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Karamjit Singh

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Karamjit Singh: Revitalizing Jaggery Production and Inspiring Farmers in Babbanpur

In the quaint village of Babbanpur, nestled in the heart of North India, resides a progressive farmer named Karamjit Singh. Known to most farmers in the region, Karamjit has revolutionized the jaggery production and selling through his dedication, innovation, and unwavering commitment to quality. With a rich family legacy in sugarcane farming, Karamjit has taken his ancestral expertise to new heights, introducing a range of unique jaggery flavors and expanding his market beyond borders. Today, Karamjit not only aspires to excel in exports but also dreams of promoting authentic Punjabi cuisine. His success story serves as an inspiration and guiding light for fellow farmers.

Karamjit Singh’s jaggery production venture has proven to be a profitable endeavor, surpassing the returns from traditional crop sales in the mandis. To establish a standard set-up, an investment of approximately Rs 18 lakhs is required. With sheer determination and meticulous planning, Karamjit manages 25 to 30 acres of sugarcane production, dedicating the entire harvest towards his jaggery production. Instead of sending the crop to mills, he channels all the raw material into his own processing unit, ensuring full control over the quality and value-added products.

By focusing on jaggery production, Karamjit has witnessed a significant increase in profits compared to conventional crop sales. The value addition and demand for his jaggery and related products have resulted in a remarkable 40% boost in overall earnings. This entrepreneurial shift has not only elevated his economic status but has also set a shining example for other farmers in the region. Karamjit’s success story serves as a testament to the potential of diversification and value addition within the agricultural sector.

Karamjit’s decision to prioritize jaggery production and invest in the necessary infrastructure has paid off. Instead of relying on the uncertain returns from selling raw sugarcane in the mandis, he has tapped into the lucrative market for jaggery and its various flavors. This strategic move has not only ensured better financial stability but has also enabled Karamjit to establish a niche for himself in the industry.

Karamjit’s journey into the world of jaggery production began with his grandfather, who started sugarcane farming and garnered numerous accolades from the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana (PAU). Inspired by his grandfather’s achievements, Karamjit’s father established a sugarcane-processing unit eleven years ago, laying the foundation for Karamjit’s future endeavors.

To enhance his knowledge and skills, Karamjit sought training from the KVK (Krishi Vigyan Kendra) cooperation and received further guidance from the PAU. Harnessing his newfound expertise, he introduced fifteen unique flavors to his jaggery production. Initially, Karamjit faced resistance from his village community, but his relentless pursuit of quality and his ability to upgrade machinery gradually won them over. Today, the villagers not only appreciate his products but also take pride in his achievements.

With a focus on marketing, Karamjit embraced social media platforms and participated in Kisan Melas (Farmer Fairs), which proved instrumental in establishing his name in the industry. Through these events, he showcased the diverse range of flavors he offered, attracting customers from far and wide. His jaggery products even found their way into international markets, marking a significant milestone in his entrepreneurial journey.

Karamjit Singh’s exceptional achievements extend beyond jaggery production. His prowess in the agricultural domain has been recognized in various fields, including dairy farming. His dedication and expertise led to receiving prestigious awards in this realm, establishing him as a notable figure closely associated with the Punjab Dairy Farmers Association (PDFA). In 2019, Karamjit’s remarkable efforts were acknowledged when he secured the first award from the esteemed Punjab Agricultural University. Moreover, his excellence in farming practices earned him a place among the top five farmers honored at the Chief Minister Awards. His talent was further recognized with a prize from the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) in Karnal.

Karamjit’s pursuit of excellence did not stop at dairy farming alone. His passion for agriculture led him to diversify his endeavors. In addition to sugarcane farming, he cultivates corn and cotton on 25 acres of his land. With a keen eye for sustainability, Karamjit utilizes the byproducts of his sugarcane production as a valuable resource. The residues serve a dual purpose, being utilized as both a renewable fuel source and nutrient-rich organic manure. Furthermore, Karamjit has ventured into dairy farming, where he has earned numerous accolades year after year. At present, his livestock comprises five cows and five buffaloes, contributing to his thriving agricultural enterprise.

Karamjit encountered several challenges along the way. Maintaining the quality of his products required close supervision of labor, ensuring consistency and excellence. Additionally, marketing his products effectively on social media platforms demanded creative strategies and continuous engagement. However, with perseverance and determination, Karamjit overcame these obstacles, establishing a strong foothold in the market.

Karamjit’s success would not have been possible without the unwavering support of his joint family. Their belief in his vision and dedication has fueled his journey. Moreover, Karamjit’s children have also shown immense interest in his work, paving the way for a promising future.

Looking ahead, Karamjit aims to focus on expanding his export business and promoting authentic Punjabi cuisine, including delicacies such as corn bread, mustard leaf curry, and buttermilk. He envisions his products reaching every corner of the globe, highlighting the rich flavors of his region. Furthermore, Karamjit continues to engage in D practices, cultivating corn and cotton on his additional land.

Message to farmers

Driven by a desire to uplift fellow farmers, Karamjit aspires to be a beacon of guidance for those seeking to venture into jaggery production. He encourages farmers to closely observe his operations, from setting up the infrastructure to marketing the final products. Karamjit believes that sharing knowledge and experiences is vital for the growth and prosperity of the agricultural community.

Chamkaur Singh

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Cultivating Success: Chamkaur Singh’s Journey in Farming and Contract Agriculture

In Ina Baja, a small village nestled in the heart of Punjab, a man named Chamkaur Singh has carved a name for himself in the field of agriculture. With a passion for farming deeply ingrained in his soul, Chamkaur has transformed his humble beginnings into a flourishing enterprise that encompasses a variety of crops and provides employment to fifty individuals.

Chamkaur’s journey commenced in 1991 when he took his first steps into the world of farming. Inspired by the bountiful fields of his friend, he resolved to learn the intricacies of agricultural practices. With unwavering determination, he sought guidance from the esteemed university, which equipped him with the necessary skills and knowledge to embark on his farming venture.

Starting with a meager two canal land, Chamkaur initially focused on cultivating potatoes. The success he achieved in this endeavor fueled his ambitions, leading him to expand his operations to two acres. In due course, he diversified his crops to include tomatoes, cotton, paddy, wheat, capsicum, and cauliflower. Over time, his enterprise expanded exponentially, now spanning over fifty acres of land.

Notably, twenty-five acres of Chamkaur’s vast expanse are dedicated solely to tomato cultivation. Recognizing the potential in this crop, he established a strong partnership with the esteemed Crevice Company. Every day, two trucks laden with freshly harvested tomatoes depart from his farm, destined to meet the demands of Crevice’s discerning clientele. To enhance his expertise in tomato farming, Chamkaur sought training from Balwinder Singh Bhalimansa in Hisar, specifically focusing on the selection and management of tomato seeds.

Chamkaur’s dedication and proficiency did not go unnoticed. In 2008, he was honored with an award from the Chief Minister of Punjab, recognizing his outstanding contributions to agriculture. His expertise in crop diseases and management has made him a trusted resource for private companies, who often choose his farms as ideal locations to conduct demonstrations for their new agricultural products. Despite his achievements, Chamkaur remains modest and shy on stage, preferring to let his work speak for itself.

In addition to his accomplishments, Chamkaur has been a beneficiary of various subsidies from the Horticulture department. These subsidies have facilitated the acquisition of essential equipment such as crates, spray pumps, power meters, and even a small air conditioner. Chamkaur acknowledges that problems are an inherent part of life, and instead of succumbing to them, he embraces challenges and strives to forge ahead, armed with resilience and determination.

One of Chamkaur’s notable endeavors has been his involvement in contract farming. In 1994, he embarked on tomato farming and wisely chose to divide his yield. Half of his produce was sold to a local factory, ensuring a steady income, while the remaining half made its way to the open market. Over time, he established a partnership with Punjab Agro and eventually forged an association with Crevice, a decision that proved immensely beneficial.

Through his experiences, Chamkaur has recognized the merits of contract farming. The fixed rates offered in such arrangements mitigate the risks associated with uncertain market prices, providing stability and security for farmers. Furthermore, collaborating with companies grants access to invaluable technical knowledge that enhances a farmer’s understanding and facilitates their growth. Chamkaur firmly believes that every farmer should consider joining contract farming and offers himself as a resource, willing to extend a helping hand to fellow agriculturists. He is prepared to provide training and nursery facilities but emphasizes that hard work is essential for success.

Chamkaur Singh’s achievements extend beyond farming alone. He has also ventured into the production and sale of G2 and G3-level potatoes.

Message to farmers

If you are a diligent, hardworking farmer seeking support, a valuable opportunity awaits. Reach out to Chamkaur Singh, he offers not only guidance but also training and nursery services. Seize the chance to enhance your skills, access resources, and cultivate a prosperous future.

Sarabjit Singh Grewal

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Sowing Seeds of Resilience: Sarabjit Singh’s Journey as a Progressive Farmer

In the vibrant city of Patiala, where the fields stretched as far as the eye could see, resided a progressive farmer named Sarabjit Singh Grewal. Blessed with 6.5 acres of fertile land, Sarabjit embarked on his journey in fruit farming in the year 1983. His early years were filled with enthusiasm and a thirst for knowledge as he tirelessly cultivated various fruit crops.

Sarabjit’s passion for agriculture was deeply rooted in his family’s background. His father, Sardar Jagdayl Singh, had retired from Panjab Agriculture University’s Horticulture department in 1980 and was also involved in establishing the Fruit Research Centre in Bathinda. Growing up, Sarabjit was inspired by his father’s expertise and guidance, and it was in 1983 that he decided to pursue agriculture.

Refusing to be disheartened by setbacks, Sarabjit delved into extensive research to enhance his farming practices. With a Master’s and PhD in Zoology from Punjabi University, Sarabjit had a strong academic background that further fueled his thirst for knowledge. He voraciously read books on horticulture and sought information from the vast realm of the internet. Through his dedicated research, Sarabjit gained a wealth of knowledge that allowed him to make informed decisions about his farming endeavors.

In 2018, after nearly fifteen years of experimentation with different crops such as guava, Indian gooseberry, and pomegranate, Sarabjit made a strategic decision to focus on cultivating plum, guava, and peaches. Drawing from the lessons learned from his previous experiences, he carefully studied the unique requirements of peach trees, ensuring that the soil, water, and climate conditions were ideal for their growth. He also adopted the package of practices recommended by Panjab Agriculture University (PAU) and sought guidance from horticulture officers.

Sarabjit’s peach orchard flourished as he embraced the challenges that came with fruit farming. He understood the importance of close plantation and dedicated individual care and attention to each tree, including proper pruning, pest control, and disease prevention. His unwavering dedication and countless hours spent monitoring his trees resulted in a bountiful harvest.

To establish a market for his produce, Sarabjit relied on the services of an intermediary. He recognized the significance of building a strong network to connect with potential buyers and ensure fair prices for his hard-earned fruits. This allowed him to focus on the cultivation process, confident that his fruits would reach eager consumers.

As the sun sets over Sarabjit’s peach orchard, the fruits of his labor stand tall as a testament to his unwavering dedication. His choice of the Shan-e-Punjab species of peach, along with the cultivation of apples, plums, and even exotic fruits like dragon fruit, showcases his adaptability and willingness to explore new horizons in fruit farming. Sarabjit’s success story highlights the importance of knowledge, resilience, and a deep love for the land in achieving agricultural excellence.

Message to farmers

Sarabjit encourages fellow farmers to persevere through the inevitable difficulties, for the joy and satisfaction derived from a life devoted to nurturing the land are immeasurable. He also acknowledges that there may be limitations to earning potential in the fruit farming industry, but the rewards go beyond monetary gains.

Narendra and Lokesh

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A tale of two friends

If we talk about India, then people do a lot of animal husbandry here. People’s attachment to animals, their maintenance, and their different affinities with them are seen here.

Let us tell you that India has the first place in the world in terms of number of buffaloes, the second place in terms of cow and goat farms, and the third place in terms of number of sheep. Animal husbandry brings in crores of rupees here each year. Today you will read about Narendra and Lokesh, residents of Haryana, India, who started Yaduvanshi Goat Farm and are earning crores of rupees by rearing goats. They both studied at the Army School. Narendra and his friend Lokesh are residents of Narnaul in Mahendragarh district in the state of Haryana. Both had been friends since childhood. Both of them completed their early education at the Army School. Narendra then pursued B.Tech., while his friend Lokesh completed his MCA studies. There was such a friendship between the two that they completed their studies together.

Narendra stated that when he and his friend Lokesh used to study together, both of them did not want to do business. Later, while working at a regular job, they planned to expand their business. Both of them liked their jobs and were earning lakhs of rupees, but both of them made a plan to do something of their own. With this thought, both of them started goat farming. Yaduvanshi Goat Farm was then founded in 2016.

Talking about the farm for goats, Narendra says that if someone is thinking about goat farming, then first of all it is necessary to have a big farm for it. Narendra and Lokesh also prepared a campus of about 3.5 acres for goat rearing. He has an acre and a half of goat land and two acres of green grass for goats. They exclusively deal with the Totapari variety of goat.

Narendra and Lokesh are goat breeders with the largest stall-feeding farm in Haryana. On Narendra’s farm, he has made arrangements for goats to live here according to their age. Young goats are kept in one place. On the other hand, there is a separate arrangement for goats whose age is one year. The goats are segregated on the basis of their age and biological well-being.

There is also a separate arrangement for goats older than one year. They say that it is better if the windows in the goats’ rooms are a little closer to the ground, as this keeps the ground cool. He also advises people not to keep windows at a higher height. Before opening Yaduvanshi Goat Farm, Narendra and Lokesh ensured special care for goats. Proper arrangements have been made for the goats to stay on the farm (Yaduvanshi Goat Farm). Green trees have been planted inside the premises so that the goats get constant shade. Along with their roaming inside the farm, complete arrangements have been made for food and water. An iron feeding structure that can rotate has been installed, and small plastic drums have also been arranged for them to drink water so that they do not face any kind of problem.

Since both friendships have been irreparable throughout this journey, their respective families took pride in their friendship and have been supporting them through their highs and lows.

The health of the goats is also taken into consideration at Narendra and Lokesh’s Yaduvanshi Goat Farm. Narendra says I take care of these goats like my children. From the time they are born until they reach adulthood, he is responsible for their health. Vaccines, medicines, and food are also provided for them following birth. A health checkup is also done from time to time. Goats are vaccinated under the supervision of a veterinarian, and a high nutritional value for goats is maintained all throughout, with no repeat breeding and no virus outbreaks to date.

Narendra says that a virus named Brucella forms quickly in goats. This virus is extremely dangerous and can spread to humans; as a result, blood tests of goats are performed on a regular basis. He says that goats have a designated feed at Yaduvanshi Goat Farm. Special care is taken with regard to the nourishment and upkeep of these goats.

There are now more than a thousand goats on their farm. Yaduvanshi Goat Farm, goats are reared well, Earlier, its number was 500–600, but now the number of goats is increasing rapidly. By the way, up to 3000 goats can be kept on the farm built by Narendra and Lokesh.

Talking about the profit of Yaduvanshi Goat Farm, today Narendra and Lokesh are earning crores annually by selling goats for meat and goat milk. He also sells manure made from goat dung, which costs up to 2,000 rupees for one trolley of cow dung. There is even better income from this. It is used as manure, which is very beneficial for the fields.

Along with goat rearing, Narendra and Lokesh also provide training in goat rearing. If someone is short on money, then such people are given free training. During the training, they are taught everything they need to know about goat rearing. It is also told about the problems in goat rearing. Today, many people are opening their own businesses after getting training from them. It is believed in their locality that these two friends have set an example by opening up such a phenomenal goat farm. These two friends were the first ones to make people in their area aware of goat rearing in their area.

Both the friends share their personal beliefs: everyone wants to eat goat meat, but no one wants to keep it. If you want to eat meat, then goats will also have to be raised properly. For goat farming, he says that this business cannot be successful until the goats are taken care of from birth until they grow up. If there is a slight deficiency or negligence, it can harm your business, and if all things are done well, this business will also provide you with crores of rupees.

For those interested in goat farming and rearing, they run a YouTube channel by the name of Yaduvanshi Goat Farm in order to train people with respect to the upkeep of goats.

Future Aim

Narendra and Lokesh want to export their goats to Gulf countries, where the prices are much higher, to earn more profit. They are also planning to open up new farms so that they can get help in terms of quantity for export business in Gulf countries.

Challenges

The main challenge in livestock is labour management. With an annual increase in raw materials, the costs flare up. There was previously little commercial knowledge of the goat farming model that Narendra and Lokesh established in order for their own business to thrive.

Message for farmers

Their message is to be patient and get proper training before starting any livestock business. Also, wait at least 2 years in goat farming to get a net profit. Please choose a breed according to your area and business needs, ensure you have well-trained labour, and keep an eye on the goats.

Shyam Rod

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An Artist By Profession, A Farmer By Choice – Shyam Rod

This is a story about a person who learnt the value of hard work and determination. A former art teacher turned farmer, Shayam Rod grows a picturesque food forest with over 50 different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Also, the founder of Bhoomi Natural Farms, as he’s always had a passion for gardening. You’ll be surprised to know he has planted 1,500 plants on a 1-acre property without any use of chemicals or pesticides. He took proper training on an organic plantation in Lucknow in the year of 2017 before he decided to cultivate a food forest.

Bhoomi Natural Farms is a small, family-owned farm in the heart of India. The farm grows a variety of crops, including rice, wheat, and vegetables. Shyam explains his passion for gardening and farming and the joy he gets from growing his food. The food forest comprises closely planted trees of various fruits and vegetables, where each type of tree helps in the sustenance of the other type.

Shyam Rod was an artist who founded this food forest; he has a son, Abhay Rod, who graduated from Delhi University and is currently studying for an LLB degree while simultaneously managing the food forest. The reason he decided to join and start this was due to pollution in Delhi, and he desired to live in clean air. Shyam Rod is supported by his wife, son, and extended family. He has an ever-supportive family who supports and assists him in introducing new farming practices. Abhay Rod is a Taekwondo black belt who has won numerous medals for his national representation of his skills and talents. His current focus is on organic farming and cultivating numerous food forests across India.

On his Facebook page, viewers can learn more about how Shyam Singh relies on nature to help him grow his crops. He talks about how he uses natural predators to keep pests under control and how he incorporates cover crops into his fields to improve soil quality. He also feels that chemical fertilizers should be banned since they are damaging to our bodies and cause a variety of disorders.

The use of cow dung and cow urine on the farm is essential to make the soil rich in nutrients and bacteria. This process is called “mulching.” This practice has been followed by farmers for centuries, and it is still being followed by many farmers today. The main reasons for using these two products on the farm are to keep the soil healthy and to promote plant growth. He follows a process in which a substance (such as straw or bark) is put over the ground to shield plant roots from heat or cold, keeps the soil wet, and prevent weeds

The food forest at Shyam’s farm is a beautiful and bountiful place. The trees are planted close together and provide an abundance of fruits and vegetables. The variety of fruits and The variety of vegetables available is incredible, and the quality is exceptional. Visitors to the farm are always impressed by the size and health of the trees, as well as the quantity and variety of produce. The food forest is a great example of how permaculture can be used to create a productive and sustainable agricultural system. By mimicking the structure of a natural forest, the food forest provides a habitat for many different species of animals and plants. This creates a diverse and resilient ecosystem that can withstand pest outbreaks and other challenges.
He likens his “Bhoomi” (land) to a canvas that he likes to colour with different fruits and vegetables. The land has been transformed into a tightly packed food forest with wide biodiversity. Lemon, jackfruit, pear, plum, banana, papaya, peach, litchi, turmeric, ginger, seasonal vegetables, wheat, and a few kinds of basmati rice are all grown in the food forest. He is eager to grow a variety of plants. He is a dedicated individual who does not shy away from employing natural agricultural practices.

His motivation stemmed from organic farming. He believes that farming should be done organically, as it was in the past. without the use of additional assistance or hazardous substances. Fertilisers have several negative effects on the human body. During the epidemic, people realised how important their health was and was motivated to switch to organic food.

“My family has always supported me and motivated me to keep going in the right direction,” he says. The consumer who buys once always enjoys the goods and becomes a regular shopper. When he first switched to organic farming, he saw a minor decrease in Farm production, but as time passed, he began to make a profit by selling the products at a higher price than the market.

Not only is his organisation conserving the soil by not using toxic chemical fertilisers, but it is also catching rainwater by building tanks on one acre of property. Aside from that, he pioneered the use of solar panels in their fields to drill water through tube wells and create power. He has been using eco-friendly approaches because he believes that “what you take from the world, you must give it back.” He introduced the idea of sustainable farming to his town. Other farmers in his village are inspired by his organic farming efforts and come to learn new ways.

Challenges

He addresses the importance of working together with others to make sure that everyone has enough to eat. He talks about the traditions and customs surrounding food in India and how they vary from region to region.

Message to the farmers

He believes that chemical fertilizers should be banned since they are damaging to our bodies and cause a variety of disorders. Organic products are becoming more popular, and farmers may benefit from them. Shyam Singh Rod is another nature and environmental enthusiast, who works to follow all natural processes to carry on and expand the agricultural area, as well as to educate others about the value of organic farming.

Mahaveer Dhariwal

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“I dream; therefore, I am”—Mahaveer Dhariwal

As his name implies for the man himself, ‘Mahaveer’, which means courageous, since his family was deeply rooted in farming for years. His inner calling was to do something of his own, which gave birth to “Pushkar Food Industry” in Bhavata, Sardhana district, Ajmer. He started by growing different varieties of roses like damask & Chinese on a 12-acre farm to make Gulkand.

Mahaveer Dhariwal is a Chief Life Insurance Officer who’s worked with LIC for over 25 years in Ajmer, Rajasthan. He paved his own path to success and started growing roses to produce gulkand in his own garden. Today, he is the proud owner of the most famous gulkand in Rajasthan “PFI Gold Gulkand”.

Mahaveer Singh believed in serving a greater purpose of feeding people for all the good reasons. He grew roses to produce Gulkand over the years, but on a smaller scale for his personal use. As a farmer, he knew that Gulkand is rich in antioxidants and is an energy booster. Taking Gulkand regularly could relieve people from severe ulcers, constipation, and heartburn. He was aware that Rajasthan is one of the hottest states in India. The use of gulkand in summer helps in preventing sunstrokes, nostril bleeding, and dizziness. Taking a step forward, he started moving ahead without looking back. His family has been supportive ever since they had nurseries for the last 15 years.

While working as a Chief Life Insurance Officer, he turned his odds in his favour by growing roses on his farm. Later, during the pandemic, he developed high-quality organic Amla products. Today he has 3-4 different types of products made out of Gulkand & 6-7 out of Amla.

As we grow with time, so did the Pushkar Food Industry. Entering a new phase of growth, Mahaveer is improvising and working hard every day to come up with new products. Mahaveer’s brand consists of 14–15 food products that are packaged and labelled under his supervision. All the products manufactured by his company are FSSAI approved (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India)

List of products:

Amla products such as Murabba, Amla powder & Amla Organic Ladoo.
A variety of Amla candies
Paan, ice cream, and shakes made from Gulkand and honey
Masalas such as Haldi, Kasturi Methi, and Pudina are grown as well.

He recently came up with varieties of passionfruit and dragon fruit, which are only available with him in the entire state of Rajasthan.

His speciality encompasses Amla ladoo, which most people in his locality fondly enjoy. The purpose of coming up with such a unique creation was to cater to health-conscious people.

While talking to him, he stated people are willing to spend Rs 600-700 on Kaju Barfi whereas our ladoos are under the price bracket of Rs 300 and are a healthier option for those who believe in eating mindfully.

To add more, he said it is more of a self-journey where he is progressing and learning every day. He directly sells his products to the users as he believes he can’t compromise on quality.

Previously, the Pushkar Food Industry has been covered and the telecast was aired on Doordarshan TV for their quality products and Mr. Mahaveer’s determination.

Mr. Mahaveer’s story makes us believe that if you have the courage and belief, you can go a long way. As the saying goes, “Faith does not make things easy, but it makes them possible.”

Challenges:

He believes that the most challenging part for farmers is that they are unaware of government policies that are made for them and cater to their needs. The assistance that is required to learn more is missing.

Future plans

Mahaveer’s main agenda is to shift his business across India. & open numerous walk-in stores. To begin with, his first store is opening in Jaipur, and the next destination will be Delhi.

Mukesh Manjoo

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A progressive farmer who changed other farmers’ mindset

Our Country beholds that farming is a career option which cannot generate a decent income. When we talk about farmers the only picture that comes to our mind is of an old man sitting near his barren land, a farmer is always portrayed as a helpless being. In today’s story, you will come to know about a progressive farmer Mukesh Manjoo who wanted to change this mindset of society.

Mukesh Manjoo from Pilani, Rajasthan used to work as a National Security head at Delhi Airport but in 2018 his father was diagnosed with cancer and he had to take VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme). He used to see his grandfather and father practice agriculture for living in his childhood and became fond of this.

He has 20 acres of land under cultivation and started farming in 2014 when he planted kinnow and mausami over 4 hectares of land on his farm and named his organic farm ‘The Manjoo Farms’. Then in 2016, he cultivated olives on 4 acres of land, followed by Dates in 2016, Thai Apple Ber in 2019 and planted Sangri in 2020. In 2022 after watching Pushpa movie he planted Chandan on his land.

He also practices intercropping and cultivates ayurvedic medicinal plant – Ashwagandha and cash crops like watermelon. The main highlight of his farming is the authentic traditional farming he practices, he applies organic manure on his land made of cow dung and cow urine, buttermilk etc. he doesn’t use heavy agriculture machinery on his farm due to two main reasons- he wants to employ the workers and generate employment for the needy and secondly, he believes that the machinery compresses the soil’s internal layer, deteriorates soil health by decreasing water holding capacity of the soil.

The environment and natural resources should be utilised without creating an imbalance in the nature – Mukesh Manjoo

He follows the Integrated Farming System, along with crop production he practices fish farming, poultry farming (Kadaknath variety), beekeeping (50 boxes), and owns several domestic animals like Sahiwal breed cows for milk and related products; camel for agriculture purposes instead of machinery and two horses for his children to learn horse riding.

Most of the regions in Rajasthan are under a dry zone and there is always a shortage of water. Mukesh believes in water conservation and has made space for rainwater harvesting in his field. He also uses different irrigation practices to minimise the wastage at his end, for example, Usage of Drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation and Rain pipe which irrigates the field in just 15 minutes and through these techniques he is successful in saving water.

His brother Pramod Manjoo who worked as a vigilance offer in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) until 2018, helps him on his farm and has always shown full support. In the start he faced a few problems in getting the right customers as a person who values health and is aware of the benefits of organic food. However, because of his vast friend list and his hard work, he survived and today enjoys a great profit in organic farming. His main focus was to go for different crops which could generate regular income for him. So along with seasonal crops, he also grew crops which stay in high demand throughout the year.

Whenever guests come to my house I never offer them, Chai, coffee or even juice for that matter instead I offer fresh organic products from my farms such as watermelon, Kinnow and dates. – Mukesh Manjoo

Mukesh doesn’t sell any crop in mandi. According to him for becoming a large-scale farmer, the right market should be set and strategically hard work should be done in the right direction. All his products are cultivated based on customer needs only and his customers are scattered from Pilani, Rajasthan to metro cities like Delhi and Gurgaon. Likewise, he sells olives directly to hotels like Taj Delhi at ₹250/kg and olive oil at ₹1000/litre. The main marketing technique which proved to be a huge success for him is Word-of-mouth marketing. Once a customer has a taste of his delicious organically grown fruits he becomes a permanent consumer. The quality of the organic products and the confidence in his work has made him a progressive farmer.
Achievements

• Awarded at State level by Chief minister of Rajasthan in 2021

• Awarded by Rajasthan’s agriculture minister in 2020

• Awarded at district level under ATMA scheme in 2019

• Awarded for the promotion of indigeneous breeds of cows in 2018

Future Plans

He plans to start Agro-tourism by making cottages on his farm so that people can experience living in nature’s lap once again.

Message to farmers
He wants all other farmers to be as proud of their occupation as any other person working in offices would be. Agriculture in India has changed so much in the last few years and will achieve new heights in the near future.

Abdul Rehman

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Nothing can stop a hardworking person– Abdul Rehman

Where there is a will, there is a way. A person living in an arid region is believed to be confiding in livestock practices and selective crops, but some people find their way to stand out and set an example for others.

In 2009, Government of Rajasthan tied up with Atul Ltd. a company based in Gujarat, and started working on the scope of cultivation of Dates in the western region of Rajasthan and the results were positive. The government then started encouraging farmers to take up this new practice of farming and about the high demand for this product. Furthermore, Date Palm plants were stocked in Jodhpur for the farmers. In addition to this, farmers were given a subsidy of up to 90% due to which the cost of one plant was cut down from ₹2500 to ₹225.

The team from Atul Company used to visit the area for inspection and encouraged farmers to cultivate Dates and create awareness on how they could enjoy the profit in the coming years. This is how they met Mr Abdul Rehman who is a progressive farmer from Tawariwala, a village in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. He has practised traditional farming since 1995 in which he grows castor, mustard, onion and wheat but opting for an entirely new practice wasn’t an easy task.

He was hesitant at first but they convinced him to take the risk and assured him that he had their full support. Then he was handed 465 plants to be cultivated in 3 hectares of land. The variety grown was Khunaizi. This variety has one of the best quality dates and is very authentic in taste. The first harvesting of this fruit is done after 5 years, he cultivated them 100% organically and sold the Dates at the raw stage. This plant also grows offshoot which generates additional income as the single offshoot retails at ₹800-900 and there are at least 10 offshoots in a single plant, annually he earns 8-9 Lakhs from selling offshoots. In 2016 the government send him to Israel to learn about new techniques in Date Farming. In the initial days, he faced quite a lot of struggles as there were fewer consumers because people weren’t aware of dates back then and had to travel to the nearest district Pokhran which was 125km away. Moreover, other crucial and basic resources like water and electricity were not accessible.

Mr Abdul also owns a farm where he practices livestock farming which includes Poultry, Goat and Dairy farming. All the animals are local breeds, there are 4-5 cows that produce 15-20 litres of milk, and there are 70-80 goats and 100 hens. Their biological waste is used as manure for crops which has proved to be very beneficial. This practice also generates 10-15 lakhs of income annually.

Achievements

Awarded Innovative farmer at national level by ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi
Best Agri. Entrepreneur Award in 2016 by the government of Rajasthan
Awarded at the state level in Gujarat along with a cheque of ₹ 51,000 in 2013.
Awarded at the district level in 2011-12

Future Plans

Mr Abdul wants to expand Dates farming and experiment by cultivating different varieties.

Message

He wants other farmers to cultivate Dates as this farming requires less labour. The plant doesn’t get affected by changing weather conditions and the only requirement is roots dipped in water and sunlight on the plant.

Harbhajan Singh

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A farmer who succeeded in running 5 different professions on a single platform and therefore is recognized as Shaktiman of Farmers- Harbhajan Singh

Diversification is a vital process to achieve successful outcomes in this rapidly changing, fast-paced world. It is hard to adopt but very necessary these days. Everyone in the universe is born to do something unique and distinctive. However, many people are afraid of the change and hence, they hold back their thoughts on diversification. Only some people can realise their uniqueness and reach the stars to change the world. This story is about one such person.

Where most farmers go with the traditional way of cultivating Wheat and Rice, Harbhajan Singh, a farmer from Malakpur village, Mansa, contributes his efforts towards the multiformity in Agriculture. He is successfully running an integrated farm on 11 acres of his land in which he rears fish, pigs, hens, goats and quails. Moreover, he has also taken 55 acres of Panchayati land on rent in which he rears fish.

After completing his graduation in 1981, Harbhajan Singh started a mechanical workshop and along with that, he was helping his family with agricultural work. At that time, his friend suggested him to start rearing fishes. So then, he began researching the fish rearing process and soon took a village pond on rent to nurture fishes.

I made a significant profit by rearing fishes and hence, decided to work on my private land– Harbhajan Singh

He was benefited from this work, therefore, in 1995 he decided to get training from Punjab State Fisheries Development Board, Mansa and started working more effectively on his own land. Harbhajan Singh prepared a pond on 2.5 acres on his own land and later bought additional 2.5 acres of land adjoining his pond. His fish production at that time was 6 tonnes per hectare. Later, he decided to get training from the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar, Odisha and bought 6 breeds of fish (Rohu, Katla, Murakh, Grass Carp, Common Carp and Civil Carp) and 3 aerators to increase the fish production. The government provided these aerators with a half subsidy. The productivity of the fish rose to 8 tonnes per hectare after the use of aerators.

I had to buy fish seeds from the government hatchery, which was a costly process; therefore, I prepared a hatchery of my own– Harbhajan Singh

Along with fish rearing, he prepared a hatchery to produce Fish Seeds as it was costly to buy seeds from other hatcheries. Generally, the hatcheries are government-made, but Harbhajan Singh was so hardworking and dedicated that he prepared his own hatchery with a large initial investment. The hatchery provides artificial rain to the fishes to help them breed. He produced about 20 Lakh finger-sized fish seeds in the hatchery and sold them for 50 paise to 1 Rs per seed.

Over time, he initiated Pig farming in 2009 with 50 pigs of large white Yorkshire breed and decided to sell them as live weight. This type of marketing was not effective enough, so he decided to start processing pig meat. He gained training in Meat products from CIPHET, PAU, GADVASU and processed pig meat into pickle. Marketing the meat pickle was a great success; his income almost got doubled.

At present, Harbhajan has around 150 pigs and he uses pig waste to feed the fishes. This saved him 50-60% of the cost, and the fishes’ production rose about 20%. And, now he produces 10 tonnes of fish per hectare.

He started a Fish Pork Processing Self Help Group of 11 members. This gave employment to many people and added to their incomes.

Harbhajan Singh was also awarded by the Chief Minister of Punjab for his success in integrated farming.

Things did not stop here! He had a long way to go.

As there is an increase in water scarcity, Harbhajan found a way to save nature by recycling the water. He reuses water by first using it for bathing the pigs; then, the same water is released to flow into the fish pond and the wastewater from the fish pond is used to irrigate the crops in the field. This water is organic and provides fertilisers to the crops; hence the only half amount of fertilisers is required to be added artificially. The Punjab CM, Parkash Singh Badal was very impressed with Harbhajan Singh’s efforts and visited his farm.

I got training from KVK, Mansa, to initiate Goat Farming– Harbhajan Singh

Furthermore, he decided to include goats in his farming; hence, he got training from KVK, Mansa and started working with 30 goats, including Beetal and Sirohi, in the beginning and at present, Harbhajan has 150 goats. Later in 2017, he started visiting Kisan Mela at PAU, from where he got the inspiration to rear Quails and Hens. Hence, he bought 2000 Quails and 150 Kadaknath Hens from Chandigarh. These hens are allowed to roam openly and find their feed on their own from the leftovers of other animals’ feed. Currently, he rears 3000 Quails at his farm.

All the feed for the animals is prepared at the field by him with the help of machines. Today, Harbhajan runs his farm successfully with his two sons, who help him in the farm works. He manages all the farming with the assistance of only one helper. He sells fish seeds for 2 Rs per seed. Besides, he sells the goats in Malerkotla on Bakar Eid’s occasion and prepares Goat pickles from the meat. The eggs of Kadaknath hen are sold for Rs 15-20 and the chicken meat is sold for Rs 700- 800. Harbhajan then got training from ICAR-CIFE, Kolkata, for making fish pickles, fish soup etc and marketed the product in the home market. He sells his product under the name “Khiala Pork and Fish Products”.

Marketing of the products is done at my farm itself– Harbhajan Singh

All the marketing process is done in his field itself; he does not need to go anywhere to sell his products. He motivated many young farmers and they visit him for taking his advice regarding integrated farming. He became an inspiration for others and encouraged many other people to run an integrated system of farming.

Future Plans

Harbhajan Singh wants to increase his income and take his farming to a higher level. He wants to be more successful in integrated farming and teach people about the benefits of organic and diversified farming.

Message

Harbhajan Singh advises young farmers to pursue organic farming. If any farmer wants to start integrated farming, he should begin from a base level and gradually add other aspects to their business.

Navjot Singh Shergill

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A young farmer from abroad made a name for himself in Punjab by cultivating strawberries- Navjot Singh Shergill

Every person certainly thinks about progress and distinction in their field. This mindset can lift a person from earth to the skies. The success of each farmer depends upon his passion for doing innovative things that deviated from traditional methods.

This story is about one such farmer who deviated from standard farming and chose his own way in agriculture, which very few people were aware of. The name of this young farmer is Navjot Singh Shergill. He lives in Majal Khurad village in Patiala. The practices adopted by Navjot inspired many other farmers.

I always dreamt of doing something different in farming so that people should know me by my innovative work and not by my name. Hence, I decided to work on something new- Navjot Singh Shergill

Navjot Singh was born and raised in the UK, but as he grew older, he started to feel a lack because he missed the fragrance of the soil of his homeland. Therefore, he returned to his village in Punjab, India. Navjot pursued his MBA and then decided to get into agriculture on a large scale. He started Emu farming, but he did not succeed as there is a very low demand for Emu in Indian markets. He was disappointed by this failure but did not lose hope. He was encouraged by his elder brother Gurpreet Singh Shergill, a farmer in Punjab and known as The King of Flowers. Gurpreet bought a revolution in the cultivation of flowers in Punjab and proved what others could not even think of.

Navjot Singh followed his brother’s suggestion and started gaining information about strawberry cultivation. He gained enough knowledge from social media and informative websites and then decided to start practising in the fields to have more practical knowledge.

I then went to Pune, Maharashtra, for acquiring more understanding of strawberry cultivation and visited various fields and met many farmers- Navjot Singh Shergill

There he obtained all the information about Strawberries like, the climate in which they flourish, making more plants from a single one, its primary plant and from where did strawberries come in India.

In India, the mother plant is imported from California, and then the following plants are made from this mother plant- Navjot Singh Shergill

After returning from Pune, he investigated the environmental conditions in Punjab for strawberry cultivation. He then brought 14-15 thousand plants from Pune and cultivated them in a half-acre land. The total cost summed to Rs 2-3 lakhs. He felt great but was also afraid to fail because of the market issues. However, when the fruits ripened, and Navjot took them to the market for sale, the demand for this fruit was sky-high. All his fears were converted into happiness.

I was very much delighted by the fact that all the people who stopped me from doing this business were now praising me; it was a moment of realization and pride as it took a lot of my money and time- Navjot Singh Shergill

After the continuous success of strawberry cultivation, Navjot realized that some of the fruits remained small while others were fully ripened, and therefore their prices were significantly lower in the market. He felt the urgent need to solve this problem.

There is a saying, “When a person falls and rises, he achieves success on higher levels.”

Then, he started processing the small fruits.

I acquired training from Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Patiala in fruit processing and started making 2-3 items- Navjot Singh Shergill

The harvesting of strawberries required labour; hence, Navjot hired people from his village for harvesting, sorting and processing. By doing this, Navjot created employment opportunities for the people living in his village. Further, he installed machines for processing and therefore started making processed items in the field only. He named the brand Coco-Orchard.

He made the following items-

Strawberry Crush
Strawberry Jam
Strawberry Barfi

All the procedures from processing to packing are taken along under the supervision of Navjot. The Crush and Jam are packed in glass bottles, and when the products are exported to the other states, the bottles are packed in cardboard boxes. The trays of 2 kg cost at least 500-600 Rs and contain sections, each weighing 200-250 gm.

I then started visiting Kisan Mela’s and set up my own stalls there- Navjot Singh Shergill

The stalls gained Navjot a lot of marketing and recognition. People started to wait for his products in the upcoming Melas. He met a doctor from the agriculture field during the Mela; this is a very precious moment of his life. The doctor praised him because he is making processed items out of strawberries, while most people do not know anything about strawberry cultivation. Navjot has a Facebook page named Coco-Orchard, where he provides all the information about strawberry cultivation and markets his produce.

Navjot is now acknowledged enough by the people that he does not have to go to any market to promote his products.

FUTURE PLANS

He wants to grow his strawberry business to an extent where he can grow this delicious fruit in a 4-acre land. Navjot wants to export his produce to foreign countries like Dubai as there the demand for strawberries is higher.

MESSAGE

Farmers who wish to grow strawberries must acquire complete information regarding the same before they start cultivation. Strawberry cultivation requires a lot of money and time and cannot flourish without supervision.

Paramjit Singh

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A farmer who conquered high ground at an early age- Paramjit Singh

Living according to nature is a big thing in itself. Whatever we eat or drink today is all given to us by Mother Nature. It is upon us to keep it this way only. If we follow its fundamental rules, we will never get sick and lead a healthy life.

A farmer, Paramjit Singh, residing in Katahri village near Ludhiana, tends to preserve the gift of nature and nourish it. It is not easy to connect with nature, but it is essential to protect it for the future.

He fell in love with nature so much that he quit his job to serve it in the right way. He used this to cure a lot of diseases such as Blood Pressure, Diabetes, etc.

A person, who truly loves his work and is passionate enough, starts doing it in a fun way to enjoy himself. Therefore, he got training in various courses and decided to work with Indigenous (Desi) seeds. Working with indigenous seeds such as Ragi, Kangani, etc., took him to a platform where he became an inspiration for others.

While I was working in a Millet research centre, I came to know about the seeds of Ragi and Kangani. I then started doing research on these seeds- Paramjit Singh

He started growing Ragi and Kangani on the fields as an experiment. Later, he was so impressed by the results that he decided to grow indigenous seeds at his own level and pursue business in the same.

As the business started to grow, we started visiting Mela, and from there, we got a lot of recognition- Paramjit Singh

His friends helped him in the process; they worked in a group and visited different places for marketing. He had 3 acres of land near his village, where he also grew vegetable seedlings. He has a Pannu Natural Farm named business there and various farmers visit it for buying the seedlings.

The problem arose when Paramjit had to make people aware of the indigenous seeds and organic farming. Most of the people from his village had the mindset that they are doing cultivation for a very long time, and Paramjit is not capable enough to tell them anything about the farming culture. Even after such obstacles, he never gave up and started to grow his business and promote it to a higher level.

He imported the seeds and a Ragi plant when he started the business, and now that plant is being grown on several acres. Paramjit went to Hyderabad for training and, after that, started working on seeds in Punjab. He did research on the seeds and started to produce new seeds, making new products out of them. Starting from the production to the packaging, everything is done by him alone. While Paramjit does this work, his friend has his own machine for making designs for his products.

When we started producing various items, we made a group and registered it through ATMA- Paramjit Singh

He made the following products:-

Pearl Millet flour (Bajre da atta)
Pearl Millet biscuits (Bajre de biscuits)
Pearl Millet porridge (Bajre da dahlia)
Finger Millet flour (Ragi da atta)
Finger Millet flour (Ragi de biscuit)
Biscuits of Green Ragi (Hari Ragi de biscuit)
Beetroot Powder (Chukandar da powder)
Desi shakar
Jaggery
Suhajana da powder
Desi kanak diya seviya, etc.

Paramjit does everything with his own hands, from sowing seeds to selling the products. He believes that the work done by ourselves gives us more satisfaction than relying on others. He can do marketing from his home through social media platforms, but he chooses not to and goes outside and does everything on his own.

Today, Paramjit Singh is on such a stage that everyone comes to him to get information about the indigenous seeds. Apart from that, he guides people about natural farming also. People know him by his work more than his name.

He is awarded various awards, such as the Young Farmer award on district-level and more, from different universities for his work and passion. Paramjit Singh also gets multiple opportunities to visit exhibitions and is more prevalent in South India as he is the only farmer in Punjab who started indigenous seed cultivation and also educates others.

The plants get the natural fertilizers from the soil itself. I have never used chemical fertilizers- Paramjit Singh

He has proved that we should not waste the gifts of nature. If you eat organic food, you will never need to have medicines. The people who have bought products organically farmed by Paramjit cured diseases like diabetes, blood pressure, etc.

FUTURE PLANS

He wants to grow his business to the next level and have a processing machine in the field. Additionally, he wants to make everyone aware of the benefits of organic farming; this would conserve nature and make people healthy.

MESSAGE

To become successful in agriculture, one should be more focused on organic farming. To practice organic farming, one should always start with a small scale of land. The young farmers should be well educated about organic farming so that the cultivation could be done chemical-free and health issues can be prevented.

Vivek Uniyal

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Retired Soldier-Turned-Farmer Aiming Big Through Mushroom Cultivation

The Soldiers and the farmers are the two strong pillars of a country. Where the soldiers protects our land on the frontier, on the other hand, the farmers grows food for us on the same land. And that is why the slogan given by Lal Bahadur Shastri – “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” (Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer) is so popular and equitable.

This is a story about a soldier turned farmer – Vivek Uniyal based in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), who after honestly serving his motherland as an army man, returned to his roots to pursue farming and nurture the land with its love and care.

Vivek Uniyal got retired from the military after serving for a long time and then he joined the service of Uttarakhand Police for two years. Along with his police duty he also started farming in his free time. As his family members were still practicing agriculture, so Vivek’s inclination towards agriculture was natural and obvious. While pursuing his farming venture, once he got a chance to meet a mushroom farmer – Deepak Upadhyaya, who is also doing organic farming. And from this meeting, Vivek came to know about the different varieties of mushroom – Oyster, Milky and Button.

“Deepak Upadhyaya helped me initially in setting up the mushroom farm. And whenever I faced any difficulty he always assisted with his advice from his past experiences.” – Vivek Uniyal

After meeting Deepak, Vivek’s interest in mushroom farming took a big turn. He talked about this with his family, and even his sister Kusum also showed interest towards it. The duo of brother and sister together decided to start mushroom farming with their family’s consent. They started farming in a room after purchasing seeds of oyster mushroom from Solan (Himachal Pradesh)

To improve his mushroom farming skills and knowledge he also took training. The venture which he started within in a small room was well appreciated by the customers in the market after buying the product and profit was good too. Seeing the yield and the payback, Vivek decided to extend the level of the mushroom farming from one room to four rooms & he also started growing Milky and Button mushrooms. Along with it he also established a composting plant for the mushroom farming, which was inaugurated by the Agriculture Minister of Uttarakhand.

Along with mushroom farming, Vivek is also focusing towards organic farming from the last two years.

“Like we care and serve our mother, in the same way we should also understand our responsibilities towards mother nature. Farmers should focus towards organic farming and leave chemical farming.” – Vivek Uniyal

Vivek visits many villages time-to- time to convince and influence other farmers towards mushroom and organic farming. Till now he has established 45 mushroom plants collaboratively with other farmers. Students from agriculture university visits him to take his advice. And he also feels very fortunate to have the opportunity to help them.

“Mushroom farming is a business which provides employment to the whole family.” – Vivek Uniyal

Future Plans
In the coming time, Vivek is planning to produce products made up of mushroom such as Pickles, Biscuits, Papads etc. and sell them in the market.

Message
“Farmers should adopt allied-agri activities along with farming to increase their income. But in the beginning, they should start it on a small level, so that the business’s profit or loss will be known in advance & there would not be any difficulty or harm in the future.”

Amarjeet Singh Dhillon

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Leaving M. Tech in middle of his studies, why this young man started farming?

Every parents’ dream is that their children should get a good job so that their future is secure. Similar was the dream of Amarjeet Singh Dhillon’s parents. So they taught him in a good school for his good future and got him enrolled in higher education for B.Tech mechanical. After completing graduation in Mechanical Engineering, Amarjeet decided to pursue his Masters in M.Tech. and also got admitted. But he was not having any particular interest in the study of M.Tech., so he decided to leave the studies in between.

Amarjeet’s family had 12 acres of land on which his father and brother used to practice conventional agriculture. For one year Amarjeet also used to do farming with his father, but due to being a young man, Amarjeet did not want to get enrolled himself in the traditional agriculture. To further increase his knowledge in agriculture, he started visiting Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.

He joined the Young Farmer Course in PAU. After the completion of course, he decided to do horticulture. He first started fruit farming at his farm named “Green Energy Farm”.. Later on, he also started vegetables cultivation, flower farming and beekeeping.

Within one year, I decided to grow only fruits and vegetables leaving all other kinds of farming, because the marketing of fruits and vegetables is easily done in the same local market. It helps in getting daily living like a shopkeeper – Amarjeet Singh Dhillon

Amarjeet has set up a time-table for the whole of the year, according to which he harvests the crops sown in different months.

Amarjeet does not do organic farming. At first he tries to control insect-pests and diseases using organic methods only but if further needed, he use sprays as recommended by the PAU in recommended amount. Even today, Amarjeet participates in all KVK, university and district level training programs. Whenever he gets in trouble, he always seek advice from PAU experts only.

According to me, fruits or vegetables should be plucked before spraying and there should be a minimum of 24-48 hours gap between fruit plucking and applying spray – Amarjeet Singh Dhillon

Achievements

Amarjeet has received many honors at the state level and national level, some of which are mentioned below:

Chief Minister Award from PAU (2006)
State level Award from ATMA (2009)
State Award in Agriculture Summit, Chappadchidi
Zonal award from International Institute of Vegetable Research (2018)
National Award from PUSA (2018)
Innovative Farmer Award from IARI

Future Planning

In the future, Amarjeet Singh Dhillon wants to focus all his attention on the self marketing and processing of fruits and vegetables.

Message

“Those young people who want to get themselves enrolled into horticulture, should first get proper education and training in agriculture. They should start farming at very small level rather than investing huge lump-sum in the starting. They must read agricultural related books and should always keep learning.”

Mukesh Devi

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Abuzz of sweet success: Meet leading lady in beekeeping world with an annual income of 70 lakhs from honey business

“It is believed that future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Milakpur is a small village in the interior of Jhajjar district of Haryana, which is not even properly linked to the main road and has no direct bus service. It almost seems impossible for a person to think of starting any allied farming activity or business while living in such a place. But the successful endeavour of Mukesh Devi in beekeeping field has proved that anything is possible if you have the passion to do it. Even after suffering from painful toxic stings of bees, Mukesh Devi and her husband had never thought of stopping and they continued their passion of producing the best honey in Northern India.

In the year of 1999, Mukesh Devi’s husband – Jagpal Phogat started beekeeping after getting inspired by one of her relatives who was also doing beekeeping. With the help of training provided by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Mukesh Devi also joined his husband’s venture in 2001. The work which they began so early with few beehives, started growing gradually with the time and now it has been expanded in other areas of states as well- Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, and Delhi.

Seeing the health benefits and rising market demand for honey, now Mukesh Devi has started selling the honey under her own brand – Nature Fresh. Currently, she has 2000 honey bee boxes for honey collection.

Mukesh Devi has not only made her family status financially stable but she has also provided employment to more than 30 people. By sending honey bee boxes to 5 different states with the help of their employed workforce, Mukesh Devi and her husband collects around 600 to 700 quintals of honey annually, and by honey, it doesn’t just means the ordinary honey with same flavour and taste, they have honey in more than 7 different flavours which are collected from the plants of Tulsi, Ajwain, Coriander, Shisham, Eucalyptus, Lychee, Neem, Mustard, and Pigeon Pea. Tulsi honey is one of the best honey they have with great market value.

When it comes to honey collection then the couple pay special attention to the time and weather of different states and according to that they set up their beehives at different locations. For organic honey, boxes are sent to the jungles in different states, below are given some time spans of honey collection from different places:

• For Tulsi Honey – Boxes are sent to the jungles of Madhya Pradesh (October to November)
• For Ajwain Honey – Boxes are sent to the jungles of Rajasthan (December to January)
• For Ajwain – Boxes are sent to Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab (May to July in Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab)
• And from Feb to April, boxes are set up at different locations in Haryana

Moreover, the income of this couple is not only limited to honey production and its selling, they also sell Comb Honey, Honey Amla Murraba, Honey Carrot Murraba, Bee Pollen, Bee Wax, Propolis, and Bee Venom, which have a good market price. Presently, Mukesh Devi and her husband are earning around 70 lakhs annually just from beekeeping.

Mukesh Devi and Jagpal Phogat efforts have been appreciated by many organizations and officials, some of them are given below:

• Received National Award from IARI, New Delhi, in Rashtriya Krishi Unnati Mela for beekeeping and producing different varieties of honey in 2016.
• Mukesh Devi & Jagpa Phogat honoured by Agri Leadership Award at Surajkund, Faridabad
• Awarded by Union Minister of Steel – Birender Singh for good honey production
• Awarded by Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• Their achievements have been published in IARI progressive farmer magazine namely Adhyeta and Innovative Farmer Magazine with other 39 progressive farmers.

Mukesh Devi is a progressive beekeeper and her initiative has set an example for other women entrepreneurs that if the efforts are in the right direction than even beekeeping business can make you a millionaire.

Future Plan:

Mukesh Devi and her husband have bought a piece of land in their village where they are planning to set up the processing unit of their products according to the market demand.

Message

“Looking at the present status, farmers must pursue allied farming activities with conventional farming for better financial stability.”

Prateek Bajaj

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Passionate Young Man from Bareilly Chose Vermicomposting over CA Studies Just to Make Country’s Soil More Fertile & Help Farmers Double Their Income

Prateek Bajaj is a bright example for the agriculture society by contributing his efforts in nurturing the Mother Nature and making the country’s soil more fertile. With his beautiful field of vision and inventiveness, today he is solving the country’s waste management problems with great efforts and is helping farmer too to adopt the vermicomposting technology and make their farming an economical venture rather than a loss deal.

Hailing from one of the famous cities of India – Bareilly and coming from a business class family background, Prateek Bajaj always thought of becoming a CA so that later he can join his father’s real estate business. But at the tender age of 19, this boy changed his mind overnight and decided to start the vermicomposting business.

The idea of vermicomposting came in the mind of Prateek Bajaj in 2015, when one day he attended dairy farming training at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, IVRI, Izatnagar, with his elder brother who had recently started dairy farming. At that time, Prateek Bajaj had already cleared his CPT exam and was studying for CA and with his ambitious spirit he could have cleared CA also, but once he attended the training, he came to know about the basics of vermicomposting and bio-waste. He found the idea of vermicomposting so interesting that he decided to drop his career goals and adopt bio-waste management as his future plan.

“I wondered that why we gave away all the cow dung and urine obtained from his brother’s dairy farm if we can use it in such a better way. – Said Prateek Bajaj”

He finished his training with IVRI and learned the advance method of composting with the researchers and scientists present there and fetched all the necessary knowledge required for successful vermicomposting.

Almost, after six months, Prateek shared his plans with his family, it was understandable at that time that his father would disapprove over his decision of quitting CA. But when for the first time Prateek prepared Vermicompost and sold it in the market, his father accepted his son’s decision open heartedly and applauded his work.

“For me becoming a CA was not a big deal, I could have studied for hours and cleared all the exams, but doing what I love whether it takes 24 hours at the composting plant makes me feel happy. Moreover, I don’t need any break, as I know my passion is my career and it makes my work more fun. – Said Prateek Bajaj”

When Prateek’s family agreed with his future plan, then Prateek invested in seven bighas agricultural land in Pardholi village nearby and started vermicomposting in the same year – 2015, and then there was no turning back.

While opening the new unit of vermicomposting Prateek had decided that through this he going to deal with the waste management problems and will also help the farmer to manage their agriculture activities in an Eco-friendly and economical way.

To make his compost richer he experimented with various techniques of using the society waste in a different way. He used flowers from the temple, vegetable waste, residual waste of sugar and he also added neem leaves to the Vermicompost, which ultimately boosted up the antibiotic qualities.

Well, making this venture turn into a complete profitable project, Prateek also started organic farming after buying some more land in the village. And from his vermicomposting and organic farming practices, he concluded that soil requires less compost if a definite amount of cow urine and neem leaves are used, on the other hand, it also doesn’t affect the crop yield. By adding neem leaves in the compost, less pest and insects affected the crop making the crop yield better and soil more fertile.

In his vermicomposting plant, Prateek uses two types of worms – Jai Gopal and Eisenia Foetida, out of which Jai Gopal is provided by the IVRI and is very good in making the composting method efficient than before.

Prateek with his constructive spirit believes in disseminating the knowledge and that is why he gives free vermicomposting training to the farmer in which he uses a small earthen pot to make compost from a small level. In the beginning, six farmers approached him and adopted his technique but today there are around 42 farmers who are profited from it. And all the farmers have adopted the technique of Prateek on their own by seeing the progress.

Prateek affirms the farmers that by investing in vermicomposting and organic farming a farmer can more economically make his land fertile and can also take better yield as compared to the poisonous way of farming. And when it comes to the marketing then organic produce always hold better price in the market.

He himself shared his experience of selling organic wheat in the market at the double price as compared to the chemically grown wheat. So ultimately adopting organic farming and vermicomposting is a profitable deal for the farmers.

Prateek also shared a chunk of knowledge with us while sharing his experience- There are two main things before using the cow dung in vermicomposting – Cow dung should be 20-15 days old and completely dry.

Presently, Prateek Bajaj, 22, is successfully running his Sehyogi Biotech Plant and is selling compost under the brand name YELO Khaad to different nurseries in Noida, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, and many more other cities of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Also follows other modes of marketing to sell his compost.

With the determination to clean the soil and make it more fertile, Prateek always continues with experimenting with various bacteria and input components in the compost. Prateek feel privileged and blissful of being the part of this nourishing job through which he is not only helping the farmers but is also making the earth a better place.

Prateek is doing his bit, are you? To read more inspiring stories of progressive farmers like Prateek Bajaj, download Apni Kheti app from Google Play Store.

Inder Singh

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Potato and Mentha Cultivation Is What Helping This Farmer Thrive In Agriculture Field with Success

Inder Singh, 67, hailing from Jalandhar city of Punjab, is a farmer who has kick-started his agriculture business by adopting Potato and Mentha cultivation.

In a tender age of 19, Inder Singh stepped in the soil and since then he has been following agriculture passionately. After dropping his study after 8th, he decided to grow potatoes, wheat, and paddy. But after putting continuous efforts for years in wheat and paddy, it doesn’t provide much profit and financial conditions were still hand to mouth. So, with the time to increase the profit inflow, he moved towards lucrative crops rather than sticking to the conventional crops. On the recommendation of an American Company – Indomit, he started growing Mentha for oil extraction alongside potato cultivation.

“In 1980, few of the workers of Indomit Company (American) visited our village and advised me to grow Mentha for oil extraction purpose.”

In 1986, when the head of Indomit Company visited India, he was very happy by seeing the mentha production by Inder Singh. Inder Singh grabbed the second position in mentha oil extraction of about 71 Lt from the harvest of one acre and was honoured certificate and a cash prize. Appreciation boosted Mr. Inder Singh’s effort and he expanded mentha cultivation into 13 acres.

Along with mentha, he was still cultivating potatoes. On the recommendation of two wise persons – Dr. Paramjeet Singh and Dr. Minhas, he started preparing potato seeds with different ways. Seeds prepared by him were so good in quality that now it is sold across Gujarat, Bengal, Indore and many other cities of India.

“Dr. Paramjeet Singh suggested me to prepare the potato seed when it is completely ripe and mature, and this technique helped me a lot.”

In 2016, Inder Singh got the license from Punjab Government for potato seed preparation.

Currently, Inder Singh is cultivating Mentha (Peppermint & Kosi Variety), Potatoes (Govt. Variety: Jyoti, Pukhraj; Private Variety: 1533), Maize, Watermelon, and Paddy. The profit he earned in his successive years was invested in machinery and best agriculture practices. Today, Inder Singh has all the modern agriculture equipment at his farm and for this, he gives all the credit to adopting mentha and potato cultivation.

Inder Singh is getting nice price for all his harvest as there is no problem in marketing because watermelon is sold from the farm, mentha is used for oil extraction which gives him an average return of 500/Lt, his prepared potatoes seeds are sold across many different cities in India.

For his tremendous efforts in the field of agriculture, he has been honoured by Punjab Agriculture University on 1st February 2018.

Future
In future, Inder Singh is planning to open his own potato chips processing plant.

Message
“Agriculture is becoming expensive day by day because of the increased rates of fertilizer, pesticides, and other agri-inputs, so farmer should focus on sustainable agricultural practices and methods to take out the best harvest.”

Davinder Singh Mushkabad

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Farmer Achieving Success by Implementing Foreign Agriculture Model in India

Proliferated common mentality among the Indians is to go abroad and get settled there, no matter what they got to do there, whether it’s a cleaning job or any other type of labour job, but if the same work is offered in their own country then they feel ashamed. Yeah, the fact is true that there is more money in working abroad, but what if we bring the foreign technology to our homeland and make our profession a profitable venture. This is the story of a Malwa Region based farmer, Davinder Singh, 46, who very well utilized the opportunity of visiting abroad and brought back the foreign agriculture model back to Punjab.

In 1992, Davinder Singh planned to go abroad, but he was failed with his efforts and at last, decided to start farming. At that time he was unaware from the fact that living in abroad was not that easy because it demands hard work, but making a good profit from agriculture was also not that easy anymore, as agriculture demands sweat and blood both. Though he started farming, when it came to marketing, then from the fear of getting cheated from the middlemen he decided to hold beam balance in his own hands.

“I cannot forget my first experience of visiting the sabzi mandi (vegetable market) of Sector 42, Chandigarh, with mother’s given white dhurrie (carpet), beam balance and a sack of green chillies. I sat there the whole day, I was so confused and ashamed, whether to take money from the customer or not. I was mum. After observing me like this, few of my farmer brothers told me that this is not going to work like this, you have to call out your customers and shout out loud your crop’s selling price; this is how I learned to sell vegetables.”

Moving forward with the staggering steps that season, Davinder Singh earned 45 thousand rupees from his first crop and he was very happy with it. Well, till that time, Davinder Singh already came to know that the path of agriculture is going to demand lots of strength and determination. Without turning back, Davinder Singh started working hard and passionately. Slowly with the time he expanded his farming area and to upgrade his skills he visited Spain in 2007 for a training camp with one of his friends.

In Spain, he observed the agriculture model and he was very amazed by it. Without missing any piece of information, Davinder Singh jotted everything in his notes.

“I observed that the agriculture model which is being practices in Italy is very different from India. Farmers work in groups, and there are no middlemen in the agriculture model of Italy. I also observed that the climatic condition in Italy was not that favourable for agriculture as compared to India, still, they were taking high productivity from their fields. People were using POLY-HOUSE to give an ideal atmosphere to the crops for their growth and development. Seeing all this was very surprising to me.”

After exploring the remarkable agriculture techniques, Davinder Singh decided that he will go the POLY-HOUSE way. In the beginning, he got no assistance for poly-house creation, so he decided to make it himself. With the help of bamboos, he established his own poly-house at 500 square metres and started planting vegetables in it. When the nearby people came to know about it many experts also visited his farm but they returned with negative feedback and said that this POLY-HOUSE is not going to be successful. But still, Davinder Singh with his hard work and passionate spirit made it successful and took good yield from it.

Happy from his work, the national horticulture mission decided to assist him for poly-house and help him in its creation. When the agriculture department was in the favour of Davinder Singh at that time his father – Sukhdev Singh was not in his favour. His father doesn’t want to give their land, as the poly-house technology was new and he was not sure that it will yield profit or not; and in any case, if the loan is not repaid then the bank will snatch away their land.

Without depending on his family, Davinder Singh decided to start his venture in partnership with his friend by taking a loan of 30 lakhs on one acre of land to establish the polyhouse. That year he grew coloured capsicum in his poly-house (Red Bell Pepper & Yellow Bell pepper), the production and quality were so good that within one year he cleared his loan debt with his earning.

The next stage on which Davinder Singh stepped on was group formation in 2010, he slowly expanded the work in the people and groups whoever deserved to learn the poly-house technology under Agro Help Aid Society Mushkabad Group. This step of Davinder Singh was a very wise step, as his group started getting seeds, fertilizers and other necessary agricultural input at 25 to 30% subsidized rate. Moreover, all the farmers who are the member of the group now don’t have to knock on different doors to gather the agricultural inputs, they get everything under one roof. Group formation provided more benefits to the farmers on transportation charges, marketing, packaging, and as a result, one farmer doesn’t get overburdened with the expenses. Farmers Agri Mart is the brand name under which all the crops harvested by the group is sold in the vegetable markets of Chandigarh and Delhi, people trust their brand and they don’t have to make extra efforts.

When I was alone at that time marketing level was different but today we have a group and marketing is easy in the group, but in group quality matters. GROUP is a very powerful thing because everything gets shared in the group except profit. – Said by Davinder Singh Mushkabad

In the span of 20 years, Davinder Singh’s efforts have made him reach from the level of an ordinary vegetable seller to the head of Agro Help Aid Society Mushkabad Group under which currently there are 230 farmers. Starting from a small area, presently he has expanded his farming zone into a larger extent out of which poly-house farming is done at 5 ½ acres and other than this he has mechanized some modern agriculture technologies like drip irrigation, sprinklers to properly manage the water distribution. For his success, he gives a huge credit to PAU, Ludhiana, and their organized events and fairs which supported him with good knowledge bank.

Today, Davinder Singh’s group has become a model of diversification in agriculture sector, with their innovative technologies and sustainable agriculture methods. For his tremendous efforts in the field of horticulture, Davinder Singh has been honoured with many prestigious awards and has attended many delegation meetings in abroad.

• Awarded with Ujagar Singh Dhaliwal Award in 2008

• Received Chief Minister Award by Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi at Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela in 2009

• Received Praman Patra by Govt. of Punjab in 2014

• Received Dr. Mohinder Singh Randhawa Memorial Award in 2014

• Nominated for Punjab Agricultural University Scientific Advisory Committee

• Member of Research Council, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana

• Member of Delegation sponsored by Department of Agriculture, Govt. of India, Agro-based Industry Malaysia and the ASEAN Secretariat for the Exchange Visit Programme for Young Farmers. (April 2013)

• Also visited Baki, Azerbaijan as a progressive Farmer member of the Delegation led by Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of Punjab, in October 2016.

Message

For a farmer facing difficulties is compulsive, the more you face difficulties fastest you cover the path to success. Difficulties prepare the person, so don’t feel panic from difficult situations, instead learn from it. Always keep yourself motivated and think positive, because everything depends on our thinking.

When it comes to water management then water plays the major role in farming. Farmer has to get his water checked and after that get his own tank established from the canal water and use it in poly-house, it results in increase in income up to 25-30%.

Future Plan
Planning to provide home delivery to the consumers so that they can eat fresh vegetables rich in nutrients with fewer chemicals.

While sharing his farming experience with Apni Kheti, Davinder Singh also shared a happy moment of his life story with us – “Earlier I used to dream about going foreign, even not knowing that what exactly I have to do there! But later, when I visited as a delegation team member to Malaysia and other countries then I felt so happy and proud, it was like a dream come true. I realized the difference between “going abroad to do labour work” and “going abroad as a member of delegation team”.

Without feeling ashamed, the efforts that Davinder Singh has put in his fields, its results are in front of everyone, currently, he is guiding 230 farmers under his Agro Help Aid Society Mushkabad Group and is making good changes in the agricultural practices. Davinder Singh is a great example and inspiration for the struggling farmers. If by reading his story you feel motivated and want to join him in his venture, then you can contact him by clicking Contact Us button given below.

Narayan Lal Dhakad

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How This 19-Year-Old Boy Is Using YouTube & Facebook to Teach Farmers Sustainable Farming Practices

Young farmers are the future and this 19-year-old boy has proven it right by showing his passion towards farming. Narayan Lal Dhakad is a young boy from Rajasthan- the land of Kings, Legacy, Tourism, Heritage and Rich Culture, and his personality is also very distinctive like his homeland.

Nowadays, we are seeing many examples where educated people of India are choosing agriculture as their working place and are coming up as an independent agri-entrepreneur, same is the case with Narayan Lal Dhakad. Despite, lacking the basic facilities and enough resources, this boy chose the medium of YouTube and Facebook to disseminate knowledge to help the farming community. Currently, he has 60,000 YouTube subscribers and 30,000 Facebook followers. You will be shocked to know that this boy doesn’t have any laptop, personal computer system or any kind of video editing equipment for editing the videos. With the help of his smartphone, he is making informative farming videos.

“My father died some days before my birth and it was a very dreadful situation for my family. My family was facing a severe financial crisis, but even then my mother raised us well by doing farming and labour work. Perceiving the family conditions, I started farming at a very young age and also learned it well very soon.” – Narayan

Living a hand-to-mouth life, Narayan realized that utilizing the resources well and innovating new ideas with simple hacks to deal with daily common pest and farm issues, is the best thing. Narayan also recognized that the big part of the farming expense is just because of the use of fertilizers and pesticides, and this is the only reason which builds a big mountain of debt over the farmers.

“When it comes to adopting organic farming, then every farmer cannot successfully do it, because its productivity is low; and in distant locations, organic spray and products are not easily available.” – Narayan

Understanding the problem of his area, Narayan invented many easy techniques to control termite, Nilgai, pest and crop disease. All the techniques developed by Narayan were successful and were very cheap that any farmer can easily follow. And to make his techniques available to every farmer he makes videos with his phone, explain everything in it and share it on YouTube and Facebook.

Despite facing difficulties in making videos through his phone, he never dropped his idea of helping the farmers. Narayan has reached out to many farmers in his area and has solved their problem by reaching out to Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s and Agriculture Scientists.

Message:

“Farmers should adopt organic farming because using chemicals and pesticides on their farm not only harm the environment but also their own people. Moreover, by following organic farming farmer can take healthy yield without doing expenses on the pesticides and insecticides.”

Narayan Lal Dhakad has written a success story at just the age of 19. By seeing his passion and determination to work harmoniously towards sustainable agriculture practices, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has nominated him for Krishi Award in 2018.

Today, Narayan Lal Dhakad has become an emerging voice in India which has the capability to change worsening circumstances of farmers.

Do check his YouTube channel & Facebook page, for more inspiring stories of farmers download Apni Kheti app from Google Play store.

Vipin Yadav

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Story of Vipin Yadav a farmer and a computer engineer who chose hydroponics over traditional farming method to bring revolution

Today is an era where if farmers don’t have fertile land or even land, then also they can exist; and for this, Indian farmers have to realign their priorities and agriculture practices to overcome the stereotypical conventional methods.

Technology has taken the agricultural practices up to an advanced level so that no constraints like pests or disease can affect the crop yield, and this is a positive growth in the agriculture sector. The only thing that keeps the farmer away from their own progress is their fear – “The fear of losing the investment in technology and maybe the thinking that what if, it does not work out well and lead to a huge loss.”

But this 20-year-old farmer understood the prerequisite demands to progress in agriculture field and is now doing something beyond traditional farming.

Hydroponics is a good way of farming because no disease can affect the plants as the farming is done soil less. Moreover, we prepare the plants in poly-house, so no environmental disease can affect the plants at all. I am happy with this method of farming and I want other farmers also to adopt hydroponics –Vipin Yadav.

Unsatisfied from the job salary package after completing his engineering degree in Computer Science, Vipin decided to start farming, but definitely not like his father, who was practicing conventional farming methods.

Like a responsible and aware youth, he chose to go for an online training through Agriculture Skill Council of India, Gurugram. After passing the initial online eligibility test he went to the main training centre in Gurugram. Out of 20 candidates, only 16 were passed for face to face training of hydroponics, and Vipin Yadav was one of them. He also took protective cultivation training from KVK Shikohpur to improve his skills.

“In 2015, I introduced the new technique of soil-less farming to my father for whom soil was the only base to grow the plant. –Vipin Yadav”

To implement what he learned during training, he started with just mere 50 trays containing small plants of two main varieties, with the investment of Rs. 5000 to 7000.

“I allocated 800 sq ft area for the hardening unit and 1000 sq ft for preparing plants by taking space on rent in Gurugram and also built poly-house in it. –Vipin Yadav”

His experimentation with 50 trays in hydroponics leads him to great success which motivated him to start it on a huge scale. The next big investment with which he started hydroponics was Rs. 250000 with the help of friends and relatives.

“Currently, I can prepare 250000 plants or more on order.”

Hydroponics is not practiced from April to mid-July due to warm climatic conditions, but still, profit is good enough to recover this gap. Vipin Yadav is growing almost all types of crops – grains, oil-seeds, vegetables, and flowers in his hydroponic farm. Machinery like sprinkler and fogger are some of the implement which he is using to make his farming easier. His flower produce is very healthy and has good yield, due to which it was even sent to President’s Secretariat.

For soil-less farming, he uses three components: Coco peat, Perlite, and Vermiculite in the ratio of 3:1:1. In 35-40 days the plants are ready and then they are kept in hardening unit for 1 week. Nutrition like NPK, zinc, magnesium, and calcium are given to the plants through the water. In Hydroponics there is no use of pesticides as no soil is used for farming, moreover, Vermicompost is used which can be easily prepared at home.

Future Plan: My future plan is to cultivate other species of cactus plants, medicinal plants and ornamental plants in my hydroponic farm for better income.

Vipin Yadav is an example of how the youth of India is saving the future of agriculture by using the proven advanced technology.

Message

“Before starting anything new in the field of agriculture, farmers must take training from KVK to enhance their skills and make themselves trained.”

The nation needs more young and creative mind to venture in the agriculture field for better economic development and if we continue to meet such young people like Vipin Yadav, then this is a positive indication towards the future.

Ravi Sharma

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Tailor Turned Beekeeper Creating a Medicinal Powerhouse by Expanding Apiculture

Apiculture is rising industry which is not only attracting the people of agrarian society but also people from other different communities because of the future gain. One such a person who is creating a medicinal powerhouse in his village by expanding apiculture is Ravi Sharma.

Starting from 1978, till 1992, Ravi Sharma used to tailor the clothes and also guide 10 other men under him, in the same profession in his small village Gudana of district Mohali. His tailoring business was going well in a small village shop until he visited Rajpura, Patiala and met Dr. Walia (Agri Inspector).

For Ravi Sharma, Dr. Walia acted as a pathfinder towards beekeeping; he was the one who inspired Ravi Sharma towards beekeeping and helped him in adopting it smoothly.

In the beginning, Mr. Sharma got 50% subsidy and himself he invested Rs. 5700 on 5 honeybee boxes, from which he obtained 1 ½ quintal honey and earned good profit. First earning encouraged Ravi Sharma to expand his work to 100 honeybee boxes and this is how he switched to beekeeping and dropped the profession of tailoring completely in 1994.

Visit to Rewari, Haryana in 1997 in an agricultural event, boosted up Mr. Sharma’s fascination towards beekeeping and then he decided to increase the number of honeybee boxes. Now, the bee boxes number varies from 350-400 in his farm.

In 2000, Mr. Ravi also gave a try to dairy farming with 15 cows, but it was not as successful as beekeeping. Due to labour problem, he has to end it. Now he has only 4 HF breed cows and one Murrah buffalo for home purpose and sometimes he also sells their milk in the market. In the meanwhile, beekeeping work was going smooth.

But the journey towards successful beekeeping was not that velvety. In 2007-08, a mite attacked was encountered in his beehives colonies due to which only 35 honeybee boxes were left unaffected and the rest were destroyed. This incident completely shattered the beekeeping business of Ravi Sharma.

But this fall made Mr. Ravi stronger and he rose more powerfully and established his honeybee farm successfully within a short span of time. After seeing his success many other people consulted him to start their own beekeeping business. He started distributing 20-30 honeybee boxes to his relatives and friends also and in this way he created a medicinal powerhouse.

“Once there also came a time when honeybee boxes count reached up-to 4000, and all those people who owned it, started beekeeping after seeing my success in beekeeping venture.”

Today, Ravi Madhu Makhi Farm has two workers for managing the bee farm work. Marketing is also smooth, as Ravi Sharma has a tie-up with a person who buys all the honey from him, and sometimes Ravi Sharma also sells 4-5 quintal of honey on the roadside shop near Anandpur Sahib from where he earns well.

Beekeeping is the only source of income for Ravi Sharma through which he is supporting his family of 6 members, which includes wife, mother, two daughters, and a son.

“My wife- Mrs. Gyan Devi, was the main supporting pillar in my beginning beekeeping years. Without her, I would not have reached this level in my life.”

Currently, honey and bee wax are the two main product of Ravi Madhumakhi Farm.

Future Plan:
Till now I have expanded the beekeeping work in my village and few relatives only, but in future, I want to expand beekeeping to a much larger area.

Message:
“A person should do his work with complete dedication and include these three words in his efforts “Imaandaari (Honesty), Gyan (Knowledge), Dhyan (Care)” then only he can achieve what he wants.”

Because of Mr. Ravi’s effort today Gudana village has become a powerhouse for honey production and he will keep his work in progress to make beekeeping more impactful business in the future also.

Deepakbhai Bhavanbhai Patel

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Gujarat based farmer fetching good fortune by cultivating diversified mango varieties

Today, if we take a dive in the fact pool of progressive farming and farmers, then there is a clear indication towards technology. Technology has its own supreme role in sculpting the farmer’s success and his farm too. This is the story of a Gujarat based farmer- Deepakbhai Bhavanbhai Patel, he chose to pair modern farming techniques with his optimistic behaviour to obtain better farming productivity. And with his efforts, he overcame all the hurdles that his father and forefathers used to face while practicing agriculture.

Mango is the fruit which made Deepakbhai king of orchards in his village Kachiyawadi of Navsari district in Gujarat. With 20 acres land that Deepakbhai inherited in 1991, from his father, he started mango revolution by planting different varieties of mango like Jumbo Kesar, Langra, Rajapuri, Alphonso, Dasheri, and Totapuri. Slowly with the time, he expanded the farming area and today his mango orchard sit on 125 acres with 3000 to 3200 mango trees, out of which 65 acres land is his own and 70 acres is on the lease.

Earlier farming practices and implementation:

Well, the beginning path was a bit stony for Deepakbhai. He started his farming venture by inter-cropping vegetables and mangoes; but due to labour shortage and decreasing revenue, he decided to give his full attention to mango farming only.

“Deepakbhai Says – I improved my farming practices, wherever I felt that I was wrong. Due to lack of knowledge and experience, I used to over water the mango trees, give fertilizer and pesticide in large amount, and didn’t used insecticides in the orchards. But once I came in contact with the research and agricultural centre, I was enlightened with the knowledge and right farming practices. ”

After receiving the results of following the right farming practices, Deepakbhai honed himself to become the mango farming expert, and that was the time when he decided to make mango farming his main source of income. He started reading books, following instructions and advice that were given by agricultural institutions.

“I took part in various events to increase my knowledge base, some of them were organized by Sugarcane Research Centre of Aurangabad, Delhi Agriculture Research Centre, Jaipur Agriculture University…etc., from these events I captured huge knowledge about the farming practices of different fruits, vegetables and other crops like Banana, Pomegranate, Mango, Chikoo, Guava, Amla, Cereals, Wheat and vegetables.”

Deepak did not only became more organized and informed about his agriculture practices but also with his money management, which is the most important part every farmer has to track. He started keeping the record of his income and expenses and became more economical. Whatever Deepakbhai used to save as an income, was later used for buying new land.

Marketing:

Marketing was a bit difficult in the beginning because Deepakbhai had no market for mango business. Middleman and traders use to give very less price for the mango production which was not acceptable to him. But after some time, Deepak came in contact with Sahakari Mandali and then he decided to tie up with the co-operative federation for packing mango juices. They offered right value of the produce to Deepakbhai which gave a great boost to his income.

Along with mango, Deepakbhai also planted banana, 250 kalipatti chikoo, and coconut trees along the border of the farm, and this gave a good rise in his income.

“Mango tree need great care which includes the right amount of water, fertilizer, and insecticides. Moreover, this time I have planted good quality mango trees, recommended by the university to achieve good production. In order to control the diseases, I follow all the medications instructed by the universities. Timely I also prune the fruit branches to give proper structure to the trees. I also get the water tested and all the defects are reformed.”

After seeing the success of Deepakbhai Patel, many farmers visit his farm to know which modern technology and methods he implements in his farm. Many farmers take guidance from Deepakbhai.

Deepakbhai gives a major credit to Navsari Agriculture Department and Atma Project for their support and guidance. With their help, Deepakbhai has implemented modern and scientific methods of farming on his farm. He has left not even a single source of information to gather farming knowledge.

“Drip irrigation in one of the water-saving farming method that I have established in my farm and it helps in saving water to a greater extent. Now unnecessary expenses are reduced and land has become more fertile and moist.”

During all this time, there also came a down moment in the life of Deepakbhai Patel. In 2013, Deepakbhai came to know that he was suffering from tongue cancer. He underwent an operation to recover from it and during the surgery, his main vocal part, his tongue was removed…he lost his ability to speak.

“But he never let his disability turn into his life’s inability.”

In 2017, he went under second operation in which the cancer was completely removed from his body and today he is a fine healthy man with strong determinations to achieve his dreams.

Award & Achievements:
In the year 20014- 15, Deepakbhai was awarded as “ATMA Best Farmer of Gujarat”.
Well, this is just one award to mention, his success in the field of horticulture has made him win around 19 awards, certificates, cash prize, and trophies on the state level.

Message

“Horticulture is a good source of income if done by following the right method as suggested by the universities. Farmers must invest in horticulture if they want to have a good future ahead.”

Manjinder Singh, Swarna Singh

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Successful Poultry Farming Venture, Established By Father And Flourished By Son

Everyone knows the history of the year 1984 in India, it was a gloomy era over Punjab when Sikhs were the major target of the massacre. This is a story, of an ordinary man- Swarna Singh, struggling and recovering from the same circumstances (1984) with just 2.5 acres of land in the name of assets for future survival. Swarna Singh also had some dreams that he wanted to fulfill, and for that, he was determined to pursue higher studies (Masters) after 12th and BA (Bachelor of arts). But maybe something else was decided in his destiny. In the year of 1983, when the youngsters of Punjab were at the peak of revolution mood against the democracy, at that time, things were not that simple for ordinary people, and Swarna Singh decided to left his masters in the middle and start something at home.

When the uproar was calming down, at that time, Swarna Singh ran behind every job opportunity to give a stable professional career to his life but nothing came in his hand. Finally, he decided to start poultry farming by getting inspired by other poultry farmers in his neighbourhood and in 1990, almost 2 decades ago, Sahota Poultry Breeding Farm was established. He initiated his venture with 1000 birds and a four storied shed with length 50 foot and width 35 foot. He invested 70,000 rupees on 1000 birds at that time by taking a loan, on which he got 25% subsidy form the government. Ever since then he never took any loan or subsidy from the government.

In 1991, he got married, and his poultry venture started well. He also invested in the hatchery. Slowly with the time when his son- Manjinder Singh grew up, he also decided to be a helping hand in his father’s business. He dropped his studies (12th standard) in the mid and took over his father business. The entrance of Manjinder in the poultry business doesn’t mean that Swarna Singh took retirement. Swarna Singh always stood beside his son to guide him in every step of poultry farming.

Swarna Singh – “Without the support of family, I would never have reached this stage in my life. Poultry is a good experience and I am earning a good profit of fifty to sixty thousand from poultry monthly. A farmer can easily opt poultry farming and earn good profit from it.”

Presently, Manjinder Singh (27-year-old) is managing the whole farm with his father and 2 workers. They grew vegetables, wheat, maize, paddy and fodder himself at their land. From the fodder crop, they prepare feed for the chicks and sometimes also buy “SAMPURNA” brand chick feed from the market. They also have 2 buffaloes for household purpose.

Manjinder- “To avoid loss and natural calamities, we take care of the chick and the shed properly. We get our new birds vaccinated time to time to avoid any kind of disease in the shed. We also take care of bio-security, because that is the main principle on which poultry farming is based.”

Implements:

Currently, Sahota Poultry Farm has 3 chicks incubator, a customized feed machinery that Swarna Singh got self-designed from Shahkot. They prepare 2.5 quintals of feed daily for the chicks. They also have 2 generators, feeders, and drinkers.

Marketing & Business:

Marketing is not that difficult for them, they sell 4000 birds every after four days. One bird gives 200 eggs annually and they replace every egg-laying bird after one year. The selling price is Rs. 25/chick, which give enough profit to them.

Future Plan:
He is planning to start dairy farming in the future.

Message:

“Whatever you do in the field of agriculture, do it with dedication because hard work always pays off.”

Captain Lalit

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HOW A MAN REALIZED HIS TRUE CALLING AND CHOSE HORTICULTURE AS HIS RETIREMENT PLAN

Growing pomegranate on the dry sandy land of Rajasthan, sound like a funny, fruitless, idea but with strong determination, perseverance, and high-density farming technology, Captain Lalit has made it possible.

After mastering many fields and pursuing many careers in his life, at last, Captain Lalit chose horticulture as his retirement plan and came back to his native place- 11 Eea in Ganganagar district of Rajasthan. Well, for many city-living-people, farming is not a good retirement plan, but Mr Lalit realized his true calling and thought of giving a chance to the very noble and basic profession of farming.

Earlier Life-

Mr Lalit was an active and enthusiastic man from the beginning, He started his professional career since he was studying in the college. After completing his graduation, he also obtained the license of a commercial pilot and pursued the profession of a pilot. Well, this is not all that he did. There was an era when computer education was just introduced in India everywhere, so by not missing the opportunity, he started a new venture and opened a computer education centre in Jaipur city. Soon after some time he also qualified the Oracle test and became an Oracle certified computer trainer. His computer education centre business went well for some years, but as the computer craze came down he had to wrap up his business because it wasn’t generating enough profit.

From his career choices, it was clear that from the beginning he was interested in choosing a unique profession which includes something new, whether it’s about the trend, technology or thing. And the next thing that he started was farming English vegetables and flowers for commercial purpose by taking a small piece of land on rent in Jaipur city, and many big five star hotels purchased his produce from him.

“When I was growing English vegetables like thyme, baby corn, broccoli, lettuce etc., at that time the localities use to make fun of me because for them these English vegetables were new. And they were amazed to see the smaller version of corn and greener version of cauliflower. But today they are eating those vegetables in pizza, burger, and salad.”

When the idea came into existence-

When he was farming English vegetables, during that time he realized that farming is the best investment and he should start it on a large scale. As he already had an ancestral property (12 bighas land) in his native place, so he decided to start Kinnow Farming on it. He came to his village with the idea of starting kinnow farming, but after discussing with many farmers he realized that everyone is doing the same and he should do something different.

And this was the time when his research on different fruit started and he visited many different farms in different cities. From his research, he made out a conclusion of growing an elite fruit and a common fruit. He consulted CISH (Central Institute of Subtropical Horticulture, Lucknow) and decided to start pomegranate and guava farming in 2015. He grew pomegranate (sindoori variety) on 6 Bigha and Guava on the other 6 Bigha. Made mobile and the internet his book and teacher for research and help.

“In the beginning, I also consulted Rajasthan Agriculture University but they said that pomegranate farming is not possible in Rajasthan and they made fun of me.”

Farming Methods & Technology-

He followed high-density farming technology for pomegranate to generate high quality and good quantity produce. In this farming technology, he followed canopy management and planted 7 pomegranate plants in 20 m x 20 m area. By doing this, 1 plant is gives 20 kg fruit in a season and 7 plants gives 140 kg. In this way, he has planted more trees in less area and will generate good profit from it in the future. Moreover, due to high-density farming, trees height and width are less, due to which fewer labours are needed to maintain the whole farm.

Captain Lalit is much mechanized with his farming methods. For better yield and effective results, he has customized a tank-cum-machine with an attached mud pump, inside which he has installed a shaft to rotate and spread the slurry and jivamrit in the farm easily. To move the tank around the farm he uses a small tractor. When it comes to being economical then he prepares all the manure, fish amino acid fertilizer, bacteria and fungus for his whole farm himself, by buying just a bottle of NPK Bio-fertilizer from the market. He multiplies the bio-cultures by preparing the spray.

He has also adopted two cows of Rathi breed, which were roaming free on the road and now he is utilizing those cows for making jivamrit and manure. One of the important thing that he uses in the manure is “Agnihotr bhabhooti”- ashes obtained by offering prayers to God in front of the fire.

“The reason I am using Agnihotr Bhabhooti is that it helps in purifying the environment and it is a way of Adhyatmik Kheti. Adhyatmik means spiritual, a way of farming which is related to God.”

He has also built up a water reservoir in 50 m x 50 m area to save rain water and irrigate his farm with it. Earlier his farm was totally Eco-friendly because he was using solar electricity to manage everything. But now he is getting electricity from the government.

Role of Government-

His whole project of Pomegranate and Guava farming has been approved by the National Horticulture Board, and he gets the subsidy from them.

Achievements-

His farming effort is appreciated by many people. The university which made fun of him now invite him as the guest in their events and also consults him for high-density farming and pruning techniques.

Current Scenario-

Today he has 5000 plants in 12 Bigha of area and the age of the plants is 2 year and 4 months. By following high-density farming, pomegranate trees has already started bearing the fruit, but he is expecting the real commercial yield next year.

“During my research, I also visited some south Indian States and High Density Farming is already being done there. Farmers in North India should also follow this technique because it is very beneficial, in all the aspects.”

Before starting all this, he had the theoretical knowledge about high-density farming but he lacked the practical experience, but slowly with the time, he is gaining that too. He has 2 workers and with the help of them, he manages his farm.

His Views-

When a farmer starts farming he should start investing like an industry, then only he can gain profit. Moreover, today every farmer needs to be mechanized if they want to be efficient in farming.

Message to farmers-

“
Until farmers don’t stop practicing conventional farming they cannot become empowered and independent. Especially those farmers who have less land, have to take initiative themselves and they should invest in horticulture. They should just follow the right direction.
”

Ravinder Singh, Shahtaj Sandhu

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How Sandhu Brothers Continues the Family Saga & Hatches Poultry Business to New Heights

This is not just a story related to chickens and eggs. This is a story of brothers’ strong determination which turned their small family venture into a multimillionaire project, even after facing many hurdles.

Well, who knew that poultry farming started as a side business two decades ago by a small ordinary farmer – Mukhtiar Singh Sandhu, will turn up into a great success by their coming generation.

So, how the foundation of poultry business was laid…

This is a matter of 1984 when Mukhtiar Singh Sandhu decided of investing in poultry business along with farming. Mr. Sandhu recognized poultry business as a good source of alternative income, and for the growing needs of the family, he felt it was a best option to pursue along with agriculture. He started with 5000 broiler chicks and slowly with the time and money flow he expanded it.

When his nephew joined the business…

As the time passed by, Mukhtiar Singh did his best and gave the best education to his children. And in 1993, his nephew Ravinder Singh Sandhu (Laddi) decided to enter his uncle’s business and decided to expand broiler business to new heights.

When bird flu hit hard the market and affected many poultry businesses…

In the year of 2003 – 2004, bird flu outbreak caused a major loss to the poultry industry. Poultry farmers threw their chickens in the river and they were left with nothing. No one dared to start with the poultry venture again. Sandhu Poultry also faced major hit back. But Ravinder Singh Sandhu was very resolute and he wanted to make his business stand again at any cost. He was a little scared also that this industry may get shut down, but nothing stood in between his determination and goal. He took a loan from the bank and started his poultry farm again.

“The reason behind starting the poultry business again was that my uncle (Mukhtiar Singh Sandhu) was much attached to this business, as he was the first person who laid the first brick of this business.Moreover, in our family, every education expense (primary to higher education) and family expense of every single member is taken care through this business only. Today, one of my sisters is working as a government officer in California; another sister is a government lecturer in a government high school in Karnal; a few years back Shahtaj Singh (cousin brother of Ravinder Singh) completed his Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida; Marriage expense of both daughter and son… everything was done from the income of this poultry farm.”

Very few people started their poultry business again and Ravinder Singh Sandhu was one of them. After the revival period, Sandhu Poultry Farms came back with a great holler and made a good profit in the poultry business.

Expansion of the business….
Till 2010, Ravinder along with his uncle expanded the farm productivity to 2.5 lakh chickens. In the same year, they also established a hatchery with the capacity of 40,000 birds, from which they started getting 15000 birds on an average daily.

When the Shahtaj joined the business…
In 2012, after completing his studies, Shahtaj Singh Sandhu joined his cousin brother (Ravinder aka Laadi) and father (Mukhtiar Singh) in poultry business. Earlier they used to buy the feed from other companies but after some time, both the brothers took Sandhu Poultry Farm to new heights and established Sandhu Feeds. Both – Sandhu Poultry Farm and Sandhu Feed are registered under the authorized organization.

Currently, they have 7-8 units of poultry farms spread in 22 acres, hatchery in 4 acres, feed plant in 4 acres and crop farm in 30 acres, situated at Jind Road, Assandh (Haryana). To give their farm surrounding a green landscape and fresh environment, they have planted more than 5000 trees. 2 people are assigned to properly manage the feed plant and other than that there are 100 workers employed for the functioning of the poultry farm, out of which 40 are official workers.

When it comes to the hygiene and farm conditions, then it is always maintained under the strict supervision of Sandhu Brothers. After the clearance of every batch of birds, the whole poultry farm is washed and cleaned properly and then a thick layer (3 – 3.5 inch) of rice husk is spread over the ground to provide a fresh and dry atmosphere to the chicks. Temperature maintenance is another factor which plays important role in running the poultry farm, so they have installed coolers for proper air ventilation in summer season and furnace for maintaining warmness inside the poultry during winter seasons.

“A little negligence can lead to huge loss, so we always prefer to maintain the hygiene and healthy condition of the chicks. We refer government veterinary hospital and sometimes special poultry hospitals. Charges are very nominal.”

Marketing
Ravinder Sandhu with 24 years of experience and Shahtaj Sandhu with 5 years of experience in poultry industry have fabricated a strong marketing network in their own state as well as in the neighbouring states like Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. They sell birds and chicks feed in Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan through different dealers and sometimes directly to farmers.

“If anyone is interested in starting a poultry farm then the ideal way to do it, is with minimum 10,000 birds. Initially, it costs Rs. 200 per bird and Rs. 130 to raise a bird. Approximately you can say that expenses will be in between 30 – 35 Lakh and if the farm is rented then it is 13 -1400000 for a batch of 10000 birds.” – Says the ambitious Sandhu Brothers.”

Future Plan

“Expanding farm and raising more birds was already on the checklist but the new thing which we are planning to do in the future is – investment in the business of retailing poultry products.”

Both the brothers with their unmatchable strong bond of brotherhood have taken their family business to new heights and they will continue it in the future also.

Message
“
Poultry business is a good alternate source of income in which farmers must invest if they want to earn good profit along with farming. There are few things that every poultry farmer must take care if they want to continue successful poultry business, like hygiene condition, temperature maintenance, and good quality chicks and feed.
”

Lovepreet Singh

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How Booming Interest of This B.Tech Graduate, Made Him Choose Agriculture as His Full-Time Career

Meet Lovepreet Singh, a young lad with B.Tech. Degree in his hand, who instead of having a choice of doing a desk job and living a comfortable city life, choose to stay in his village to reap prosperity out of agriculture.

About 20 km towards east from district headquarters Sangrur, Kapial village is situated in Bhawani Garh tehsil, where Lovepreet Singh is living with his father, grandfather, mother and sister.

In 2008-2009, Lovepreet started organic farming of wheat on just 1 acre of land because of his growing interest in the agriculture field. Rest of the land was given on lease to other farmers, as farming was never a primary source of income for Lovpreet’s family. Moreover, Lovpreet’s father- Mr. Sant Pal Singh was settled in Dubai and had a stable income to support the family needs.

As the time passed, Lovepreet’s interest grew more and his motherland called him back. Soon after completing his degree, he thought of taking his big step towards farming. He got his land soil sample tested by Punjab Agro and took rest of his land back from the farmers.

The next crop that Lovepreet organically cultivated on his land was turmeric and along with that he also started processing it by himself. Turmeric on 1 acre and wheat-paddy on 4 acres. But adopting organic farming completely was not acceptable by Lovepreet’s family. In 2010, when his father returned from Dubai, he was against Organic Farming, because in his views organic yields less productivity. But no criticism and no bad words had the power to stir the strong determination of Lovepreet.

To increase his income, Lovepreet decided of cultivating turmeric on large basis instead of wheat. In the beginning, he faced many problems in turmeric processing, as he had no knowledge of it, but with his efforts and expert advice, he was able to achieve all the difficulties. He started using cow and buffalo dung as manure in his field to increase the productivity and quality of the crop.

After seeing the results, his father also started helping him in farming. He even contacted Punjab Agro to get his turmeric powder get organic certification and by the end of this year, he will get that. Currently, he is actively involved in turmeric farming and processing. Whenever he gets time, he visits Punjab Agriculture University and read books suggested by the experts of the university to bring positive outcome in his farming. Punjab Agro also helps him with necessary information and make him interact with other progressive farmers who are actively involved in organic farming. Other than turmeric he is also cultivating Wheat, Paddy, Maize, Bajra, but on small scale.

Future Plan:
His future plan is to expand turmeric farming and processing work, and form a group of farmers doing organic farming. Purchase common machines for the use of the group and support farmers doing organic farming.

Message:

“
The one message that I want to convey to the farmers is that organic farming is very important to conserve the environment. Everyone should do organic and eat organic, in this way pollution can also be reduced.
”

Harbir Singh Pandher

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HOW FATHER’S INVESTMENT IN APICULTURE, HELPED SON REAP RICH DIVIDENDS FROM IT IN THE FUTURE

The young scion of Pandher family – Harbir Singh Pandher not only took his father’s beekeeping business ahead but he also turns it into a profitable venture with his ideas and efforts.

Harbir Singh, a residence of Kuhli Khurd, Ludhiana is a young lad who even after holding an engineering degree in Civil, decided to continue his father’s occupation and give it a boost with his innovative ideas.

When Beekeeping Business was basically introduced to Pandher Family….

Gurmail Singh Pandher – Father of Harbir Singh, started beekeeping business almost 35 years ago without any training. In 80’s, when nobody ever thought that apiculture can also be a profitable source of income at that time the futuristic mind of Gurmail Singh ran in a different direction. At that time, he started his apiculture business with mere two honey-bee boxes, and today his son has turned his work into a flourishing endeavour of 700 honey-bee boxes.

Even though Harbir’s father beekeeping work was making a good profit but it was still lacking the marketing perspective, due to which they were not able to cover the ideal market. So, Harbir thought of giving his father local business a boost with his planning and thinking. Harbir just after completing his studies overtook his father’s business. Choosing father’s business was not a compulsion for Harbir, it was his passion to continue the work which he has seen his father doing all his childhood.

The first thing that Harbir did after he started managing his father’s work was to give a brand name to the business- “ROYAL HONEY”. Harbir was well aware that to promote a business on larger scale branding is very much important, so he got his business registered under this brand name. To give his work a more professional touch, Harbir especially visited PAU in 2011 for beekeeping training.

In the year 2013 he also gets his product registered under AGMARK and today from packaging to marketing, he does everything himself. He is mainly focusing on two products and that is honey and bee wax.

Harbir has mainly Italian Bees at his farm, and to maintain the higher quality of the honey yield they do season to season migration of honey-bee boxes from one place to another in nearby states of Punjab. He has employed 7 workers for this work. Mainly he leaves his boxes in Chittorgarh (Carrom Seeds fields), Quota (Mustard fields), Himachal Pradesh (Multi-flower), Malout (Sunflower fields) and another place in Rajasthan (Bajra & Tuar fields) by taking area on rent. By the method of manual processing, he extracts honey and then does the packaging and marketing of his products.

Other than beekeeping, Harbir and his family are also doing farming and dairy farming. They have 7 acres of land on which they grow rice and wheat for home purpose, and have 15 buffaloes, whose milk they sell in the village and also keep some of it for personal use.

Currently, Harbir is making a good profit from his family business and in the free time, he also helps other people by guiding them towards the beekeeping business. Harbir’s future plan is to expand his business to a larger extent and also become fully independent in terms of marketing.

Message for Farmers:

“
Nowadays farmers shouldn’t be dependent on farming only, they should adopt other agribusinesses also along with farming, so that if one option fails then they at least have other option to survive. Beekeeping is a very profitable business and farmers must give it a try to know about its benefits.
”

Angrez Singh Bhullar

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How the deteriorating health of this farmer enlighten him to recognize his mistake and switch to organic farming

Angrez Singh Bhullar, this 53 old year farmer from Giddarbaha, after recognizing what mistakes he has made and how it is affecting his health, made the most enlightened decision of his life.

In the young age of 4, Angrez Singh Bhullar lost his father. His family conditions were deteriorating day by day, as there was no bread earner. They were surviving on the money they were getting from their land rented to the relatives. There were two elder sisters in his family and fulfilling the family needs was becoming very difficult for his mother day-by-day. Due to worsening financial conditions, Angrez Singh received academic qualification until 9th class only and his sisters never went to school.

After dropping off from the school, Angrez Singh used to spend time with his uncles on their farm and learn some farming techniques from them. Until 1989 the land was rented to relatives, but after that Angrez Singh was big enough to take the responsibility of the family, so, he decided of taking his land back, and start farming on it.

On the behalf of whatever he learned from his uncle and by seeing other farmers of his village, he also started chemical farming. He started earning well and financial conditions of his family were improved. Soon after some time he got married and was living a happy family life.

But in 2006, he got sick and suffered from major health issues. Earlier he used to take this problem lightly but later after getting diagnosed, he came to know that his intestine are swelled up which can lead to serious problem in the future. At that time, many people use to visit him to ask him about his well-being, and someone told him that using chemical in farming is the reason behind your health issues and you should start organic.

Although many people told him many things to do, to get cure, but the one thing that knocked his mind hardly was switching to organic. He took this matter very seriously and started organic farming in 2006 with 2.5 acres of land. He grew wheat, vegetables, fruits, lemon, guava, sugarcane and paddy and earned good profit from it. To multiply his profit, he thought of processing his produce on his own and then he started making jaggery out of sugarcane. He adopted manual jaggery processing method as he was starting this venture on his own. In the beginning, he was unsure that how it is going to benefit him, but slowly his village people started liking his jaggery. Slowly the jaggery demand rose up to a level that he started making jaggery on advance booking. After sometime he also established vermicomposting plant at his farm to reap good harvest from homemade manure.

He has received many awards, achievements and attended many training camps, and some of them are listed below:

• Participated in District Muktsar Science Fair held between 15 to 18 November in 1979.

• Participated in 90 days training of Artificial Insemination organized by Verka Plant Bathinda in 1985.

• Attended 3-days-training of Hybrid Seeds Preparation organized by PAU, Ludhiana in 1988.

• Received Yog Teacher’s Training Certificate for participating in Patanjali Yog Samiti from 9 July to 14 July of 2009.

• Appreciation from the Director of Kheti Baadi Vibhag, Punjab, 28 Sep, 2012.

• Participated in Vibrant Gujarat Global Agricultural Summit held at 9 & 10 Sep on 2013.

• Appreciation Letter for Natural Farming & Environmental Fair which was help on 26 July, 2013 by Kheti Virasat Mission.

• Received appreciation for attending Rabi Crops Farmer Training Camp at state Level- by Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) on 21st Sep, 2014, Organized by Kheti Baadi Vibhag, Dist. Shri Muktsar Sahib, Punjab.

• Appreciation Letter by Kheti Baadi Vibhag at shri Muktsar sahib on 21st Sep, 2014 for State Level Farmer Training Camp.

• Participated in Advance training course of Bee Breeding 7 Mass Bee Rearing Technique organized by PAU on 12-14 Oct, 2014.

• Attended Poultry Farming Training of 2 weeks organized by Department of Animal Husbandry, Punjab at Sarkari Murgi Sewa Kendra, Kotkapura.

• Registered as a Beekeeper by National Bee Board

• Received CRI Award.

• Attended Kharif Crop Farming 1-day-Training camp organized by KVK, Goniana.

• Attended 10 days beekeeping training organized by PAU Ludhiana.

• Attended 1-day-Training Pest Control in Grains stored in Storehouse organized by KVK, Goniana.

• Participated in Organic & Herbal Products Mela organized by department of Rural Development, NITTTR, Chandigarh.

• Participated in workshop training programme- “MARKET LED EXTENSION” conducted by PAMETI (Punjab Agriculture Management & Extension Training Institute), PAU.

Angrez Singh Bhullar is a futuristic farmer of Punjab who understands the importance of going organic. Today, we need more farmers like him to deal with the worsening environment conditions.

Message for Farmers:
“If we don’t start organic farming now then our future generation will be in a big problem.”

Prem Raj Saini

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HOW A UTTAR PRADESH FARMER IS BLOOMING HIS BUSINESS WITH FLORICULTURE

Floriculture is a profitable livelihood choice and it is booming lives of many farmers across the country. One such farmer- Mr. Prem Raj Saini from Peer Nagar village of Uttar Pradesh is an emerging floriculturist and he is an ideal example for the rest of the farmers in our society.

Prem Raj’s father was the biggest inspiration behind Prem Raj being a floriculturist. It’s a matter of the seventies when his father used to bring different varieties of flower seeds from Delhi to grow it in their farm. He used to observe his father very closely and from that time only he wanted to do something related to flower farming. Although, Prem Raj Saini is a B.Sc graduate and he could have chosen a different occupation other than farming, but he chose to follow his dreams.

On 20th May 2007, his father got expired and just after that Prem Raj decided of starting what his father left in the middle. At that time the family was financially stable and his brothers were also settled. He started farming and his elder brother opened a wholesale flower shop through which they will be selling their farming produce. The other two younger brothers were doing jobs but later on, they also joined Prem Raj and elder brother in their venture.

One initiative taken by Prem Raj united the whole family into one thread. The eldest brother is managing two flower shop in Kanjipur Phul Mandi, Prem Raj himself manage the whole farm work, and the two younger brothers are managing the shops in Sabzi Mandi of Noida. In this way, they have divided all their work, resulting in increased income. They have kept only one permanent labour and they hire more when they need in the harvesting season.

Prem Raj farms every type of flowers and vegetables according to the season. For better yield, he is following Net house farming and Bed farming method. Moreover, for good quality of yield, he avoids the use of chemical and use pesticide very rarely when required. In this way, his expenses are also reduced to half. He use all the latest farming equipment like tractor and rotavator at his farm.

Future Plan-

Saini brothers are planning to establish more shops at the different location for better income. Their future plan is to expand their farming area and business.

Family-

Currently, he is living with his full-fledged complete family (Mother, Wife, two sons and one daughter) in his village. He is very open-minded and he never enforces his thinking on his children. With floriculture business and income, today, Prem Raj Saini and his brothers are supporting every need of their family.

Message
“Nowadays, there is job scarcity, because if there is one job vacancy then there are thousands of applicants to apply for it. So, if you have land, then it’s better to start farming and reap benefit from it. Take farming as your job rather than as a low profile occupation.”

Satya Rani

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SATYA RANI: A SELF-MADE WOMAN RISING LIKE A SUN IN THE FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRY

When it comes to development, then there is no doubt that women are playing a major role in shaping and guiding the young minds of India. Even in agriculture field also women are not left behind, they are leading the way to sustainable and organic farming. Today, many Indian women from both rural and urban areas are aware of the issues related to chemicals used in farming and they are also working towards this cause. Satya Rani is also one of those women who is doing organic farming and is also actively involved in the food processing business.

With rising health issues and climatic change, food security has become a major challenge to deal with, and Satya Rani is one of the emerging agripreneur who is working towards this issue.

It was Satya’s childhood dream to contribute to the agriculture field and give back to nature. From the beginning, her parents always guided her and inspired her and finally the little girl’s dream was transformed into a woman’s vision.

There also came a bad time in Satya’s life, in which if there was any another girl, then she would have lost her confidence and hope easily, but Satya didn’t. Satya’s parents told her to stop her studies after 12th because of financial problems, but she was so determined towards her future that she told her parents that she will manage her higher studies on her own. She started part time job of making food roducts like pickles and chutneys and started selling it.

During this time she learned a lot of new things and her interest was increased towards food processing business. After completing her BA from Hindu Girls College, Jagadhri, she got the job of home science trainer in the same college. Soon after that she was married to Rajinder Kumar Kamboj in 2004, but after marriage also she didn’t give up her work. She continued her food processing work and developed many new products like mango laddoo, coconut laddoo, pickles, fruit jams, murraba and many other different types of laddoo. Her efficiency increased with the time resulting in good quality products and larger customer base.

Well, food processing is not the only field in which she excelled. From her school time, she was very active in sports and she was the captain of the Kabbadi Team. She was also very zealous towards her profession, and for her work, she even achieved Best Training Award by Hindu Girls College. Currently, she is doing organic farming on 1 acre of land and is also actively involved in dairy farming. She grows every type of seasonal vegetables with the help of her husband. Satya Organics is the brand name under which she is selling all her processed products (different types of laddoo, pickles, Jam, and Murabba)

In the coming time, she is planning to expand her work and make more revenue from it. She also wants to inspire other girls and women in the society towards food processing and organic farming, so that they can become self-dependent.

MESSAGE TO FARMERS-
“If God has given you everything – physically fit body and mentally fit mind, then you should work in a constructive direction and make use of strength in a positive way. Every person should recognize the hidden talent in themselves so that they can work towards it in benefiting the society.”

Amrik Singh Dhillon

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Know how the tricks of this smart farmer are proved beneficial in farming

It is said that often needs and compulsions take people towards new inventions and likewise new discoveries are possible.

Today we are going to talk about one such person, who understood the basic necessity and needs and invented useful things by applying his new-new hacks and tricks- Amrik Singh Dhillon.

Amrik Singh Dhillon is a residence of village Giyana, Tehsil Talwandi (Bathinda). His father (Sardar Molan Singh) inherited the occupation of farming from his ancestors and after seeing him, Amrik Singh also started showing interest in farming. They have a total of 14 acres of land on which they do conventional farming.

As he was interested in farming from his childhood, so in 2000 he quit his studies after completing his 10th and decided to help his father in farming. Along with that he also started working on his friend’s mobile repair shop in his free time. But after some time he realized that education till 12th is necessary because it’s a primary education that everyone should must attend and it also helps the person to gain confidence. So, he completed the education till 12th from private school.

From childhood, he used to find a different, easy and efficient way to do all the work, because of this reason the villagers use to call him “JUGADU”. He used this same skill again after growing up as an adult with his friends and made a lot of beneficial tools for the farmers. (Jugadu- a person who finds low-cost solution to any problem in an intelligent way).

The process of making the tool started at that time when one day he was sitting in a mobile repair shop with his friend and suddenly an idea pop up in his mind of making a tool to protect motorcycle from being stolen. In a few days, he created a device by applying his gimmick that does not allow a motorcycle to move even after breaking the lock or using a fake key, and along with that it also gives a ring on the phone of the bikes owner. The success of this device inspired him more.

He continued his work even further. When he heard the news about theft of transformer, then an idea suddenly came into his mind and he thought that like motorcycle he can also make a device which will protect transformer from being stolen. And at last he succeeded in this initiative also, which gave a great relief to the farmers.

In his area, there are frequent power cuts and many times people are not even aware when power is back. After understanding this problem, he again used his smart brain and prepared a device, which calls on the phone when power is back.

Farmers are appreciating and liking the equipment very much and because of their affordable cost many farmers are also purchasing it for their own use.

According to him, he don’t make any plans before making any equipment, but equipment are needed according to the requirement, and he is working on it and in future also he will continue to make such tools to meet the need of the common people.

Kaushal Singh

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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.”

Iqbal Singh

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FUTURISTIC FARMER ADOPTED A UNIQUE WAY TO MAKE A CHANGE IN THE FOOD CYCLE OF THE SOCIETY

Generally people know what faults there are in their work but they keep on doing it in the similar way, because others are also doing the same, and still they want to make a change in the society. But as said by Albert Einstein that-

“We can’t solve the problem by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them…”

So, if we want to make a change in the society we have to think different and do different. Iqbal Singh of Basarka Village (District Tarn Taran ) is a person who chose organic farming after completing his studies just to improve the food cycle and its bad effects on the people.

Iqbal Singh’s father used to do conventional farming earlier and after completing the studies (B.Com from PU) Iqbal also decided of starting farming along with his father. But when he noticed the deteriorating health of one of his relative then he realized that how badly our food system has been affected by the chemicals and pesticides use. At that time he understood that “our food cycle and water cycle has been poisoned and if we don’t take necessary steps towards our environment then our coming generation will get affected by it very badly.”

Iqbal decided of starting farming but in a different way. He stopped the use of chemicals and pesticides and slowly expanded the organic farming in his 16 acres of land. Today he is successfully earning good profit by farming all types of seasonal vegetables organically. He implements every type of tractor, trolley, plough device, disc, and rotavator. In the coming times he wants to start food processing and its marketing so that he can take better advantage of it and earn more profit.

Message to Farmers:

“If we don’t want our coming generation to face problems and diseases like cancer, skin allergy etc, then we have to turn towards organic. This is the right time, we can restore the damage that we have done to our environment, because any delay will cause serious impact on human’s health.”

Pooja Sharma

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Story of A Strong Willed Woman Who Stepped Forward to Support Her Husband in Managing Family’s Livelihood through Farming

In our Indian Society, a notion has been deep rooted in our minds that woman should be at home and men should earn. But still, there are many women who bear the tag of bread earner very confidently in a positive way and help their husbands in running and supporting the house needs. One such a woman who is helping his husband in fulfilling her house needs is Pooja Sharma.

Mrs. Pooja Sharma is a rising agripreneur from the land of Jats – Haryana, and currently, she is the president of Kshitiz Self-Help Group and leading women of her village (Chandu) under her. By using the innovative farming technique she is producing 11 varieties of ready to cook and ready to eat items made up of soybean, wheat, maize, pearl millet, and corn.

The decision of making a move in the field of farming was taken in 2012 when Pooja Sharma (mother of three children) realized that her house needs aren’t going to be fulfilled with just his husband (Government Contract Employee) earnings, and now it’s her responsibility to support her husband.

She joined KVK Shikoupur and told them to teach her things that will help her earn a livelihood. She took training from there and learned innovative farming techniques. There she learned how to process the soybeans and other cereals so that it can be directly used for eating. And after taking this training she encouraged other women of her neighbourhood and village to take the same training.

In 2013, she established her own small manufacturing unit of roasted soybeans at home and also involved other women of her village in her venture and slowly expanded her business. She also made a self-help group by the name Kshitiz SHG and involved and encouraged more women of her village to join it. By collecting all the savings of the group’s women, she purchased three more roasting machines. And after some time she collected more money and purchased two more machines.

Currently, their group has 7 units of manufacturing machines. The machines were expensive according to their budget but still, they managed and it cost them around Rs. 16,000 and Rs. 20,000 per piece. She has 1.25 acres of land and she is actively involved in farming also. She grows mostly those crops of pulses and cereals, so that, she can process it and use it later for selling purpose. She is teaching the same thing to other women of her village also to use their land effectively because it can benefit them in the future.

Along with the team of 11 women today she is processing and selling more than 11 varieties of products (millet khichadi, millet laddoo, roasted wheat grains, roasted sorghum, roasted soy beans, roasted Bengal grams) which are ready to eat and cook (wholesome packets of nutrients) across the states and country. With the willpower, Pooja Sharma has helped other women of her village to gain self-reliance and confidence.

For her, it has been a long journey to reach where she is today and she has faced many challenges also. Now they have setup the machines at their home, so that women can operate it at home when they are free; and in their village, as power cuts are very frequent, so they have divided their work according to that; some women dry up the beans, some clean them and the rest of the women roast and grind them.

Currently, the big problem that Pooja Sharma and group face sometimes is language barriers (English). Because when it comes to communicating with big companies then they realize that in which skill they are lacking the most and that is education. But they are not discouraged by it and are trying to work on it. Apart of manufacturing food items, she is also helping women acquire training in stitching, farming and other activities they are interested in.

Her future plans are to expand his business and inspire more women and make them independent so that they don’t have to be dependent on others for money. For her passionate work and effort, she has been awarded a cash prize of 50,000 and a citation certificate for innovative farming techniques with Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Krishi Puraskar from Zone II comprising states of Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi. She is also a member of ATMA SCHEME and she has also received appreciation by the Governor- Kaptan Singh Solanki, for making protein-rich food items.

MESSAGE TO FARMERS-
“Wherever farmers cultivate cereal, pulse or any crop, there they should create a group of those women who are just doing household work and train them to use the produced crops for making good things by processing them, so that they can sell those things in the market and get a good price for it.”

Gurraj Singh Virk

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A Farmer Who Made His Skills His Strength in His Difficult Times and Emerged as a Futuristic Agriculturalist

It is generally seen in India that most of the farmers gave up very easily, instead of facing their home, financial, and other types of difficulties with confidence. Even some farmers also choose the path of committing suicide. But today we are going to discuss one such a farmer, who not even faced his personal and financial problem with boldness, but he also worked harder and achieved many high level of awards in the field of horticulture and that man is, Gurraj Singh Virk who is farming Kinnow from the last 30 years.

Gurraj Singh was born on 1st October 1954, in a normal farmer’s family and he is a residence of Surgapuri village (District Faridkot). Even though he has just passed 12th standard, but he never gave up on his courage, and not only with his self-confidence had he accomplished a great position in the field of horticulture, but he also invented the machine to make his work easier and efficient. But the position he has achieved today for that he had worked very hard.

Beginning Struggle in his life
In the beginning, he was farming cotton, but his crops faced many diseases due to which he had to stop the farming of cotton in 1990 because money debt on him was increasing day by day that he took from other local merchants and banks. Then he started sugarcane farming, but after some time, he had to stop that as well because of low profit as Faridkot Sugarcane Mill was on a stage of getting shut down. After that, he decided to start paddy farming, but in this venture also he didn’t gain much of a profit because the land was not capable enough for irrigation.

Turning Point in Life
At last, with the support of Horticulture Department, Faridkot and Punjab Agriculture University he got trained in 1983 and planted Kinnow Orchard. It was not even 2 years since he planted the kinnow trees in the orchards, his father (Sardar Swarn Singh) expired, and because of this, the whole family’s strength was shattered. Although it took a lot of time to recover from it, but from patience, hard-work, and faith he managed to direct their life on the right path. The family was not even recovered properly from their great loss, and his mother also got expired in 1999, the whole family was again in a great shock. But even facing all this he never gave up his confidence and he continued his hard-work and effort.

Fruit of Hard Work
It is said that fruit of patience is sweet, in the same way, his kinnow orchards started giving fruits and good days were returned. He never misused the profit he earned from kinnows, on the other hand, he used it well with his wise senses to expand his orchard area and got installed a deep tube well. Now he has enough water to irrigate his paddy field which resulted in increased revenue. He also planted grapes on 2.5 acres of land, which made him earn a profit of almost one lakh per acre.

But the path of success was not that easy, almost after 15-year termite attacked his grape vine fields due to which he had to uproot the whole grape orchard. Then also he never loses his hope and he expanded and continued his kinnow, paddy and wheat farming.

Modernized ways of farming
Sardar Virk always keeps himself updated with the latest technology and also implemented the necessary technology in his farm. Today he has total 41 acres of land, from which 21 acres is for kinnow farming and 20 acres is for wheat and paddy farming. Other than kinnow he also has trees of Lemon, Grape Fruit, Mousambi, Malta Red, Malta Jaffa, Nagpuri Orange, Orange, Plum, Pomegranate, Grapes, Guava, Amla, Jamun, Falsa and Chiku on his farm. For better water management he uses drip irrigation system and in summers to maintain the moisture level in the soil he implies mulching technique. He is well-skilled in taking care of natural resources. Most of the times to increase the fertility of the soil in which Kinnow plants are planted he always supports and recommend the use of green manure. Along with traditional ways, he also follows high-density farming technology for kinnow farming.

Inventions and Creations
To make his work easier he has invented many things. He has designed many types of machines, which are not of high level and costly, instead they are very normal and designed in a simple way. Machines designed by him save time and money both. He has also designed a spray pump and machine to cut and give proper shape to the trees in a very simple layman’s way. Other than this he has also created a machine for cleaning and grading the kinnows, which cleans 2 ton of kinnows in one hour. And the total expenditure in cleaning two tons of kinnow it only costs him Rs. 125, whereas if that work is done by hand then the expenditure is Rs. 1000. And there is more money is cleansing the kinnows by the mechanical way.

Other than above-mentioned inventions, Gurraj Singh Virk has also contributed to literature. He has written 7 famous articles for kinnow farming and a book also.

Achievements
The success and hard work of Gurraj Singh Virk have made him many achieve many awards in different events. Some of them are as follow:

• He has received many awards district and state level for kinnow farming. He was awarded Best Kinnow Farmer in 2010-11 and 2011-12 by National Horticulture Board.

• He was also honoured by the Advisor of Monthly Agriculture Magazines for organizing fair in March 2012.

• Gurraj Singh Virk was also an advisor to the high-level committees of PAU (Punjab Agriculture University) of fruits and vegetables, and he also made a special position for himself in Malwa Vegetable and Fruit Growing Committee.

• He is also known for helping many farmers on the behalf of many departments and organizations.

• Gurraj Singh Virk has helped farmers in around 150 acres for Kinnow farming.

He is very thankful to KVK Faridkot State Horticulture Department for the training of Kinnow Production.

Family Life
Even though Sardar Gurraj Singh Virk was not that educated enough and he also faced many great problems in his life, but then also he has great achievements. Today his kids are also reflecting the same and are well settled at higher job positions. His wife (Jagmeet Kaur) is more of a home lady. Of their 5 children, one son is a doctor in America, one son is an engineer in Canada, one daughter is doctor in Canada and other is in Punjab and one is nurse in Canada. All his children are happily living with their family. Gurraj Singh Virk often visits his children in Canada and America.

MESSAGE FOR FARMERS
“Farmers should never lose their hope and self-confidence because of small losses and other difficulties and they should never give up. Farmers should also think other than conventional framing ways. There are still many fields in farming in which farmer can reap higher profit. Horticulture is the same field like this in which farmer can make profits in lakhs very easily. But in the beginning, they should keep patience. I’m making a huge profit from horticulture and for the future also I want that farmers should adopt horticulture along with other traditional farming methods. “

Gurwinder Singh Sohi

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Young Agripreneur Booming In Floriculture Business by Blossoming Holland Gladiolus in Punjab

It is said that success is not that easy to attain, you have to taste failures many times, only then you can enjoy the real flavor of success. Same was the case with Gurwinder Singh Sohi- a normal student who opted farming when he wasn’t able to crack the Punjab JET Exam.

He was determined from the beginning that he was not going to act like a sheep and start his family occupation of wheat-paddy cultivation. So, he started mushroom farming, but it was not that successful, soon after that he setup his own sweet shop in the nearby town- Khamano. But maybe he was not meant for that also, so he took up the profession of horse breeding and later on he shifted his profession to jeep customizing.

After leaving all these jobs, in 2008, he came to know about a news that, Punjab Horticulture Department is giving subsidy on Holland Gladiolas Seeds and then the real game started for Gurwinder Singh Sohi. He started growing Gladiolas in 2 Kanals and gradually started adding more acres under the same flower. He started getting a higher price than the local variety of flower and his revenue also got increased.

The area got increased from eight acres to 18, of which 9 were his own and nine were on lease. He used 12 acres out of the total for gladiolus, 3 acre for marigold and the rest for pulses, paddy (mainly basmati), wheat, maize, and cattle fodder. The sowing (September-October) to harvesting (January- March) time of gladiolus is 7-8 months, while paddy and wheat have just opposite sowing and harvesting pattern, so the same land gives him revenue round the year. Moreover, these gladiolus are sold as Rs 7 per stick in wedding season and Rs 3 on an average. In this way, he has secured his income around the year.

Gladiolus crop is just like reaping treasure because the seeds of Holland variety are a one-time investment of 1.6 lakh per acre- which is later sold at Rs 2 per bulb and from that crop next year plants can also be prepared. Although it’s a one-time investment, it requires large workforce while sowing and seed extraction from Feb-April and labour almost cost is up to Rs 40,000 an acre.

The marigold field is also rewarding and it generates profit around Rs. 1.25 lakh to Rs 1.3 lakh every season. And this revenue is far better than wheat and paddy. All-n-all after taking out the land lease, labour and another input cost, he is left with the half of the total profit, and that is good enough.

His startup is with the name of RTS Flowers and it is booming in many cities of Punjab like Chandigarh, Ludhiana, and Patiala. However, he didn’t pursued his higher studies but time-to-time he up-skills himself to become a pro in marketing and today he is selling his gladiolus produce across the country through his firm’s Facebook Page and other online websites like India-mart.

With the coming modern marketing skills and advancement, Gurwinder has also updated himself about the term agri-marketing, and his work is in progress on the concept of farm-to-fork. He and his 12 friends have installed drip irrigation, solar pumps and other agriculture equipment with the help of government departments, and has also setup a Friends Farmers Welfare Club which has a membership of Rs. 5000 each so that in future they can buy other machinery like rotavator, power spray, and seed drill. And to promote organic farming the members of the group has also started growing turmeric, pulses, maize and basmati organically. And to expand their market of the organic food industry, they have started marketing the produce directly to the customers through Whats App groups. And to ensure that the customer and farmer both get the fair deal, they directly market their produce to 30 homes in Mohali and soon they will be staring their service through website also.

Recently, they have also started a company named as Akal Farmers Producer Company Limited and all the crops produced by farmers are packed and sold under this company. They have total 20 types of products like moong bean, black gram, chickpea, honey, Kidney beans, mustard oil, turmeric, 4 types of flour, Squashes, Garam Masala, Lassi Masala etc. and to expand the business they have also opened a shop in their village for selling the products and farmers income has increased by this. Besides this Gurwinder Singh Sohi also organizes farming, Horticulture and KVK camps on his farm to motivate other farmers.

Gurwinder Singh Sohi’s young mind hasn’t stopped dreaming and soon he will be coming up with more bright ideas to chase.

MESSAGE TO FARMERS
“Farmers should work in unity by making small groups, because buying and using farming machinery in this way is easy. By using machines in a group the expenditure get reduced resulting into a profitable venture. I’m also doing the same, I have also made a group in which we buy machines by the group names and all the members of the group can use it.”

Prabhjot, Shaminder and Sourav

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Story of Three Microbiologists Who Are Emerging as a Group of Entrepreneurs to Deliver the Best Food Experience to the Society

We all know that every successful business starts with a struggle to reach the pinnacle and nothing can be achieved easily. Behind every start-up business, there are sparkling ideas, late night discussions, arguments with close ones, thought processing, and much more. If we say that he is intelligent or he is financially sound, that’s why he is able to start a good business, then it is not true. We all have the same opportunities and we all are surrounded by great business ideas, we just have to open ourselves and let the possibilities come near us. Today, we are going to talk about three young men who discovered opportunities from their surrounding and are coming as a group of emerging entrepreneurs.

Three young students of PAU who came up with a belief of delivering the best food experience not as businessmen but as microbiologists are – Prabhjot Singh Khanna, Shaminderjeet Singh Brar, and Sourav Singla. And to give their idea a face and direction, they founded their company by the name MICRO FOODS in 2015 in Ludhiana, Punjab.

Well, yes it was a group effort by three of them, but the main inspiration behind their start-up were their professors – Dr. Sanjeev Kapoor and Dr. Ramandeep Singh. After completing their studies and research work in the field of fermented vinegar, all the three founders (Prabhjot, Shaminderjeet and Sourav) finally begin with their venture. They all three decided the company name and designed the logo.

While doing their research work, they already had a lot of work experience and knowledge of many leading fermentation and vinegar industries. So they started with the process of making organic vinegar by using natural fermentation techniques from natural fruits; that too without using synthetic acid or artificial ingredients. They set up their business manufacturing unit in 500 yards of area in Prabhjot’s home premises. And one thing that they are especially taking care of is the hygiene level of their manufacturing unit and aseptic conditions.

They started producing 4 types of vinegar made up of Apple, Java Plum (Jamun), Sugarcane, and White Grapes, under the brand name FRUIGAR. The idea behind choosing FRUIGAR as their vinegar name is that FRUI comes from Fruit and GAR come from Vinegar. They ordered raw material (fruits) from South India. The reason behind choosing these fruits for making vinegar is that all these have major health benefits and have very high demand in the market. Moreover, they are organic, so they are not going to hurt human body internally.

After making their product, they came up with the marketing plan. They started marketing their product on the basis of data that they used in their research. They also tried to cover all the doctors and introduce them with their organic fruit vinegar health benefits. Their main motive behind making fruit vinegar was to provide healthy produce to the community without any artificial ingredients.

These young entrepreneurs didn’t stop there, they also came up with two new products, known as Gluten Free Flour and Flour for the Diabetic Patient, which is very in demand nowadays. Coming from a farming background, Shaminderjeet Singh (one of the founders) cultivates wheat and paddy and also provides the raw material for their new product.

They are doing this work from past two years and slowly they are trying to establish their product in the market. Currently, they are making no profit, nor are they having loss, but in this short span of time, they have made a good number of loyal customers, which are aware of their product’s health benefits and want to invest in their product.

For them, this is just the beginning. They want to come up with more healthy and organic products for the community. Their future plan is to cover market and factories to a larger extent. Till now they are partially dependent on others for their packaging, processing, and marketing, but after 2017 they are planning to process, pack and market their product themselves. And they are also looking forward to tying up with MARKFED to sell their products.

Message by Prabhjot, Shaminderjeet, & Sourav
“Today youngsters who are in the field of Microbiology should think towards making their education a boon for the society. There are many different fields in Microbiology, in which student can do wonders. And before starting, they should discuss with the people, learned men, professionals, and their professors, as much as they can.”

Gobinder Singh Randhawa (Jonty)

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Story of an Emerging Beekeeper Who Carved His Way to Successful Beekeeping Business

It is said that, if you have the opportunity to get better then don’t waste it, because things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out. One such a person who didn’t miss the opportunity and carved his own path to success in the field of beekeeping is Gobinder Singh Randhawa aka Jonty Randhawa.

Gobinder Singh Randhawa is a resident of Village Landa, District- Ludhiana. He chose apiculture at a young age while pursuing his college studies. The main inspiration which acts as a driving force behind his profession was Sardar Baldev Singh- the head of his village. Baldev Singh himself was a progressive farmer and had a great name in the field of beekeeping.

Gobinder Singh with his two friends attended beekeeping training for 8 days at PAU and just after that, he started with beekeeping. Today he is a successful beekeeper and has established a good business. He started beekeeping in 2003 with 114 honey bee boxes by taking a loan of Rs. 280000 and today he has around 1000 honey bee boxes. He never prefers using chemicals or supplements for beekeeping, he always gives natural feed to the bees like sugar or grinded jaggery and for pest attack, he uses the natural method to prevent it. Mainly he makes honey from marigold and mustard flowers and currently his yearly revenue is around 3 crores.

With the cooperation of his two friends, he has also made a group by the name “BIG B” in the year 2004 to help the people who are associated with beekeeping work. Gobinder Singh himself is the president of this group and till now, 310 members have joined this group. Whether it’s a lady who makes face net masks, body covers for beekeepers, or a man who make wooden bee hives boxes at a small level, Gobinder Singh had tried to gather everyone under his association to help him in their work.

While setting up his business, he made some goals and targets, and by completing them step-by-step he has made a good space for his products in the market. From the beginning, he was interested in exporting his products to foreign and currently he is exporting bee wax made by him to the US. In India, he sells his honey produce in bulk at Doraha, Ludhiana, GT Road Shop and is earning good money out of it. He is also a registered supplier of National Horticulture Department and sell his product through them.

One of the great personality, who helped him in marketing the products is Dr. Ramandeep Singh Agri Business Expert, Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana by sending necessary information through Whats App group about the events and fairs. Gobinder Singh also shared his views about the marketing problem that beekeepers and farmers are facing nowadays, according to him- today everything is available online, even the consumer also shop the basic things online. So the producers also need to move one step ahead and make their business online.

Currently, Gobinder Singh is living with his full-fledged happy family (mother, father, wife and two sons) in his village and is also supporting his BIG B Association. He is also a very supportive person and helps other emerging beekeepers by providing them the beehives boxes, and other necessary guidelines. He also helps the farmers in making them aware of the loan procedure to start up their business. His future plans are to make and introduce more honey products like bee venom, royal jelly, and honey bee pollen grains and export it in the international market, because of its high demand.

MESSAGE TO FARMERS
“Those youngsters who commit suicide after facing failure, shouldn’t do that and start recognizing their potential. Because if a person has the willpower to do anything then they can achieve it and can reach any stage in their life very easily. Committing suicide is not a solution.”

Kamla Devi Shokeen

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Rousing Story of a Woman Who Started Her Entrepreneurial Business after Her Retirement And is Successful Today

In India, when a person reaches the retirement age, then his age is almost around 60. And the most common mentality of Indian people after the retirement is, no work after retirement. Because everyone has their own dreams for their golden retirement age- some people want to go on vacations, some people just want to relax and live a normal peaceful life, and some people choose the spiritual path. But there are very few people who like to choose their hobbies and interests after their retirement and pursue it as their second career. One such woman who also didn’t give up after her retirement and started her own business is Kamla Shokeen.

Kamla Shokeen, a woman who is still young by her spirits, started her entrepreneurial career after her retirement. But before getting retired, she was a Physical Education teacher for 39 years in Government School. She had the hobby of pickling berries from the beginning, so after retirement, she thought of changing that hobby into a business, and today she is running her own successful pickle business by the brand name KAMAL AACHAR.

Kamla Shokeen began her pickle business 7 years back in 2010 after getting retired from her teaching profession. And to make her pickles business more professional, she took pickle making training from PUSA Branch- KVK Ujwa under Kamkaji Mahila Kutir Udyog. After getting certification from there, she gathered the deprived and poor women of her village Dichaon Kalan, which is in Najafgarh district, to start her own pickle making and selling business. Today her fruit farm is scattered in 2.75 acres of land, in which she has grown Jujube (Ber), Carissa carandas (Karonda), Indian gooseberry (Amla), Java Plum (Jamun), and Guava trees for pickle making. And she manages all the work with the help of few workers. To maintain the good yield of the trees she never uses chemical fertilizers. She only uses vermicompost (kenchue ki khaad).

By qualification, Kamla Shokeen is MA in Political Science, but when she started pickle business after retirement, at that time, then she never felt that the work she is going to do is low grade or not of her level. Even her husband- Mr. Mulchand Shokeen, who is a retired director from GDA; two sons, out of which, one is pilot and other is an engineer by profession; one daughter- who is a doctor by profession; and two daughter-in-laws- both are teachers by profession, supported her in her venture.

Today, she is 69 by age, but her gusto of pursuing her hobby never went down since day one after her retirement. Kamla Shokeen always tried to give her best efforts, during her teaching career and as well as for her pickle business. She even received “Best Teacher Award” for her teaching from the school. And after starting the pickle business she was also awarded by PUSA for Best Quality of Aachar.

Generally, she visits events, exhibitions, and fairs to sell her handmade pickles, but to make her products available to more people she has opened a small shop in her house. Most visited fairs, where she earns the most profit by selling her pickles are Pragati Maidan and PUSA Fair. In a year she earns more than 60-70,000 from her pickles business. And in the future, she is planning to include more varieties in her pickles collection- like mango and lemon. Whenever someone comes to her for guidance related to pickles making business, she never refuses them and always provides true advice and suggestions. Till now she has suggested many people to take training from PUSA so that, they can also start their own business.

Message By Kamla Shokeen
“Rather than sitting idly on a chair all day long and doing nothing, it’s better to make yourself useful. I started working after my retirement because, I had the interest in pickling and I didn’t want to be bored. From my pickle business, I’m also able to support the poor people of my village. According to me, every woman should use her skills and hobbies to make herself independent even after the marriage, but before that they should complete their education. ”

Bhagat Singh

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Joint Effort Made by the Two Brothers Has Turned Their Father’s Small Poultry Farm into a Large Scale Business: Jagjeet Poultry Breeding Farm

A small business started by a man with just Rs. 15,000, he never thought his own sons will take it to such a large scale in future. Well, it is said that big things often have small beginnings. This is the story of two sons, who followed the same footprints of their father after their education and expanded the business to a greater extent.

Sardar Bhagat Singh a small farmer of Patti town in Tarn Taran city of Punjab, started a poultry farm business in 1962 with just 400 hens. He started the business in the times when no one was aware of poultry farm business idea. He named his poultry farm – Jagjeet Poultry Farm, JAG was taken from her wife’s name (Jagdish) first half and JEET was his own nickname. Well, Bhagat Singh started the poultry business because it was his dream and he had interest in doing that. But he never imposed his words and business on his children. He had two sons- Mandeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh, and both were sent to school and college to persuade their primary and higher studies and do whatever they wanted to do with their career. But both the sons chose to join their father’s business and extend it.

Both the brothers, Mandeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh, took the grip over the business just after their father’s death in 2012 and gradually with the time, extended their farm into 3.5 acres of area. Earlier there was only poultry farm, but after some time they also started breeding, and they renamed their farm as Jagjeet Poultry Breeding Farm. But everyone in the village, from that time till now, knows the poultry farm by the name of Bhagat Singh. Well, the name doesn’t make the difference, it’s the efforts of two brothers that has made the huge difference and changed the face of the whole poultry business.

They have 1.5 acres of land for breeding purpose and 2 acres of land for commercial layer purpose. Today, they have around 12000 hens in breeding farm and 18-20,000 hens in the commercial farm.

To make their farm functioning easier and automatic gradually with the time they managed to install 8 machines in the poultry farm, and cost of each machine is around 3 lakhs. They have employed around 25 workers to manage their farm and machines along with them. Mandeep Singh and Ramandeep especially take care of cleanliness, hygiene of the poultry farm. Even Mandeep Singh’s son Dr. Jasdeep Singh is also associated with the poultry farm business. As a veterinary doctor, Jasdeep Singh plays a major role in taking care of the chicken’s health personally. He ensures that every chicken is healthy and free of any kind of disease to maintain the good quality of poultry products. He gives all the required vaccination as per the requirement and quarantines the chicken if any kind of disease or symptom is found.

A joint effort made by the two brothers 7 years back has turned the small poultry farm business value in millions. Today they supply their poultry product all around the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. They also train and guide the people who come to them to get an idea to start their own poultry farm business. And Dr. Jasdeep Singh also helps people by telling them that which kind of feed and vaccination they should give to their chickens to maintain the quality of their poultry products. In future, this 2 brothers-son trio are planning to expand their business and make their poultry farm products available in farther areas also.

Message by Bhagat Singh’s Sons
“Nowadays, farmers are committing suicide, they should not do so. They should think that what will happen to their family after them, their family is dependent on them, and thus this is not a way to get rid of their responsibilities. Farmers should think about how to make their skills beneficial for themselves and how to process their crops so that it will give them profit in the coming time. Now, farmers have to start farming in a smart way and they have to sell their produce themselves in order to get the right price of their crops.”

Amarjit Singh

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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.”

Amarjit Bhattal

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Know about an Ex-Army Officer Who Turned into an Agripreneur & Is Bringing Revolution in the Field Of Agribusiness

Nowadays, very few people see a future for themselves in the field of agriculture. And the era in which we are living, most of the people are attracted towards the bright lights of the big cities. And when it comes to life after retirement, then people generally prefer to live an easy and comfortable lifestyle in which they have to do nothing, just sit at home, read the newspaper, spend time with grandchildren, do little exercising and that’s it. There are very few people who are concerned about nature and fulfil their responsibility and try to give back to the soil, that the soil has provided them all their life.

Well, one such person who is fulfilling his responsibility towards the Mother Nature and has made that responsibility as his hobby of farming and a way of relaxation is, Ex-army Officer- Mr. Amarjit Singh Bhattal. Leaving all his luxuries he is living with his father and wife in a small village of Ludhiana- Banohar (Banohad) and running a small shop with the name “JATT SAUDA”.

Well, many people have shops and retail stores along with the road, so what is that special in JATT SAUDA? The thing that makes “JATT SAUDA” unique and different from others is the organically produced vegetable, lentils, fruits and spices from his own farm which is just behind the shop. So basically, he has an “ON-ROAD FARM MARKET” where you can buy everything fresh and organic. Moreover, he also has a small poultry farm where he has around 100 chickens (desi murgiyan). The number of chickens keeps on going up and down, but the demand for the desi eggs never goes down and are sold as soon as they reach his store’s rack.

He started organic farming in December of 2012, after taking training from Kheti Virasat Mission. And from that day till now, he is so actively involved in farming that, from morning till evening, he spends all his time in the farm store and his father is always there to accompany him. It’s like the father-son duo is nurturing the small piece of land like their own child.

He has given a very rustic touch to his small shop, where you can see all the fresh seasonal veggies displayed on a side and garlic hanging from the roof. In his shop, there is a way towards the backyard which leads to his small farm where you can find small plantings of okra, ridge gourd, tomatoes, bitter melon, pigeon pea, different types of lettuce and many more vegetables. According to him, you can see the best view of his farm in the early morning or evening because at that time you can see the best natural colors of nature emerged with the farm beauty. Poultry farm is at one corner of his farm where you can see a dog tied with the hook. All in all, his whole farm will give you an ideal view of a perfect farm. He has 2 to 3 helper, which help him in farm work.

Amarjit Singh completed his M.Sc. degree from Punjab University, Chandigarh, and serving the country was one of the career choices of his life. Before farming, Mr. Amarjit Singh had one more profession and that was a consultant in an immigration firm, at that time he used to counsel children, talk to them and discuss them about their thinking and perspective for their life aims and goals. Moreover, he was also a popular advisor of Punjab’s Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. Even after achieving all these prominent titles in his previous life, today, he is not proud of anything. He believes in simple living and respecting the Mother Nature, and by doing organic farming he is trying to do his side of effort in conserving the nature and providing healthy food to the community.

Amarjit Singh has also an unseen talent. From his college days, he was leaned towards literature and was very fond of Leo Tolstoy’s work. He is also a very keen writer and now also whenever he gets time from the farming, he writes about his thoughts and thinking.

After having the conversation with him, he discussed his views on the poor consumer’s demands and according to him – “Nowadays consumer demand is very unhealthy. With the advanced technologies and modern ways of preserving the food, today you can shop and eat peas and carrot in summers and bottle gourd in winters. As we know that vegetables are an important part of human’s diet and each season offers an array of beautiful fresh produce, so if you include more organic seasonal fruits and veggies in your palate, then it will be more beneficial. Because by adding seasonal fruits in the diet you can enjoy the better taste of the veggies with higher nutritional values, without any chemicals, and it will also support the body’s need according to the season. He also said that the day consumer will be aware of the benefits of organic food, from that day the demand of organic veggies and fruits will increase. And to increase the awareness, farmers and consumers interaction is very much necessary.”

On his own behalf, he tries to make the people aware about the organic farming and he has also given presentations to school children on the importance of organic farming and foods. Currently, he is just planning to continue organic farming and make more people aware about benefits of organic farming.

In future, he is planning to:

• Upgrade the infrastructure of his on-road farm market

• Build up a net house in 2000 yards

• Give a protective environment to the crops in his farm

• Install hybrid system of irrigation

• Increase water storage

Message by Amarjit Singh Bhattal
“He has given a very wise message to today’s farmers- “You can’t control the product price and can be dependent on the government, you should do what is in your hands. The farmer should try to control the input cost and start doing organic farming as it requires less monetary input. A time will come when people will realize that conventional farming is not going to fulfil their demands. So, it’s better to understand the rising need of the hour and start acting according to it.”

Harnam Singh

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Story of a Man Who Chose To Stay in His Own Country and Do Something for His Motherland Instead Of Going Abroad

In Punjab, youngsters are besotted by foreign shores and migrating to abroad have become a status symbol and trend in the society. Despite having enough resources in their own motherland, today youngsters have foreign attraction and they prefer to go abroad and get settled there. For most of the people in Punjab, relocation to foreign countries has become a question of identity, even if they do not know what their goals are after going there. Yes earning money is easy in abroad, but not that easy.

With the same dream, a young man of Ludhiana, Mr. Harnam Singh was also planning to go Canada like his other friends, but in the middle, he dropped his idea. After the conversation with his friends, Harnam came to know that, life in abroad is not that easy, you have to work day and night, if you want to make money, moreover you have to stay away from your family. So after knowing their friend’s experience, he thought that, even after going abroad, if he has to face hardships in managing a simple living, then it’s better to live here with family and start doing something in his homeland only. He decided to continue his studies and also help his father in farming.

After that decision, he never looked back or let any second thought enter his mind. Today, Harnam Singh owns Namdhari Strawberry Farm which is stretched in 3.5 acres of land in his native place and is earning profits in lakhs. It all started in 2011 when his father went to PAU for the training of mushroom farming and while coming back he brought 6 seedlings of strawberry for the kitchen garden. And it is when the idea of the strawberry farming came in the mind of Harnam Singh. Gradually with the time 6 seedling became 20, 20 became 50, 50 became 100, 100 became 1000 and 1000 became lakhs. Today, they have around 1 lakh of strawberry plants in their farm. Moreover, to maintain the number of strawberry plants, he has also started cultivating strawberry seedlings in Shimla, by taking an area on rent. Mostly he avoids using chemicals and fertilizers in his farm and prefers natural way of farming. And for packing the strawberries he has packing machines and rest of the work is done by the workers (20-30), which he hires mostly in the season of strawberries. Their yearly production of strawberries is very huge, due to which Harnam has to sell some of the produce himself and the rest he sells to the shops or vegetable market of big cities.

In the meanwhile, Harnam never stopped studying and today he has a good list of academic degrees. He did Graduation in Arts, Diploma in Software Engineering, Diploma in Networking Engineering, and presently, he is pursuing Diploma in B.Sc Agriculture. He also helps the farmers by teaching and guiding them about the strawberry farming without charging them.

Currently, Harnam Singh is living in Ludhiana with his happy and small family (Father, Wife, One Daughter and One Son). His future plan is to expand the strawberry farm to a greater extent and make other farmers aware about the strawberry farming.

Message By Harnam Singh
“Harnam wants to convey the same message that he himself experienced in his life that if you have enough resources with you, then start utilizing it efficiently rather than searching it elsewhere. The youngsters of Punjab should start contributing to their motherland instead of going abroad because they can also earn good profit even by staying here.”

Amandeep Kaur

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Story of a Young Girl with Budding Skills Trying to Stand on Her Own Feet & Make Her Identity in the Society with Her Culinary Skills

It is said that those who want to achieve something in their life, for them only a small motivation or inspiration is enough. God has sent everyone with a gift box, only a few of them open their package and identify their hidden talent, and most of the people never dare to do that due to lack of confidence. But a girl from Moga dared to recognized her talent and stand on her own feet to become independent.

Amandeep Kaur a 25 year old girl from Lande ke Moga is a budding entrepreneur, who is trying to make her own identity in the society. As we know that behind every leader, there is a struggling experience which provokes them to reach that spot, same is with Amandeep. She is a young and enthusiastic soul similar to other girls, but her determination is what makes her stand out from others. Currently, she lives with her brother and mother, her father passed away quite a long time ago. And due to the financial crisis, she stopped studying after 10th. But as we all might have heard, those who are meant to do something great and stand out from all the crowd, they cannot be stopped by any kind of difficulties.

Today, Amandeep is leading a group of 7 girls known as Swati Women Cooperative Society, and under this brand name she is taking little steps towards success. Behind the formation of this group, there is hand of female philanthropist Mrs. Sundara, she only gave a small inspiration and that was enough for Amandeep to gather the rest of the girls and start up with their own business of homemade pickles and chutneys.

Amandeep Kaur explained that how Mrs. Sundara herself visited their village (village name) in 2003, gathered them (group members) and make them aware that what capabilities they have and how they can make their skills useful to themselves, instead of sitting idle. She also help Amandeep and other girls by enrolling them in the training of making homemade products like pickles, chutney and many other food products and also motivated them to study further.

Amandeep is not only working to earn and support her family but also to make her own identity in the society. She is very passionate about the work she is doing and she has also planned to pursue her education in the field of home culinary so that she can come up with different food products to sell it in the market. Name of the other girls’ are- Parminder, Baljeet, Ranjit, Gurpreet, Channi, Manjit, Pawandeep; these girls are very young, in their early twenties or below, but due to some circumstantial situation, they all have dropped out of their education in the middle. But they still have the zeal and enthusiasm to continue their study, explore new things, earn their own livelihood and be independent. All the girls are very fervent about their work and are interested in continuing their study along with SWCS business.

Amandeep and all her group members are very hard working and know how to manage their work efficiently. They buy all their raw material from the market (sabzi mandi) themselves for making pickles, chutney and fragrant waters. They make more than 10 variety of pickles, 2 types of chutney, 3 types of fragrant water and candies also.

Everything is handmade by them and is purely natural without any preservative. Pickles, chutneys, and candies made by them are very delicious and original in flavor and will remind you the taste of your grandmother’s hand.

Some of the most selling products are Mango Chutney, Lachha Nimbu Pickle, Ginger Pickle and Garlic Pickle. They visit as many exhibitions and events as they can to sell their handmade natural products; and other than that they personally visit different societies and committees of different districts to sell their product. Till now they have covered Fategarh, Firozpur, Ludhiana, and Moga, and in the coming time, there will be more cities. Usually, they use to make nearly 100 boxes of each pickle containing 1 kg each per day.

Currently, the group total income in only 20000 per month and it is very difficult for them to manage in such a tight cash flow. The reason behind this problem is they don’t have any proper platform to sell their product and also very few people know about Swati Women Cooperative Society. Well, according to them this is just the beginning and these types of hardships are never going to demotivate them or stop them from what they are doing.

Message by Amandeep Kaur (PRESIDENT OF SWATI WOMEN COOPERATIVE SOCIETY)
“Every girl should recognize their skill and use them wisely to be independent on their own. Today, women should not be dependent on others, they should be self-determining and self-regulating. Because it feels good when you have power in your hand to fulfil your own wishes. And education is very much necessary in enlightening and guiding the correct path. Working and being independent makes you feel special and confident of what you are. So, every girl should complete their education and choose the path which interests them and can help them to earn a good living.”

Ashok Vashist

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Encouraging Story of a Farmer Making Money from Organic mushroom Farming and Mushroom Products

The science of agriculture has been refined and perfected overtimes to fulfill the demands of the ever increasing population. And with advancement, farming techniques has also been changed. Nowadays most of the farmers are dependent on conventional farming (industrial farming) techniques, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, GMO and other industrial product to maximize the potential yield of their crops; very few are doing farming without using chemicals. Today, we are going to introduce you to a personality, who also use to do conventional farming earlier, but after getting the insight and knowing the benefits of using natural ways in farming, he started using natural farming methods.

Ashok Vashist is an ordinary farmer of village Haryana, who breached the stereotypical thinking of using conventional farming techniques and started using organic farming methods for mushroom cultivation. He got the inspiration of doing mushroom cultivation by using natural farming method after his visit to Research Center of Mushroom, where Chief Scientist Dr. Ajay Singh Yadav make him aware of the beneficial properties of mushroom and motivated him to start doing it.

In the beginning, when he started mushroom farming, the person other than Scientist Ajay Singh Yadav, who always encouraged and assisted him in farming was his wife. All the other six members of his family also helped and supported him a lot.

Ashok Vashist mainly follows three important steps of mushroom cultivation.

First Step: In the first step, he prepares compost by using paddy straw, wheat straw, millet straw, etc. He cut the straws in 3 to 4 cm and soak them in water.

Second Step: In the second step, he leaves the straw for 28 days in the compost made at home.

Third Step: In the third step, when the compost is prepared, he sows the mushroom seeds which are specially prepared in the lab.

He always follows these three steps while doing mushroom farming and other than mushroom he also cultivates wheat and rice in his farm. By qualification, he is just 10th passed, but this thing never dispirited him in learning and exploring new things. With his innovative thinking and enthusiasm, he tries to create different product out of mushroom, and till now he has created products like honey muraba, mushroom achaar, mushroom muraba, mushroom bhujia, mushroom biscuits, and even mushroom jalebi and ladoo also. One thing that he especially cares about while making different food products is health. So, he uses Stevia powder made from the plant species stevia to sweeten the sweet recipes. Stevia is an ideal healthy sweetener and is also nutritious; diabetic patients can consume sweet products containing stevia without any worries.

Ashok Vashist journey started from a very small platform, almost from zero, and today he has setup up his own business from his hard work, where he sold his homemade products which have been passed by FSSAI. Maharishi Vashist Mushroom is the brand name under which he is selling his products, and many experts, officers, leaders, and media house visit his farm, time to time, to know his innovative way and the idea behind mushroom cultivation and creating delicious mushroom products.

Ashok Vashist wall of achievement includes:

• Certificate for mushroom production technology training programme from HAIC Agro Research and Development Centre.

• Training Certificate by Chaudhry Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar.

• Award and Certificate of Achievement in 2nd Agri Leadership Summit 2017

• Appreciation award from DC Amna Tarneem Jind.

Mushroom Seed:
Ashok Kumar is the first farmer of India who recently developed the seed of mushroom, which can be used as spawn.

Well these are just few awards and achievements to mention about Ashok Vashist, even his buffalo also won the competition by giving 23 kg of milk, which gave him a cash prize of Rs 21 thousand. He only owns 4.5 acres of land and 6 Murrah Buffaloes from which he tries to make out the best earning and profit. He is also an active participant of various exhibitions and events which help him in showcasing his products and making awareness of his farming techniques. And with the hard work and passion with which he is working, in future he will definitely going to achieve much more successes and praises in the field of farming.

Ashok Vashist has a special message for the farmers
“Mushrooms are highly nutritious and beneficial to human health. I have generated great profit from mushroom cultivation by growing them in a natural way. As, we know that, food processing is going to be a big thing in the future, so try to take advantage of the opportunity. In the coming time I’m planning to expand my mushroom cultivation to produce products in huge quantity for selling purpose. My message to other farmers is that they should also take up mushroom farming and process them to make different products for selling in the market. Even landless farmers can also make great earning from mushroom farming and they should also choose this field for farming.”

Katta Ramakrishna

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How Katta Ramakrishna Made Cotton Farming More Interesting With High-Density Plantation Technology

Katta Ramakrishna is a progressive farmer from Obannapalem village near Naguluppalapadu Mandal in Prakasam District of Andhra Pradesh state. He has successfully implemented high-density planting technique in his cotton field as per the scientists’ suggestion, which resulted in high yield with improved productivity.

This innovative initiative taken by Katta Ramakrishna to put more plants in a little area, ultimately boosted up the yield. By taking this step he produced 10 quintals per acre which made him won national recognition from Indian Council of Agriculture (ICAR) and he was awarded “Babu Jagjivan Ram Abhinav Kisan Puraskar” in 2013.

Later on, with the guidance of District Agriculture Advisory and Transfer of Technology Center, Katta Ramakrishna planted 12500 plants in an acre, and this he implemented in his 5 acreage plot and got the yield of 22 quintals from an acre.

“For every penny invested by me, I got an equal amount as profit in return”
– Katta Ramakrishna said by proudly showing his award that he received from Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan in New Delhi.

Minimally Rs 5, 000 per acre was added to the investment of Rs 45, 000 per acre that the farmer did in the beginning.

“Normally an ordinary farmer used to plant 8, 000 cotton plants in an acre and get the yield of 10 to 15 quintals. But they don’t know that increasing the plant density can increase the cotton yield.”
– Said by the Senior Scientist Ch. Varaprasada Rao, DOT Centre.

Encouraged by the good productivity of white gold, Katta Rama Krishna said that –
“In the coming time I am going for plant density of 16, 000 per acre to aim at 25 to 20 quintals of yield.”

His achievements
• He has been honoured by various state and national organizations.

• Sri Ramakrishna started practiced high-density cotton planting with a spacing 90 cm x 30 cm (as against 90 cm x 45cm ) which resulted in improved yield (45.10Q/ha) even under rainfed conditions.

• He adopted the hydrogel technology in the cotton field for maximum water conservation that resulted in 15% increase in yield.

• Field trials for chickpea, black gram, and green gram have helped to identify suitable varieties for farmer fields in Prakasham district.

• Biofertilizers such as Rhizobium and Phosphobacteria for Bengal Gram have been adopted for increasing the yield.

• He gives preference to organic fertilizer and green manure for the cultivation.

• He uses neem seed kernel extract to counteract the pest menace.

• He has developed technology for use of tobacco waste as a fertilizer in his fields in collaboration with CTRI, Kandukar, Parkasham District.

• He refined and modified seed cum fertilizer drill to place the seed and fertilizer at different soil depths at a time. This modified seed cum fertilizer drill is useful for all types of pulses plantation to the local farmers.

• The innovative technologies and improved package of practices followed by him are published in local languages. Further, the real name farm experiences were disseminated and broadcasted through various radio tasks and public meetings.

• He has become a role model for others in the area and is an inspiration for them.

Message
“Farmers should get their soil tested by the experts to manage the micro-nutrients in soil for the better growth of crops. And in this way, they can also get best results of pest management by using fewer chemicals and pesticides.”

Rajmohan Singh Kaleka

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Story of a Man Who Is Known For Raising Poison Free Crop in Punjab

Born in an agriculturist family, S. Rajmohan Singh Kaleka is a successful progressive farmer from village Bishanpur, Patiala. Without using any kind of chemicals and pesticides he is growing Wheat and paddy on 20 acres of land and is taking good productivity (35 quintals paddy and wheat 22 quintals per acre) out of it from more than a decade.

He is also against stubble burning and he never burns the remains of the crop (straws). His method of poison free farming and eco-friendly agriculture practices has recognized him as a role model for the other peasants of Punjab.

Other than this he is also a member of the production committee of District Patiala. He is always affiliated with terms like progressive farmers, scientists, officers and agricultural expert; this is a big acknowledgement that he has received. Many agricultural scientist and officers often pay visits to his farm for research and exploration.

Along with his job and crop farming, he is also actively involved in dairy farming; he has kept few cows of Sahiwal breed. Other than this he has also established a Bio-Gas plant at his farm. According to him, one of the reasons that lead him to this level of accomplishment is the advisories taken by him from the agricultural experts, KVK’s and IARI.

In the free time, Rajmohan Singh likes to read books related to agriculture, because doing this boost him towards natural farming.

His Awards & Achievements…

For his good work and initiative towards poison free farming he has been honoured and awarded by many prominent people:

• State Level Award

• National Award

• Dhaliwal Award from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana

• Awarded by Honourable Supreme Court Judge

• Awarded by Honourable Rajyapal of Punjab & Haryana

• Awarded by Agriculture Minister

Not only awards, Mr. Rajmohan has also received special letters of appreciation from various government officials which has made him more proud:

• Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Agriculture, Punjab

• Director of Agriculture Punjab

• Deputy Commissioner Patiala

• Chief Agriculture Officer, Patiala

• Joint Director, IARI

Message:
“Farmers should take step towards poison less farming because this is the only way to sustain a better life and they should also make earth a habitable place for the future generation. Today farmer should understand the current need and look for more meaningful and sustainable ways of pursuing agriculture instead of fulfilling their monetary needs.”

S. Bharpur Singh

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Bharpur Singh Chose Floriculture Blossoms to Reap Profit from Farming

Agriculture is a diversified field and farmers can reap good profit out of it even in less land, all they need to be aware of is the modern way of farming and the right way to do it. This is the story of Bharpur Singh an ordinary farmer from Kheri Mallan village of Patiala, who always wanted to do something different than the cultivation of wheat and paddy.

Mr. Singh after completing his studies (school) decided to help his father- Sardar Ranjeet Singh in farming, but he was never satisfied with the trend that other farmers were following (wheat-paddy cycle). Although he helped his father in the fields, but his mind and soul wanted to do something different.

In 1999, he visited Gurdwara Rara Sahib with his family and bought some flower seeds of Chrysanthemum and that was the time when he entered in the field of floriculture. In the beginning, he started growing Chrysanthemum on a small piece of land and slowly with the time he found this venture profitable, so he increased the flower farming area.

With the time, as his sons grew up they also started taking interest in his father floriculture business. Now both the sons of Bharpur Singh is equally engaged in the floriculture.

Floriculture
Currently, they are growing four types of flowers in their farm- Chrysanthemum, Marigold, Jafri and Gladiolus. They use all the modern implements on their land. Floriculture is spread in 10 acres and sometimes they also take land on lease for farming other crops.

Seed Preparation
Other than farming they have also started preparing seeds of Jafri and Chrysanthemum flowers by themselves, and they import Gladiolus seeds direct from Holland, and Marigold seeds from Kolkata. Seed preparation helps them make a good profit, sometimes they also provide seeds to their friends and relatives just to promote floriculture.

Investment & Profit from Floriculture
Rupees 2 lakhs is the investment cost for Gladiolus in 1 acre and in return he gets Rupees 4 – 5 lakhs from one acre of Gladiolus, which means almost 50% profit or more.

Marketing
They are not dependent on the third person for the marketing. They market their produce themselves in the mandi of Patiala, Nabha, Samana, Sangrur, Bathinda, and Ludhiana. Their brand name is Nirman Flower Farm. Several camps related to agriculture are also organized by horticulture department at their farm in which many progressive farmers participate and training is provided to the regular farmers about floriculture.

Sardar Bharpur Singh gives most of the credit of his successful farming venture to Dr. Sandeep Singh Grewal (Horticulture Department, Patiala), Dr. Kulwinder Singh and Dr. Ranjeet Singh (PAU) because without their help and advice he would not be able to reach this stage in his life.

He gives a message to the farmers that they should not opt agriculture as to compete with other farmers but they should do it for themselves and with full interest then only they will be able to earn profits as desired.

Starting from a small level and achieving this much success in life, Bharpur Singh sets an example as a role model for the farmers who are looking towards adopting floriculture.

Message
“My message to farmers is that they should seriously think about the benefits of diversification. The vicious circle of wheat and paddy farming has left farmers in a bad shape and under lots of debts. The fertility of the soil is decreasing and farmers are being forced to use more and more chemicals to increase production. Diversification is the only way by which farmers can achieve success and gain more profits and raise their standard of living. Moreover, farmers should not opt agriculture as to compete with other farmers but they should do it for themselves and with full interest then only they will be able to earn profits as desired.”

Mohinder Singh Grewal

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STORY OF A MAN WHO MASTERED THE ART OF AGRONOMY AND ESTABLISHED HIS FEAT IN THE FIELD OF DIVERSIFIED AGRICULTURE

Anyone can think and dream. But there are very few people who can take stand on their thinking and have the ardour to accomplish it. With the strong determination there comes a navy man who decided to change his profession into farming. That man came up with an idea of multipurpose farm and with his passion and hard work, today that farmer has turned himself into a global personality in the field of agriculture.

Sardar Mohinder Singh Grewal, the first Farmer Consultant of Punjab Agriculture University, PAU, has 53 years of experience in diversified farming of growing 42 different types of crops. He has learned hybrid seed developing and progressive farming techniques from countries like Israel. Till now, he has won 5 international, 7 national and 16 state level awards for his work in the field of agriculture.

Mr. Grewal was born on 1st December 1937 in Lyallpur in present day Pakistan. His father’s name was Arjan Singh and mother’s name was Jagir Kaur. If we look at the entire life of Mohinder Singh Grewal, we can see that his life was full of struggles but he assumed every struggle and difficulty in his life as a challenge and with dedication and hard work he fulfilled the dreams of himself and his family.

During his school and college days, Mohinder Singh Grewal was really enthusiastic about football and he used to captain the teams of various schools. He was also a good athlete and due to this, he got a permanent job in Indian Navy. In 1962 Mohinder Singh Grewal travelled to Kala Pani in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia on the ship named INS. While playing a match in Indonesia he suffered a serious injury on his right thigh. Due to his injury and family pressure he left his job in Indian Navy in 1963 and after that his life came to a standstill for a while.

After leaving the job, he did not have much of a choice but to go back to his ancestral profession of agriculture. He started with the farming of wheat and maize and he did this for 4 years. Mohinder Singh along with his wife Jasbir Kaur made a cohesive plan to succeed in agriculture and today he has become world famous due to his agricultural activities. Even though he has a small farm of 12 acres but by doing crop rotation he is making a lot of profit. Mohinder Singh Grewal has been able to grow almost 42 types of crops in his fields and get good quality produce. His feat has not only been recognized in Punjab but in the entire India as well.

Mohinder Singh Grewal’s Work has made him so popular that he has served for many prestigious committees and councils. At the state level, he has served as Member of Governing Board, Punjab State Seed Certification Authority, PAU Publication Committee and PAU Farmers’ Advisory Committee. At the national level, he has served as Member of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Government of India; Member of Seed Act Sub-Committee, Government of India; Member of Advisory Committee, Prasar Bharti, Jalandhar, Punjab; and Member of Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow. At present, he is a Member of Agriculture and Horticulture Committee, PAU, and Member of Governing Board, Agricultural Technology Management Agency. And he is also the Founder and Charter President of Punjab Farmers’ Club, PAU.

He has been honoured by many countries such as England, Mexico, Ethiopia and Thailand for his work in the field of agriculture and has also won over 75 awards at various levels. He has been awarded as “Man of the year” by Autobiographical Institute, USA in 1996; and on 15th August 1999, he was honoured with a Gold Medal and Loyi in Shri Guru Gobind Singh Stadium in Jalandhar by honourable Governor S S Rai.

He has also been invited by Farmers Institute, Pakistan twice to educate the farmers of West Punjab on how to earn more profits in agriculture and to educate the officials of the Agricultural University in Pakistan about crop diversification. He has been travelling most of his life and has been to many countries like USA, Canada, Mexico, Thailand, England and Pakistan as a scientific farmer and a delegate member, and wherever he went, he imparted technical knowledge to the local farmers.

Sardar Mohinder Singh Grewal is also a keen writer and has written five books, titled as “Kheti-Bari Di Safalta Di Kunji”, “Tere Bagair Zindagi” (poems), “Rang Zindagi De” (autobiography), “Zindagi Ik Darya” and “Successful Scientific Farming.” His writings have been published in foreign newspapers, national dailies, state newspapers, agricultural magazines and Rotary magazines. He has also contributed to the community by undertaking several community service projects like free eye check-up camps, road safety week, blood donation camps, tree plantation, field days and soil tests.

In the field of agriculture, Mohinder Singh Grewal has achieved tremendous success and has set higher standards for farming. His achievements in agriculture act as a source of knowledge and inspiration for all the farmers.

Rajveer Singh

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Success Story of a Small Dairy Farm in Karnal That Produces 800 Ltrs Milk per Day

This is the success story of Rajveer Singh and the accomplishments of his dairy farm. Hailing from a small village of Karnal district (Haryana), Rajveer Singh never thought that his HF breed cow- Lakshmi, would be honoured with National Award for high milk production.

Rajveer Singh’s Lakshmi is a cow of Holstein Friesian breed which has the capacity to produce 60 Lt Milk every day which is much more as compared to other HF breed cows. Lakshmi has not only won awards for her high milk producing capacity but also for her beauty in many animal fairs at the national level. She has been a beauty champion at Punjab National Dairy Farming Fair.

Well, Lakshmi is just one high milk producing cow at the farm of Mr. Rajveer. All in all, there are total 75 cattle at his farm, from which Rajveer Singh is making a profit of around 15 lakh annually. His whole farm is built and expanded in 1.5 acres of land, in which you can see an amazing view of a scrum of cows (60 HF cows, 10 Jersey cows, 5 Sahiwal cows).

Rajveer Singh’s dairy has a total milk production capacity of 800 litres/ day. Out of which, he sells some of the milk in the market and the rest to Amul Dairy. It’s been 8 years since he is actively involved in dairy farming and with his all efforts and expertise he tries to take care of his cows.

No amount of money can weaken the bond of Rajveer Singh and his cows…
Rajveer Singh is so much attached to his cows and dairy work that once he even refused a big businessman from Bangalore to sell his cow Lakshmi in 5 lakh rupees. Businessman visited Rajveer Singh’s farm to buy his cow and was ready to offer any amount of money in exchange of Lakshmi, but he was determined and rejected his proposal.

Care & Feed provided by Rajveer Singh to Lakshmi…
Lakshmi was born in the Rajveer Singh’s farm, due to which Rajveer was much attached to her. Lakshmi generally eats 50 kg of green fodder, 2 kg of dry and 14 kg grains every day. Almost 6 workers are engaged in the care of Lakshmi and other animals at the farm.

Message
“Cows should be cared for like a child. Cows are very reactive to the love and care that they receive. Dairy farmers should take care of every need of the cows, then only they can get good milk produce.”

Harjeet Singh Brar

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Despite Facing Many Problems, This Citrus Estate Owner Reinvented His Way to Stay Successful To Harvest the Sweetest Kinnows

Crop failure, insect/pest attack, rainfed land, financial condition are some of the problems that make the farmers helpless and handicapped sometimes, and these situations lead to suicide commits, starvation, and illiteracy. But some farmers do not accept their downfall so easily and they overcome these types of situations with their full determination and efforts. Harjeet Singh Brar, a residence of Deleanwali village (Faridkot), is one such a farmer whose quest of glory still echoes in the field of kinnow cultivation.

Mr. Brar got the inspiration of Kinnow farming after his visit to the orchard of Sardar Balwinder Singh Tikka situated at Abul Khurana village. Initially, he faced many problems like pest attacks of Citrus Psylla, Leaf Miner and disease like Phytophthora root rot, but he never stepped back or regretted his decision of Kinnow farming. But slowly with the time, he overcame all the problems and expanded his orchard from 6 acres to 70 acres.

To increase the orchard productiveness he implemented the High-Density farming technique. With his dedication and curiosity to learn more about Kinnow Farming, kept him afloat over all the problems and he started earning great profit from the business.

To polish his farming skills and give it a better professional touch, he undertook training from P.A.U, KVK Faridkot and Department of Horticulture.

The Passion for Conserving Natural Resources:
He is very passionate towards conserving the natural resources. He always tries to implement those farming technologies through which he can save the resources. With the guidance of PAU experts, he installed drip irrigation system and built a water storage tank of capacity 42 lakh litres, where he stores canal water. Along with this, he also invested in the solar panel to conserve solar energy and later use it to uplift water from storage tanks to his orchards. He also does mulching during peak summer months to conserve the soil moisture.

To improve the soil health he uses green manure and also recommends to other farmers. He prepares soil bed of around 20 m X 10 m and 20 m X 15 m for Kinnow cultivation.

How he deals with the pest…
To tackle the menace of citrus Psylla, White Fly, and Leaf Miner, he has especially implemented an indigenous aeroblast spray pump which ensures uniform spray of the pesticide and weedicide.

Adopting innovative trends…
Whenever he gets the opportunity to adopt any new trend or technology he never misses that. Once he borrowed an idea from Gurraj Singh Virk- an eminent horticulturist and designed a low-cost Kinnow cleaning cum grading machine (capacity of 2 tonnes per hour). And now this machine only cost him just Rs 125 to clean and grade 2 tonnes of fruit, but the biggest advantage is that he is saving Rs 1000 on manual cleaning. Today, he is making a great profit from his orchard business. He is an inspiration for other farmers.

MESSAGE
“All farmers, whether practicing organic or conventional farming should take immediate and stern measures to conserve the soil fertility. For Kinnow farming, the farmers should use green manure in the Kinnow plantations for improving the soil health.”

Ratti Ram

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A Ray of Hope Which Changed Ratti Ram’s Farming into a Profitable Venture

Ratti Ram is an ordinary vegetable farmer from Hinotia village of Madhya Pradesh. By wisely taking advantage of advanced techniques and government schemes, he established his own vegetable farm from which today he is earning profit in crores. But if we talk about a while ago, then Ratti Ram was a deprived farmer for whom even buying a footwear was also a very difficult errand. Today he owns a bike which he proudly runs in his village.

Although Ratti Ram had less land for cultivation, but scarcity of water resources acts as the major intervention between his efforts and the land. In the rainy season, when he tried to cultivate something at that time excess rain damaged his crops. All these climatic problems and other glitches were the main reason behind his poor farming conditions.

Whatever little income he used to earn from farming was all spent on fulfilling the family’s food demand, and these situations were also giving rise to many financial problems. But one day Ratti Ram came to know about Horticulture Department and he ran barefoot towards Collector Rajesh Jain’s Office District Head Quarter from his village Hinotia. When collector saw Ratti Ram, he felt his pain and the next step that he took changed the life of Ratti Ram.

Collector sent Ratti Ram to the officer of Horticulture Department, where Mr. Ratti came to know about various horticulture schemes. He got seeds of Guava, Amla, Hybrid Tomato, Okra, Potato, Garlic, Chilly etc., and with the help of horticulture schemes and subsidy, he also set up drip irrigation system, sprayer, power spray pump, power driller. Moreover, the collector also helped him in locating a pack house under subsidized rate.

His fate changed, as soon as Ratti Ram started vegetable farming by using new techniques, and in a year Ratti Ram earned a pure profit of one crore from which he bought Matador Van, two bikes, and two tractors. Other than investing in vehicles he also invested in other resources and made 3 new water wells, 12 tube well and 4 houses at different locations. He expanded his farming area by buying 20 acres land for cultivation purpose and took 100 acres land on lease. Today he is living happily with his family and a while ago he also arranged marriage ceremony for his two sons and a daughter.

Ratti Ram is a role model for all those farmers in India who are feeling helpless and abandoned, because even in his difficult times he never left his hope.

Gurdev Kaur Deol

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Story of a Woman Who Is Leading a Change in the Women Society through Entrepreneurship

Over the years, women in India, have made a substantial impact and achieved success in most of the sectors, but still, there are many women who are way behind and are just confined to the household work. Today, we need to promote women to be a great part of the workforce and develop their skills. Because women have the power to accelerate the growth of country’s economy. And the best way to empower the women is by entrepreneurship not by charity. There are many people working voluntarily to promote women empowerment, but the best person who can empower a woman is a woman herself. One such woman who is working in the interest of womankind and encouraging them to be independent is Mrs. Gurdev Kaur Deol.

Gurdev Kaur Deol is a progressive farmer and president of Global Self-Help Group. Born and brought up on the land of Punjab, she was a strong-willed girl from the beginning. She was very active and enthusiastic, and always wanted to take initiative in helping her female counterpart and make them feel empowered.

Like other women, she was also married after completing her studies (MA- B.Ed. from G.H.G. Khalsa Colleges, Gurusar Sadhar, Ludhiana). But after her marriage, she realized that this is not all, for what she is meant for. In 1995 she started beekeeping with 5 boxes and 1999 she also started marketing self-made products like pickles, chutneys, etc.,

In 2004 she came in connection with PAU, and then she comprehended that, so far she had only theoretical knowledge, so she gained practical knowledge from PAU. She also became a member of Beekeeper Association of PAU. After doing this much on her own, she realized that she has to make other women of her society aware of their capabilities. So, in 2008, she formed a cooperative society by gathering 15 women of her village and named it Global Self-Help Group. She helped all the women of her group get enrolled in the PAU training program so that they can learn proper skills.

In the beginning her group started making pickle, chutney, jams, honey, sauces, squash juices and murraba. Soon her group started earning a good profit and after 6 months, the bank offered them the loan for their work. They expanded their work bit by bit and also started organic farming and added more products to their collection.

In 2012 she partnered with NABARD and got her group registered with them and turned it into an NGO, and after that, her group members started processing their work. After registering up with NABARD she was assigned a target to form 100 self-help groups more, to promote and encourage women to develop their skills and be independent. Till now she has made 25 groups and PAU is also helping her in making more groups. In 2015 she registered Global Self Help Group with Farmer Producer Organization. Till now she has connected more than 400 women and men and formed separate groups of them.

Today NABARD is also supporting her group by providing funds, so that she can provide practical training free of cost to unprivileged and needy women and make their groups. She always approaches a woman by telling her to start making recipes for her own family, children, and relatives. Because she thinks, if a housewife cannot meet the needs of her home, then how will she do the same thing outside.

Currently, Mrs. Gurdev Kaur Deol is living in Village Dasmesh Nagar, Ludhiana with her husband Mr. Gurdev Singh Deol, and is successfully running her group and guiding other women and farmers to do better. Till now she has total 32 products including organic pulses, lentils, squashes, and spices. Beekeeping is one her favourite hobby and now her group has 450 boxes of honey bee boxes. She also does dairy farming and makes milk products for selling purpose. They also purchase organic pulses from the farmers, pack them and sell them. She sells all the products made by her group under the name of Global Agro-Food Products. She is earning good profits by Global Self Help Group.

In future, she is planning to open a shop in the name of her group, so that she can establish a proper platform to sell her products, and she also wants to connect the farmers from Himachal Pradesh for the trade of organic pulses, vegetables, and maize etc.,

Till now she has achieved many awards and achievements for her work. Some of them are listed below-

• Sardarni Jagbir Kaur Award in 2009
• State Award from Agriculture Department under ATMA Scheme in 2010
• National Award for Dairy Farming in 2011
• State Award To Global Self Help Group from NABARD in 2012

Message by Gurdev Kaur Deol
“Gurdev Kaur has a special message for the farmers who have less land. If a farmer has 3-4 acres of land, then they should start growing vegetables and pulses on it by following natural farming method, instead of wheat and paddy. Because organic farming can help them earn more profit in a safe way. And every woman should start using her skill and be productive.”

Manjula Sandesh Padvi

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How This Woman Single-handedly Proved Organic Farming Profitable For the Community and Her Family

Manjula Sandesh Padvi looks like an ordinary farmer, but her knowledge related to organic farming and her life struggle is way beyond that. Living in a small village Wagsepa, district Nandurbar of Maharashtra, she not only cultivate land organically but also fulfils her family needs and educate her daughter from the farm income.

Manjula’s husband left her 10 years back at that time, she had two options to do with her life, first one was to feel bad for her circumstances, gain sympathy and look for another person’s support; the second choice was to stand up on her own and become her own support. She chose the second option and today she is an independent organic farmer.

There was also a time in her life when her health was not responding well to her body needs. At that time, she was going through a heart-treatment, in which her heart valve was replaced, but she never lost her hope. After recovering from the surgery, she took a loan from the saving group and planted a motor pump in her field. To make the soil more fertile, she chose bio-fertilizer in place of chemical fertilizer and pesticides.

The money that she got from various government policies was a good amount for her and she spent it wisely by purchasing a pair of bulls. And now she uses the bulls to cultivate her land by hoeing it. She grew maize and sorghum and got good yield as well.

Manjula Says- “Yield of crops grown in the fields nearby is less than mine. Last year we grew maize but our yield was much better than them because I am using biofertilizers and others using chemical fertilizers. This year also I am growing maize and sorghum”

Public Service System located in Namburdar district has been a great help to Manjula in her farming venture. They have created 15 saving groups in her area, and through these groups, they collect money and provide loans to the farmers in need. They especially encourage non-chemical and organic farming. One more group of which Manjula is taking advantage is Indigenous Seed Banks, she takes seeds through these groups and practices diversified farming of vegetables, fruits, and cereals. Manjula’s daughter Manika is proud of her mother and she always supports her.

Today, women play a major role in the farming field, from sowing seeds to conservation and storage of crops. But when farming gets mechanized then women generally fall out of this category. But, Majula Sandesh Padvi never made herself handicapped and turn her weakness into strength. Single-handedly she took care of her farm, her daughter and her house needs. Today she has made her daughter well-educated and capable enough to earn and live a good life. Presently her daughter- Manika is working as a nurse in Jalgaon.

Women like Manjula Sandesh Padvi act as the powerhouse for rural India, women like her motivate other women to be strong and chose sustainable farming for better future. Today, we need more Manjula Sandesh Padvi, if we want our future generation to live healthy and without any scarcity.

Sustainable farming is the need of the hour because chemicals are decreasing the fertility of the land and making the underground life polluted, moreover chemical use also increases the cost of farming, which increases the debt and forces farmers to commit suicide.

We need to learn from Majula to protect our water, soil and environment by adopting organic farming.

Baldev Singh Brar

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Baldev Singh Brar- A Progressive Farmer with 80-Year-Old Body but 25 Year Young Mind and Soul

1960 was the year when Baldev Singh Brar S/o Arjan Singh started farming and it was same year when Green Revolution was at its peak time. Ever since then, neither his enthusiasm nor his passion has diminished for farming.

Born and brought up on the land of Punjab – village Singhawala, district Moga, Baldev Singh Brar has made considerable achievements in the agriculture sector and won several awards from Agriculture Department, Firozpur.

He chose to do farming priority wise by taking advice from agriculture scientist of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Moga (Punjab). His main attention was especially towards the cultivation of Wheat and Guar. And after some time, he shifted his interest towards the cultivation of poplar and papaya by replacing paddy. In 1985 he also turned his way towards horticulture by planting Kinnow in 9 acres and vineyard in 3 acres to earn more profit. For the domestic purpose, he grows fruits and vegetables separately. In total, he has 37 acres of land out of which 27 acres is his own and 10 acres on the contract basis.

His Achievements:

Baldev Singh Brar was not only interested towards farming but also towards farm mechanization to make agriculture practices easier. Once he gave a technical advice to an industrial unit of Moga to develop a machine for puddling of paddy at a low cost and that machine has become very famous now.

He has also developed a powerful spring cultivator that is capable of breaking the hard layer of the paddy fields after harvesting.

One of his smart implementations through which he is earning good, is the advice given by agriculture scientist. He always keeps a full documentation of his income and expenditure. And in order to never let down the curiosity worm of agriculture inside him, he always attends “Farmer Fairs” to become aware of new inventions and trends in the field of agriculture. He also motivates other farmers towards scientific farming methods for better results.

Message:

“A farmer is a nation builder, so he should never feel down and hopeless in the time of difficulties. A farmer should be versatile in adapting the modern eco-friendly agriculture trends, then only he can progress and take good yield out of the land.”

Gurdeep Singh Nambardar

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Gurdeep Singh Script Success Story in Mushroom Cultivation

With the combined effort and support of the whole family based in Gurali village of Firozpur district (Punjab), Gurdeep Singh Nambardar has scripted his success in the field of mushroom farming. Pooling all his resources and determination, he started mushroom cultivation in 2003 and till now he has employed 60 families with his venture.

Starting from a small level and slowly expanding to a grander level, today Gurdeep Singh has earned an identity of a successful mushroom farmer and along with that, he has also built a large mushroom farm. Other than being a successful mushroom farmer he was also Sarpanch of his village for 20 years.

As per the suggestion by PAU he started this venture and in the beginning, it cost him about 20 quintals of straw. Today his farm is much bigger as compared to 2003, and now it cost him about 7 thousand quintals of straw annually.

Many farmers of his village are inspired by his initiative. For his success in mushroom farming, he was also honoured with district-level award for producing mushrooms through high-tech farming at Progressive Farmer Fair conducted in his village by Agriculture Department, Firozpur in collaboration with district administration.

Message:
“Mushroom farming is a profitable venture with low investment. Farmers should invest in mushroom farming if they want to earn well. ”

Sardar Gurmail Singh

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How Gurmail Singh Made Modern Techniques His Tool to Earn Profit Out Of Vegetable Farming

Gurmail Singh is another progressive farmer from Uchagaon village of Patiala, Punjab. Despite having less land, he is reaping great profit out of it from the last 23 years by doing vegetable cultivation. He has around 17.5 acres of land out of which 11 acres he owns and has taken 6.5 acres on the contract basis.

Modern farming techniques like drip irrigation, spray irrigation, and laser leveller are some of his power tools which help him to do efficient farming and water conservation. And when it comes to pesticides usage, then he is very smart. He uses pesticides only on the recommendation of Punjab Agriculture University. Mostly he tries to use green natural manure in his fields for better yield.

The other modern technique which he is using adeptly is the light tunnel in 6 acres to grow vegetables. And some of the crops that he especially grows every season are rice, wheat, clover, cabbage, melon, tomato, eggplant, cucumber, peas and bitter gourd. To give a powerful boost to his farming venture he also took training for the preparation of hybrid seeds soy operations and other allied activities like beekeeping and dairy farming etc., from Agriculture Science Centre, Patiala.

Marketing
His vast year of experience not only includes growing different crops advantageously but he also enhanced his marketing skills, and today he has his own sales outlet at “Atma Kisan Hut (Patiala)”. Quality of his processed produce has increased his sales day by day. He has also established a soy plant under the brand name “Smart” in 2012 and under this plant, he processes and sells products such as soy milk, cheese, flour, and nuts.

Achievements
He is an inspiration for the other farmers and soon he will be honoured with the CRI Pumps Award.

Message
“Farmers should use less pesticides and chemicals in their field if they want to live a healthy life and reap good yield out of their land in the present as well as in the future.”

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.”

Avtar Singh Ratol

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53 Old Year Farmer Scaling New Heights and Harvesting Double Profit in the Field Of Horticulture

Agriculture is not just cows and plows…its more than that!

Today agriculture field has many new things to do, about which normal city people are not aware of. From planting improved variety of seeds to implementing new enhanced farming techniques and implements, farming is not less than any rocket science. And very few farmers are there who understands that changing farming practices with the changing time can help them alleviate the future risks. One such a farmer from Sarod village of Sangrur district who understood the fact of changing with the time very well is S. Avtar Singh Ratol.

32 is a great number of experience for a farmer, and S. Avtar Singh Ratol has used it well in shaping his horticulture career in the right direction. He started cultivating vegetables in 50 acres in the beginning and slowly expanded his farming reach to a greater area. For better irrigation he implanted underground pipeline in 47 acres which benefited him a lot in the future.

To boost up his farming productivity, he took training from Agriculture Science Centre and Farm Advisory Service Centre in Sangrur. From the knowledge that he gained during his training, he built two high-tech poly-houses in 4000 square feet and started cultivating cucumber and gerbera flower in it. Currently, his annual income from the cultivation of cucumber and gerbera is around 7.5 lakh rupees which are more than enough to manage his farming inputs.

Horticulture became S. Avtar Singh Ratol’s full-time passion and to give a kick to his arousing interest he went abroad to learn advance horticulture techniques. Abroad visit had positive results on the farm productivity and S. Avtar Singh Ratol achieved huge success in the crop cultivation of potatoes, pepper, melon, capsicum, wheat, etc. Besides this, he also started preparing the vegetable nursery and selling it to other farmers.

Counting on his achievements…

Adopting drip irrigation to save water, developing a small Trans-Planter to plant the vegetable sapling and perform many other tasks and using low tunnel technique, are some of his achievements which helped him doing successful cultivation of capsicum and many other vegetables. He faced no difficulty in implementing all these modern farming techniques at his farm, which encouraged him to progress more.

Awards

• Awarded with “S Dalip Singh Dhaliwal Memorial Award”.
• Awarded by “Chief Minister Award” for his success in horticulture.

Message

“Horticulture is a profitable field with lots of new farming methods and cost-effective techniques that farmer must try to give a great boost to his income.”

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53 Old Year Farmer Scaling New Heights and Harvesting Double Profit in the Field Of Horticulture

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