Kharar Archives - Progressive Farmers

Harpreet Singh Bajwa, A young animal lover fulfilling the dreams of horse-riding enthusiasts.

Horses are considered to be man’s favourite animal from the very beginning. In ancient times, horses were the only means of transportation. Even today, there are many animal lovers who consider animals as an important part of their lives.

This is the story of one such animal lover, Harpreet Singh Bajwa, who has made his own Horse- Farm due to his love for animals.

Harpreet Bajwa, a resident of Kharar near Mohali in Punjab, belonging to the Military family, was practicing horse riding from the age of 10-11 years. Harpreet’s grandfather and father have served the country in Military and practiced horse riding there. Harpreet was also fond of horse-riding since childhood.

After studying his B.Com and being in a military family, he was getting trained for the job in Military with the intention of serving the country. In the meantime he also learned horse riding. But for some reason, he did not succeed for Military and started working in Delhi and Mohali for 10-12 years.

During the course of a job, we have to do things that our heart does not allow. So I have always wanted to do something different and to my liking. – Harpreet Singh Bajwa

With horse riding at a young age and almost 20 years of experience in equestrianism, Harpreet wanted to turn his hobby into a reality.

As it is said, the passion of horses is very expensive. This is why many horse enthusiasts maintain a distance from this occupation, due to higher costs. Similarly, being from an ordinary family, Harpreet could not do more, but with the money he saved during his tenure, he decided to start a horse farm.

I have always wanted to do something that would satisfy my mind. Because of my love for horses and horse riding, I decided to open a farm for horses. – Harpreet Singh Bajwa

There are several areas that require horse riding to get involved. For this purpose, he took land on lease. It costs him around Rs 7-8 lakh to start the farm. He named this farm as DKPS. Harpreet Singh Bajwa named this school after his parents’ name- Davinder Kaur and Parkash Singh. In this farm, he had horses of the Throw bread Breed. Throw bread Breed is a breed of horses that is considered the best for racing.

Currently he have 5 mares and 1 horse in the farm. Earlier, interested ones in horse-riding came up to his farm, which included children and the elders. The fees for horse riding in this farm is also low, which is why a number of people come to learn horse-riding even today.

Equestrian enthusiasts at my farm are from age 7 to age 50. Babbu Maan, a famous Punjabi singer, usually comes for horse-riding at my farm. – Harpreet Singh Bajwa

Harpreet also prepares his school children to participate in various horse racing competitions. His school children have participated in many regional and state level competitions and have won many awards.

A horse is such an animal that has its own heart and mind. The horse-rider explains the horse with his gestures. We teach all of these skills to our horse-riders at our school. – Harpreet Singh Bajwa

Harpreet’s decision to open a horse school is a very commendable decision, as those who cannot afford to spend a lot of money learning horse riding can fulfill their wish through DKPS.

Future Planning

Harpreet wants to create a better and healthier generation by training horse-riding.

Message

“We should never let our passions die. Hard work has to be done in everything. Young people should work hard to make themselves and their parents’ dreams come true and not to get intoxicated with drugs.”

Kisan Junction- Story of A Man Who Quit His Job and Turned Into Emerging Khetipreneur through Diversified Farming

These days everyone dreams of a good profession followed by a nice decent job, and why not? We were always told that happiness and satisfaction in life are always achieved by doing a good professional job in the service sector. There are very few people who want to put their hands in the soil and make a livelihood out of it. However, there is a man who chose the soil over his job and is successfully practicing natural farming.

Mr. Amarjit Singh is a khetipreneur, who is actively involved in organic farming, dairy farming and is also running a restaurant business with the name Kisan Junction in Gharuan. He started farming in 2007, at that time he didn’t have any concrete plan in the mind, he just had the confidence of making difference in his own life.

Before starting farming, Amarjit Singh went to PAU for training and also visited different states, where he observed different agriculture practices being followed by farmers in producing the natural food without any chemicals. He also went to Calicut, Kerala for turmeric cultivation and processing training.

From his state visits and training, he came to know that there is a lot of adulteration in the food products that we consume daily. And after getting the insight, he decided of farming by using the natural method only, so that he can produce food without any contamination. From the last two years, he is only using organic manure in his farm and no fertilizers and pesticides. He is so much passionate about farming that he has taken 30 acres of land on lease for farming purpose and himself he has 1.5 acres of land only. He grows sugarcane, wheat, paddy, turmeric, mango, watermelon, spices, herbal plants and other seasonal vegetables in his farm.

Dr. Ramandeep Singh was one of the main personalities in PAU, from which Amarjit Singh got inspired and decided of giving his life a new turn. And it was Dr. Ramandeep Singh only who gave the concept of On-Farm-Market to him on which Kisan Junction is based. Today, Amarjit Singh is running Kisan Junction which is located just along with his farms on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana state highway. The main motive of Kisan Junction was to help farmers get their processed products reach the market through his shop. He initiated in 2007 and it took him 9 years to establish his own on-farm-market. From the last year, he has also opened a restaurant on the same land with the same name Kisan Junction- from Farm to Fork.

Amarjit Singh is just 10th passed by qualification, and today at the age of 45 he has finally recognized that what he is meant for and what he should do. So, to guide the rest of the farmers like him, he has formed a group called Shri Dhanna bhagat Farmers Club in Gharuan. He is the president of this group and apart from farming; he also takes out time for the group meetings. They have total 18 members in their group, and the main function of their group is to discuss that which type seeds they should use or buy, modern ways to implement farming and etc. They have also bought wheat sowing, harvesting and other types of machines for agriculture practices in the name of the group, and all the members of the group can use it and can also lend it to other farmers of their village on lower/reasonable rates.

Amarjit Singh’s second most important profession is dairy farming, he has total 8 buffaloes and from the milk given by them, he makes Milk, Cottage Cheese, Khoya, Clarified Butter and Buttermilk. He sells the entire dairy products in his on-farm-market – Kisan Junction. One of the famous processed selling food items of his restaurant is Khoya Barfi which is made by using Khoya (dried whole milk or milk thickened by heating in an open iron) and Jaggery.

Things that are attracting more customers to his restaurants are deliciously fresh and nutritious food, open ventilation, proper cooling system and on road farm market. He has made the wall of the restaurants by using green net and bricks which ensure proper ventilation of air inside the restaurant.

After discussing the current trend and agriculture practices with him, he told us about his views-

“People have a very wrong mentality, they think that there is no profit in farming and they shouldn’t opt to farm as their livelihood. But this is not true. Wrong thoughts and views are induced in the mind of children like- only uneducated and illiterate people do farming and because of this, young generation look upon farming as a shabby or discreditable profession.
Nowadays, children are running behind Rs. 10,000 job and this thing have made them despondent from their life. Instead of brainwashing the kids against farming, it’s better to teach them the benefits and profits generated from farming. Agriculture is a diversified field and if a child is interested in choosing agriculture as his career then he can do wonders.”

Amarjit Singh took risk of quitting his job and starting farming, and because of his hard work and passion towards farming, today that risk has paid off well. The main motives of Amarjit Singh behind starting Kisan Junction Market Hub are:

• Helping farmers in selling their product through their shop

• Growing fresh and chemical free vegetables and fruits

• Providing fresh, original and natural food products to the customers

• Use fresh produce in the restaurant and offer healthy and fresh meal to the customers

• Guide farmers to process, do branding and market their produce themselves

Well, this is not the end, he also provides Institutional training for IAS probationers and the director also visited his farm. His future plan is to expand his on-road-farm market business and make other farmers aware that what benefits and profits they can earn from doing farming and how. He always welcomes every farmer that comes to him to get help in the field of agriculture.

Message by Amarjit Singh
“Farming sector is going through major difficulties and farmers always talk about his rights, not his responsibilities. The government is not going to come forward and help farmer every time. Farmer has to take the initiative and help himself. PAU have 6 months training program, in which a farmer is trained from the beginning of land preparation to sowing to marketing the product. So, from now on, the farmer has to take responsibility on their own shoulders if they want to earn a good livelihood from agriculture.”