Jaggery Powder Archives - Progressive Farmers

How This Son Stepped Into His Father’s Shoes So Perfectly by Reinventing His Father Jaggery Processing Business at a Greater Level

This story is all about, how a son (Bhupinder Singh Bargari) prosperously carried out his father’s (Sukhdev Singh Bargari) occupational work and came up with the famous Jaggery Brand- BARGARI in Punjab.

There was a time when the ox was used to extract the sugarcane juice to make Jaggery out of it. But as the time evolved machines came into function for the sugarcane juice extraction. Moreover, due to indiscriminate use of chemical and color in making gudd, this coarse sweetener lost all its charm and slowly people got attracted towards the crystal of white sugar.

Still, many families prefer jaggery over sugar and they use the traditional method to make Jaggery from sugarcane juice. This is the story of Sukhdev Singh Bargari and his son- Bhupinder Singh Bargari. In 1972, Sukhdev Singh used to sharpen the tools and equipment of the farmers and in return he uses to take grains, vegetables or whatever the farmers offer, as his daily wage. After some time, he purchased an engine and started making jaggery from it. His pure traditional method of Jaggery extraction and no use of chemicals made his Gudd famous and many villagers started giving him sugarcane crop to make Gudd for it. Sukhdev used to do this work mainly from mid of November to March.

There came a time when Sukhdev’s hard work came with the real zest and the demand of jaggery made by him increased to multiple times. This is a matter of 2011 when his daughter was getting married. At that time he distributed a sweet made up of jaggery, desi ghee (clarified butter) and dry fruits with the wedding invitation cards to all his relatives and friends. Everyone relished that sweet very much and demanded him to make more for them, and at that stage, his son- Bhupinder Singh Bargari decided to take hold of his father’s work and expand it to a grander level. After this instance, the father-son duo started making two types of jaggery- one with dry fruits and another without.

Bargari family’s traditional method of cleaning the sugarcane juice with the slimy substance of okra made their product superior than the artificial jaggery made by using chemical and color. Their pure and clean method of making jaggery made Sukhdev Singh and Bhupinder Singh popular and people start recognizing them for their work.

Just following father’s footstep is not what Bhupinder Singh Bargari is up to. Mr. Bhupinder holds the degree of B.Ed. and MA and after that, he has also cleared ETT Teacher Exam and he is working as a school teacher. After getting free from his teaching profession he daily makes out time for the jaggery business.

In order to make this traditional sweetener more popular, Bhupinder started farming sugarcane of C085 variety in 2 acres area and also formed a Self-Help-Group through which he motivated farmer-members of the group to grow sugarcane. This step of Bhupinder resulted in farming sugarcane as much as needed, which reaped great profit to farmers as well as to Bargari family.

From last 5 years, Jaggery produced by Bargari family has won 4 times first prize and one-time second prize in the competition organized by PAU. In 2014, they also won Udami Kisan State Award for good quality jaggery. Bhupinder Singh also went to Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow and discussed his marketing techniques with them in National Jaggery Sammelan. This is not the only approach that he took to spread the awareness for Jaggery marketing. He also participated in PAU event held in March, to enlighten the farmers with the marketing knowledge for their betterment.

Establishment of his own processing plant…

Jaggery Processing Plant

Currently, he has his own Jaggery Processing Plant at Kot Kapura-Bathinda road, where he processes pure Gudd (Jaggery) by following their own traditional method. The demand of Gudd and Shakkar (Jaggery Powder) increases in winter because the tea made up of pure jaggery (made from traditional method) don’t have any harmful effect on human body. Even, the specialist of Gastroenterologist (Stomach Doctors) of that particular area also started recommending their patients to eat gudd (Jaggery) made by the Bargari Family.

Cereal Crops Processing Plant

Other than this Bhupinder also have his own cereal processing plant at the same place, where he processes wheat, maize, barley, sorghum, and mustard grown by the members of his SHG. Along with the processing plant, he has also opened a store, through which he sells his processed products.

How the brand was named:

After knowing about the recommendations of the doctors about his Jaggery, he was very influenced by it and he decided “Bargari Jaggery” as his brand name.

Bhupinder also has an FB Page by the name “Bargari Jaggery” through which he communicates with the ideal customers. He has also discussed the whole procedure of Jaggery making through his FB Page.

He always maintains a continuous contact with the food technology and food processing and engineering departments of Agricultural University to bring positive changes in his business.

Today, Bhupinder Singh gives all the credit to his father- Mr. Sukhdev Singh Bargari for whatever he has achieved in his life. Apart from running a successful business, Bhupinder Singh Bargari is also a good teacher and is helping the people and kids of the village Kothe Kehar Singh village of Faridkot district. Many articles have been published in the local newspaper about his good deeds. He not only wants to help the farmers but also to inspire the youngsters and help them with his work and knowledge.

Well, this father-and-son duo worked successfully and has reached up to this level in their lives, just because of the understanding they had in between them. In future also Bhupinder Singh Bargari will continue his good work and will keep inspiring the young generation farmers with his knowledge.

Message:

“
I want farmers to get involved in food processing business along with farming. In this way, they can make a good profit out of their occupation. Today, farmers need to be updated with the modern agricultural practices only then they can move ahead and do well in their fields.
”

HOW THIS YOUNG STUDENT FARMER OF GURDASPUR IS SETTING GOALS FOR OTHER YOUNGSTERS IN THE FIELD OF FARMING

This young student of Gurdaspur is unlike other student, he is not the one who chose farming because his father use to do that and he had no other option left, but he chose farming as an alternate learning option along with his studies.

Meet Kaushal Singh an aspiring student who in the bright young age of 22 has setup his own agri-business. Yes, just 22, in this blooming age where most of the youngsters are still confused with their career option, Kaushal Singh has made up his own product of brand name “CANE FARMS” and he is also marketing the products in the market.

Kaushal, comes from a family of Zamindars (landlords), and they use to give their land on rent to other farmers. Earlier their ancestors use to do farming but as the time passed the next generation prefer to go away from farming, but who knew that the youngest generation of the family will start his journey with farming again.

Well the journey of Kaushal Singh up to “CANE FARMS” was not that clear and easy. Like other youngsters of Punjab, Kaushal Singh also had plans to go abroad to his elder brother after completing his school (12th). Even his Visa for Australia was also ready, but at the end moment the whole family was hit by a very sad news. Kaushal Singh’s mother was detected with cancer, due to which Kaushal cancelled his plan of going abroad.

Although Kaushal’s mother didn’t survived cancer but then he decided to do something productive by staying in India in his home town only. In all the hard times Kaushal never lost his hope and connectivity with studies. He enrolled himself in B.Sc. Agriculture and thought that

“I thought that we have enough money and 12 acres of land here in Punjab, so why not utilize it properly.”

So he took back his land from the renters and started farming sugarcane organically. In 2015 he produced Jaggery and Jaggery Powder out of Sugarcane. As he had no knowledge in the beginning about marketing so he started selling it openly without any packing and branding. But Kaushal faced a huge loss in this venture.

But as it said that nothing can stop the flying heart. So Kaushal decided of partnering with his friends- Harinder Singh Rear. Along with him Kaushal cultivated sugarcane in 10 acres of land and Harinder in 20 acres. This time Kaushal was very cautious and he took expert advice from Dr. Ramandeep Singh- Agribusiness Expert in Punjab Agriculture University.

Dr. Ramandeep Singh inspired Kaushal and he told Kaushal to start packing and branding his product before selling it in the market. Kaushal did the same, he started selling his product from his nearby village markets. He faced failure and success both, some shopkeepers happily accepted his product but some didn’t. But slowly Kaushal set his feet strongly in the market and he started getting good response.

Kaushal decided his brand name SWEET GOLD before getting it registered but later on he changed the name to CANE FARMS because of the unavailability of the name.

Today Kaushal and his friend is managing everything on their own- from farming to marketing and they are selling their product in the whole Punjab. They also have designed a logo for their brand. Earlier they were buying box and stickers from the market, but now Kaushal has started doing everything at his own level.

Future Plan

In future we are planning to take every organic farmer along with us in our venture to sell the products. So that other farmers who are unaware of our brand, can know about the modern agribusiness trends and take advantage of it.

For Kaushal this is just the beginning and in the future also he is going to come up with more bright ideas to take out more profit from agriculture.

MESSAGE FOR FARMERS:

“Those young farmers in the age group of 18-20, who thinks that farming is a losing deal, this message is for them- They need to understand what farming is, because if they also start thinking indicatively like us, they can also work unitedly with us.”