that today his name is counted in the list of important people in the field of agriculture.

It all started when, Krishan Dutt Sharma got the opportunity to visit Hyderabad (November 11, 2002), with the help of Agriculture Department. During that visit, he got an overview of Organic Farming. He was curious to know more about it, as well as he wanted to implement it.

His passion and ideas came into action when he came in contact with Morarka Foundation (in 2004). Until that time, he got well aware of the adverse effects of increased use of chemicals in the agriculture field and this made him very distressed and anxious. As he knew that, he also has to face the consequences of fertilizers and pesticides in the coming future, so he decided to adopt organic farming completely.

He had total 20 bigha land out which 5 bighas was irrigated land and 15 bigha was rain-fed area. In the beginning, he purchased an apple mother plant (root-stock) from Horticulture Department, and from that plant, he established his whole garden with 400 plants of apples. He also grew pears tree (20), cherry trees (20), peach trees (10) and pomegranate tree (15). Along with fruits, he also started growing vegetables like cauliflower, peas, beans, capsicum, and broccoli.

Generally, broccoli crop grown with pesticides and chemicals gets easily spoil, but the broccoli grown by Krishan Dutt Sharma in an organic way, significantly has much life. Due to this reason now broccoli grown by farmers organically is being carried to Delhi market for marketing purpose. Moreover, broccoli grown organically is sold around Rs 100-150 / kg and these numbers are escalating the income reach of farmers up to 500000 rupees, and in the boost of this six-digit figure, half of the income is earned from the sale of broccoli only.

To inspire more farmers towards organic farming, Krishan Dutt Sharma has created a group in his village under his leadership. His initiative has inspired many farmers to adopt organic farming.

Krishan Dutt Sharma’s achievements in the field of organic farming are very huge and even Himachal Government has honoured him with Best Farmer Award in “Organic Fair and Food Festival” in June 2013. But because of his humbleness, he gives all the credit of his success to Morarka Foundation and the Department of Agriculture.

He uses cows (3), bullocks (1), and calves (2) dung in his fields and forest, and he also prepares Vermicompost for better yield. He has prepared a bed of 30x8x10 on his farm where he prepares Vermicompost from 250 earthworms every year. In place of pesticides, he uses herbal spray, aperture wash, Jivamrit, and NSDL. Using natural pesticides in place of artificial improves his land condition and also decreases his expense.

Message:
“He wants to inspire other farmers to adopt organic farming for better future and good income.”

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.”