Tag: Squash

Balwinder Kaur

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Story of a women, who is doing great with her talent

“After marriage, every women is to take care of her household”, this is the thinking of our society. But a women is the one, who can do anything to solve the critical conditions of her family.

This is a story of a woman, Balwinder Kaur, who belongs to a middle class family and her qualification is in M.A (Punjabi). After completion of her studies, she got married to Mr. Gurwinder Singh, who was working in a private company. Due to some reasons, he gave resign to his job and this led to poor financial conditions of the family. For improving the financial conditions of her family, Mrs. Balwinder Kaur decided to offer a helping hand to her husband, and he also supported Balwinder in this decision. As it is rightly said, If your better-half walks along with you every obstacle becomes easier to handle and with her husbands’ support, she started a PG(Paying Guest) in the house. The work flourished in the starting, but later on she decided to shut it down because earning was very less. Then she thought of opening a boutique but again dropped the idea of same. In 2008-09, she did a course of beautician but she was not interested in this so she never thought of taking over it in her career.

From the very beginning, my interest was in cooking. All my relatives and friends knew that I am a very good cook, that’s why they always appreciate my cooking skills. Finally, I thought of opting this hobby as my career. – Balwinder Kaur

Pickle prepared by Balwinder Kaur is all time in demand from her relatives because of its deliciousness.

For polishing her talent, Balwinder Kaur got a training of making pickles and chutneys from Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology Liaison office, Bathinda. There she met Dr. Gurpreet Kaur Dhillon, who guided her and encouraged her to expand her work.

Now-a-days, people are having health issues due to consuming adulterated food from outside. So I thought of serving people by making pure home made food products. – Balwinder Kaur

As she knew the importance of marketing and labelling in any business, so with the help of Dr. Satwinder Kaur and Harinder Kaur, she got the training in packing and labelling of the products.

After getting the training in Squash manufacturing from KVK, Bathinda, she started her work at home. She made a Self Help Group (SHG) in which there were 12 women. These women helped her in cutting the material and in packing of the prepared products.

This SHG helps me in my work and also it provides employment to other women which gives me a huge satisfaction. – Balwinder Kaur
The training was the key to sharpen the inborn skills of Balwinder.

Products prepared by Balwinder Kaur:
  • Pickle- Mix, Sweet, Salty, Amla
  • Chutney- Amla, Tomato, Apple, Lemon, Bottle-gourd, Mango
  • Squash- Mango, Guava
  • Sharbat- Apple, Litchi, Rose, Mix
We sell our products in the village only and outside the village we deliver them free of cost. – Balwinder Kaur
Balwinder Kaur manufacture and sell her products under her Brand name “Zebra Smart Food” She has also made a whatsapp group (7589827287), where she directly take orders from the customers and deliver to them.

Future Plans:
She want to sell her products worldwide so that people should come to know the taste and quality of her self-made products.

Message:
“We should use organically prepared products only that will help us and our children to remain fit and healthy.
Those women who want to do something, must come forward with their ideas. They should not waste their time in thinking at home. Not only cooking, whatever their passion is. They should make efforts to fulfill their dreams. Have faith in God and keep working hard.”

Priyanka Gupta

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A talented daughter … who is working hard to fulfill her father’s dream

In today’s world, where most of the children consider their parents as burden, there is a girl , Priyanka Gupta, who is working hard day and night to fulfil her father’s dream.

Priyanka, who has done MBA (Finance), spent her childhood in a small town of Punjab , Nangal. Her father, Mr. Badridass Bansal, was an employee in Bhakra Dam’s Electricity department and he loved farming in his agriculture fields. He had a small patch of land in his backyard where he usually practiced vegetables farming. After staying in Nangal for long 12 years, he got transferred to Patiala and started living there with his family. They had some spare land in Patiala and so started farming there. Also, they purchased a plot in Sangroor to build their house.

Mr. Bansal retired from the electricity department as Chief Engineer. Due to this period, they got to know that Priyanka’s mother , Veena Bansal, was suffering from cancer . She bravely fought the disease for a long time and later bid the world goodbye.

After Veena Bansal’s death, Badridas devoted all his leisure time to farming. As there was no construction near the plot that he purchased in Sangroor, he cleared all the land and started to do farming there. In the next 10 years, he gained great experience and knowledge in farming. Looking at his farming methods and the end products he started gaining popularity among his relatives as well, who became his regular customers. Realizing his capabilities Mr. Bansal took up farming as his occupation.

Unfortunately, later he started facing some health issues. To help her father Priyanka enrolled herself in farming. Gradually, her interest in farming also increased.

Initially, they started working with Punjab Agro, where they were really doing well and their sales were at its peak. Eventually, they opened a shop in Sangroor with 4-5 farmers, but due to some problems they had to shut down their shop.

At present, they have a 4 acre farm in Sangroor but it is not registered because the farm land is taken on lease and the owners are not ready to get it registered.

Priyanka faced various problems in her farming journey but always overcame them with the help of her education. This father and daughter duo spent most of their time on farm and practice pure organic farming.

They faced various problems during the marketing but due to her studies, she managed do it . They spent their most of the time on farm and they did purely organic farming.

Training:

Priyanka is professionally not only trained in biscuit and squash manufacturing (Punjab Agricultural University) but also in bee-keeping.

Priyanka got a training of biscuit and squash manufacturing from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. She also got training of bee-keeping from which she learned a lot.

Priyanka’s husband Mr. Kuldeep Gupta who is an architect, all of his friends and relatives buys products prepared by Priyanka.

“People’s perception is that organic products are costly but it doesn’t make much difference. Crops grown using insecticides and other chemicals are very dangerous for human health. So instead of eating such products all should prefer organic products because nothing is more valuable than our health.” – Priyanka Gupta
Product profile:
  • Biscuit (without ammonia)
  • Pickle
  • Vaddiyan
  • Black chickpeas
  • White chickpeas
  • Red lentil (Saabut masar)
  • Turmeric
  • Besil
  • Flax seeds (Alsi)
  • Nigella
  • Fennel
  • Mustard
  • Garlic
  • Onion
  • Potato
  • green gram
  • Jowar
  • Bajra
  • sesame
  • Desi Maize
  • All vegetables
Trees
  • Brahmin
  • Stevia
  • Harar
  • Moringa
  • Mango
  • Guava
  • Cranberry
  • Mint
  • Tulsi
  • Lemon
  • Bael
  • Neem
  • Khas
  • Shehtoot
  • Amla
  • Ashoka

Except making these products, Priyanka also manages to do bee-keeping and poultry. Her husband also helps her in this work.

She said, “ We do not practice monocroping (cultivating paddy and wheat) but also grow Jowar, Bajra and Maize. We grow number of different crops in a year.”
Future Plans:

She is planning to sell all the products to a single person who can further market her products because she wants to devote all the time in improving quality of the products and fulfilling her father’s dream.

Message To Farmers:
“We need to work hard in every field. But you will get real satisfaction when after this hard work, you will see your crop standing tall in the field and when your customers will praise you for your work.”

Kulwant Kaur

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“Behind every successful woman is herself”
– How Kulwant Kaur proved this quote absolutely true

In India there are many women who have extraordinary personalities, not citing the looks but their skills and confidence are what makes them amazing from the others. Nothing can stop them from accomplishing what they aim at, and the reason behind their unique persona is that they are the inspiration of themselves.

One such a woman who realized the calling and chose agribusiness as her future plan is Kulwant Kaur. As being from a farming background, Kulwant Kaur and her husband Jaswinder Singh were doing paddy and wheat farming and were also actively involved in dairy farming. From the beginning, family’s main focus was on dairy business, because they owned 2.5 acres of land and used to take land on the lease when necessary. With 30 buffaloes in the dairy farm, their milk business was flourishing very well and was more profitable as compared to farming.

Kulwant Kaur was very interested in agriculture and the trades related to it, and one day when she read about KVK Fatehgarh Sahib then she decided of joining it. She took fruit and vegetable management training of 5 days from there in 2011. On the last day of the training, she participated in a competition and won first prize in making apple jam and turmeric pickle. The first prize that she won there was her first achievement in her life, and this achievement made her so determined and inspired that she decided to start this work on her own. Her products were so good that soon she gained a good customer base.

Gradually her work speed, efficiency, and product quality got better with the time and turmeric pickle became the most in demand product of her. Later on, to enhance her skills she joined KVK Samrala for Phenyl, Soap, Amla Juice, Chutney and Pickle training. To make her training in use, she especially visited Delhi to purchase Amla juice machine. Very soon she grasped the technique of making aloe-vera juice, shampoo, gel, and hand wash from the same machine and after seeing the processed products she was enthused and gained confidence.

It was her confidence and achievements which always motivated Kulwant Kaur in doing more. Finally, Kulwant Kaur started manufacturing products at home and also marketed them herself. Her interest towards agribusiness drifted her more towards this field. In 2012 she became the member of PAU Kisan Club. And after that, she took every training given by them. Her interest towards farming was increased and slowly they reduced their dairy farm work.

Besides Paddy and wheat, now, Kulwant Kaur and her husband started growing mung beans, sugarcane, fodder crop, turmeric, aloe-vera, tulsi and stevia also. From turmeric, she is producing turmeric powder, turmeric pickle, and Panjeeri (sweet dry powder mixture made up of Bengal Gram Chickpea powder, Flour, and Clarified butter). Panjeeri and turmeric pickle are her most in demand products.

Well her journey was not that easy, she faced many problems also. She planted 1000 stevia plants out of which only half survived. As she knew that stevia cost is very expensive (Rs 1500/Kg) due to which it out of reach for common people. So, she found out a different way of selling it, she bought green tea from the market and mixed stevia in it and started selling it at Rs. 150 per 100 grams. Because of the stevia’s health benefits for diabetic patients, the tea was purchased by many local homes and other customers also.

Currently, she is manufacturing around 40 products and is selling it in the nearby market and in PAU fairs. She also has a product called Satras (made up of Tulsi, apple vinegar, honey, ginger, garlic, aloe-vera, garlic, and amla) especially for heart patients and it is very effective also.
Along with the skills, Kulwant Kaur also likes to be updated with all the latest farming machinery and equipment. She has all the farming machinery and, she uses laser leveller to level the fields. Her whole family is helping her and is working with her especially her husband. Her daughter is doing government job and her son is helping her in the business. Currently, the main focus of the family is towards marketing and less on agriculture. Her efforts in the agribusiness field have made her won first prize in Kisan Mela (Patiala) for turmeric products. Besides this, she also received Sardarni Jagbir Kaur Grewal Memorial Award at Kisan Mela (organized by Punjab Agriculture University Ludhiana in 2013)

Today whatever Kulwant Kaur has achieved that is only because of her own belief. In future, she wants to market all her products herself. She also wants to impart training to other women in the society so that they can stand on their own and be independent.

Message to farmers:
“Ladies should be productive in their free time because this helps in managing the home finances effectively. They should take advantage of the food processing training and step forward in the field of agribusiness. Agribusiness is a very profitable venture in which people can make money without any big investments.”

Shahnaz Qureshi

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Woman Revealing the Mysteries of Healthy Food through Food Processing and Agribusiness

There are very few compassionate people who like to think for the welfare of the society and direct their future on the path of agriculture because making profit from the path related to agriculture it is not that easy. But there are many opportunities in our surrounding, that we just have to learn to seize it. One such woman who came with her innovative dreams and thinking to devote her life to the field of agriculture and agribusiness is Mrs. Shahnaz Qureshi.

Despite getting married at a very young age, Shahnaz Qureshi never stopped dreaming. After marriage, she continued her studies and completed her graduation and also did M. Sc. in fashion designing. She got many job offers from abroad but she chose to stay in her country and do something good for her society.

During all this time, one of the instance that changed her perception towards the food quality and her future plans was her parent’s health. Both, her mother and father were suffering from common health issues like arthritis, diabetes and kidney problem. She thought that if food is the reason behind problems, then food will be the only cure. She changed the food habits of her family and started eating only good and fresh things. This habit made a huge difference in the health of her father and mother. Just after seeing huge improvement she decided of entering the food processing business. Moreover, sitting idly was not what she was made for, so she chose to step in the field of agribusiness and help unprivileged farmers.

Her decision of stepping in the field of agribusiness was just the first step of success and rest the whole Bathinda knows about her. She and her family took training from KVK Bathinda in beekeeping and started beekeeping business with 200 honey bee boxes. She did the marketing and her husband did the processing part. To take more advantage of this business she also started making face wash, soap, and body scrub of honey. Customers start liking it and approached her for more. After some time she also took training in vegetable/fruit farming and food processing and started implementing it by making chutney, murraba, and pickles.

There was also a time when even her husband criticized her for the work she was doing, because he was unsure about the business profit, moreover he also thought that these products are already available in the market, then why people are going to buy these things from them. But she never got demotivated, because her children’s support was always with her. Some great personalities who always inspired her are APJ Abdul Kalam, Bill Gates, Akbar and Swami Vivekananda. In free time she loves to read books about them.

With the time she increased her collection of products and started gaining good profit from it. And soon she also started making fruit squashes, gram flour badiyaan and pakode and many other things. Sprouted fenugreek pickle is one of her popular products which is always in demand because of its amazing health benefits in most of the fairs and events organized by PAU in Faridkot, Ludhiana, and other places. She made a different place for her products in the market and gained a huge loyal customer base.

In 2014 she made a farmer self-help group in Mehma Sarja village near Bathinda and through this group she promoted other farmer’s products. Sometimes she even overlooked her profits just to help and support farmers who lacked confidence and resources. In 2015 she made a firm by the name FRESH HUB and there she started selling her products. Today, she has total 40-45 products in the collection, which she buys, process, pack and market herself. She is making all these efforts just to ensure the purity and healthiness of the products so that there will be no side-effects on the customer’s health. Even when she prepare pickles, she never uses cheap vinegar and always uses apple vinegar to ensure the best quality.

In 2016 she also took vinegar training and very soon she will be implementing that too. Currently, she is making 10 lakh profit annually. One thing that she understood very early and implemented was to deliver always the quality, not the quantity or just the taste. For marketing, she is using the latest technology like Whats App to connect with the farmers and other necessary details. Before purchasing, she always makes sure that she purchases chemical free vegetables and also encourages farmers to start organic farming. Her work not only includes processing and marketing the products, but she also provides free information about her technique to other women, because she wants other people to progress and do something good for the community.

From the beginning, Shahnaz Qureshi’s mindset was very clear towards her work. She wants everyone in the society to be independent and confident. She has given her children an upbringing that they don’t have to spread their hands in front of anyone, they should be self-sufficient to fulfil their basic needs themselves. Today her main focus is towards the youth especially the girls. To make her thinking and skills reach more people, she has also given training and information through TV, newspaper, and radio. She personally visits the farmer training events and meetings to especially impart her skills to them. In 2016 she also started tiffin service for college students. Today, her work has made her so popular that she has her own radio show that is aired every Friday from 1 PM to 2 PM, where she gives tips to people about water management, health food recipes and much more.

As being a Kashmiri by birth, Shahnaz always tries to bring an essence of her native place in her work and products. She has opened a restaurant in Bathinda by the name “Shah’s Kashmiri and Mughlai Chicken” and is also planning to give a rustic Kashmiri interior and use Kashmiri crockery set in her restaurant, even she also has a popular product known as Kashmiri Kahwa (Tea) which reflects the core of Kashmiri tradition and cuisine. She wants to share every healthy, beneficial and traditional recipe that she knows through her products, restaurants, and training. She also has orchards in Kashmir, which is under the care of her cousin in her absence. In orchards she follows organic ways to nurture it, to maintain the soil fertility and get a good yield from it.

These are just a few achievements of Shahnaz Qureshi, in the coming future, she will accomplish more to work in the interest of the society. Her efforts are admired by many organizations and she was awarded by the food processing department of Muktsar Sahib. Other than that in 2015 she was also awarded Jagbir Kaur Memorial award by PAU.

MESSAGE TO FARMERS
“
Don’t blame the government all the time. Because the problems which we are facing today, for that only we are responsible. Nowadays farmers are not aware how to take advantage of the opportunities. Because if farmers want to move ahead then they have to change their thinking. Moreover, it is not necessary to follow, you can be the inspiration for others. Farmers have to understand that food processing has more money than raw material.
”

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.”