Training Archives - Progressive Farmers

They set a new example for farmers, successful story of two companions who took their goat farming business at International level

Goat Farming is a very profitable occupation because it requires very little investment. If we talk about livestock farming, most of the farmers are practicing Dairy Farming business. But now-a-days, Goat Farming is considered as the most successful profession in livestock farming and many young people are also getting successful in this profession. This is the story of two such young men who started practicing Goat Farming after completing their studies and in addition to achieving success, they are also training other farmers in this regard.

Sandeep Singh and Rajpreet Singh, residents of Taruana, a village in Sirsa district, Haryana, wanted to do business instead of doing job after graduation. Rajpreet has completed his M.Sc. in Agriculture, so on his suggestion, the two friends decided to pursue agriculture or livestock farming business. For this purpose, they first thought of setting up a polyhouse but due to some reason, they did not succeed.

After that, they decided to start livestock business. For this, they met with the veterinarians and they advised them to adopt Goat Farming.

With the advice of experts, they got training for the Goat Farming before starting. They went to CIR Mathura for training and after 15 days of training, they started SR COMMERCIAL Goat Farm at 2 kanal land in Taruana village.

Now-a-days, it is very common that if you want to start a business, it can be easy to get a loan from the bank but Sandeep and Rajpreet started the Goat Farm in 2017 with the help of their family members without any financial assistance.

As the saying goes, the paths are met with one’s advice, but to achieve the destination, one has to work hard.

So, both of them started working hard to achieve success in this business. They wisely started the Goat Farm with only 10 goats on a small scale, all of which were of the beetle breed. They brought these goats from the mandis of Ludhiana, Raikot, Moga, of Punjab State. Gradually, they became aware of the problems that arise in Goat Farming. Then they started looking for solutions to these problems.

Most difficult task for Goat farmers is the identification of the breed of goats. Therefore, information should always be taken from experts to identify the goats. – Sandeep Singh

Their steadfast determination and support from family members led them make the Goat Farming profitable. Sandeep and Rajpreet then started working on improving the goat breeds in the farm. Today, due to their hard work, the number of goats in their farm has increased from 10 to 150 within 2 years.

In goat breeding, one should never be dependent on labor. If we want to succeed in this profession, we have to work ourselves. – Rajpreet Singh

Knowing the difficulties that goat farmers face, they started providing Goat Farming Training to help other goat farmers so that they could make more profits. Sandeep and Rajpreet provide practical training on their farm, which provides the trainees more information and they are making good profits from the goat farming business using these techniques.

Apart from providing Goat Farming Training, SR Commercial Goat Farm sells goats to the farmers not only from Punjab and Haryana but also from other different states of the country.

Planning the future

In the coming time, Sandeep and Rajpreet want to start their own Goat Farming Training School and go ahead with the field of agriculture as well. In addition, they want to make goat’s feed products and do self-marketing.

Message

“Goat Farmers should start this business from a very small level. If anyone faces any problem in Goat Farming, they can always visit SR Commercial Goat Farm for information and advice.”

In this era of western culture…a daughter of Punjab is contributing to preserve our heritage

With passing time, we are forgetting the rich heritage of Punjab by adopting Western civilization. Our culture, heritage and background have become part of an exhibition. In ancient times, stitching mats, shawls and phulkaris used to be the hobbies of Punjabi women. But nowadays instead of stitching Phulkaris, women doesn’t even like to wear them. Our new generation may not even know what Phulkari is?

In this era of western civilization, there is one girl of Punjab who is trying to maintain our heritage. Graduate in economics, Manpreet Kaur from Tarn Taran district, manufactures Phulkaris. After completing her studies, Manpreet wanted to help her family due to financial constraints at home. Manpreet’s grandmother and mother used to make Phulkaris. One day suddenly Manpreet caught sight of a Phulkari in her grandmother’s trunk. So she thought of starting a business of Phulkari manufacturing. To make her thinking a reality, Manpreet shared her thoughts with her friends. But her friends refused this idea by saying that there is no profit in this business and nowadays people do not like such stuff. Everybody said that there was no point in doing this.

“My friends said this is a backward thing, nobody likes it. This forced me to think about why people consider it backward. To find the answer of this why was very important.” – Manpreet Kaur

After this, Manpreet started making efforts to revive her heritage. In 2015, with the help of a group of 5 women, she made five Phulkaris. After making the Phulkaris she thought where to sell them now? For this purpose, she started searching the internet, from which she found that there is a government organization that buys Phulkaris. Manpreet showed those 5 Phulkaris to the organization and they took those for sale. The organization used to pay the money after the Phulkaris were sold. Because of this, Manpreet received the money after two or three months, making it difficult to keep up with the house. The same continued for a year.

“My parents put their every penny into this, because they believed in me that I could do it.” – Manpreet Kaur

After working in this manner for a year, she thought that this could not work, as she had to pay the rest of the group members. So she took the help of Internet. She created a page on social media. But here too people didn’t show much interest in buying Phulkari. Due to this, Manpreet thought that what people consider backward, why not give it a modern look?

To give our culture a bit of modern look, we started making Phulkari designs on light duppatas, so that girls could carry them with jeans. – Manpreet Kaur

This method of Manpreet proved to be quite effective. This increased the sales of their Phulkari. In this group, 20-30 women from the city were working, but Manpreet wanted to integrate with the village women too, as they are more aware of their heritage and culture and have considerable experience in this work. But it is very difficult for women in the villages to come out and work. Therefore, Manpreet herself comes to the women in the villages and gives them the material of Phulkari manufacturing, so that they do not face any problem. Manpreet’s initiative brought employment to women who could not work outside the home.

Through the internet, Manpreet’s group got their first order from abroad. They received an order of 40 Phulkaris to give as gift at the wedding. The Phulkaris sent under this order were greatly favoured, which increased the demand for their Phulkaris abroad. Foreign media also helped Manpreet’s group. They promoted Manpreet’s interview through video call, which resulted in receiving many more orders from overseas, such as Canada, United States, etc. Senior journalist Baltej Singh Pannu shared Manpreet’s post on social media, which helped her a lot.

People from abroad likes Phulkaris more than Punjab. Most of our clients are from overseas. – Manpreet Kaur

Along with this, a number of students from various colleges comes to Manpreet for training and internship.

Achievements

Manpreet has received many awards due to her efforts in preserving our heritage, some of which are mentioned below:

Honoured at Hamdard Virasati Mela
Sirjanhari award by PTC Punjabi channel

Due to these efforts, Manpreet has also been made Brand Ambassador of Tarn Taran District.

Future Plans

In the upcoming time, Manpreet wants to make this business of Phulkari popular in India as well, so that the future generations will understand their rich heritage.

Message
“The younger generation should make efforts to preserve their legacy. This work may also create job opportunities. Women who can’t go out and work can do it staying at home and it can be a source of income for them.”