Tag: Turmeric Powder

Navdeep Balli and Gursharan Singh

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Malwa Region Based Duo of Young Farmers Are Churning Profit by Pairing Agriculture with Food Processing

Food is the basic necessity of life, but what if your food is adulterated or contaminated at the very basic level during production!

Today, food adulteration is a major issue in India, producers/manufacturers have gone blind when it comes to quality and they only focus on quantity, which not only affects the flavour and nutrition of the food but also affects the consumer’s health. But one such a duo of young farmers from the Malwa region of Punjab has aimed to provide only pure food to the community.

This is the story of Navdeep Balli and Gursharan Singh who entered the market with their unique product – raw turmeric pickle and became popular within a short span of time.

Coming from a well-educated background, these two young men decided to provide what is good for the society. All this started when they discovered multiple benefits and home remedies of raw turmeric that helps in controlling bad cholesterol, curing skin diseases, allergies, and wounds, also helps in preventing cancer like deathly disease and many other disease preventing properties.

From the beginning both the friends had decided to do something different, so they started turmeric cultivation and reaped good yield of 80-90 quintal per acre. After that, they decided to process their harvest themselves and sell it in the market in the form of raw turmeric pickle. The place from where their product get noted among the people was Bathinda’s Sunday Market and now they have started selling it in many places in the town.

Before entering the food processing business, Navdeep and Gursharan consulted the district senior agricultural expert – Dr. Parmeshwar Singh and took his advice over farming. Today, even the doctor himself feels very much proud that by following his advice both these young fellas are doing good in the food processing market and are coming up with more basic pure processed food products to be used in the kitchen directly or indirectly.

After the raw turmeric pickle success, Navdeep and Gursharan got their processing plant established in Rampura and currently their product list has more than 10 items, which includes Raw Turmeric, Raw Turmeric Pickle, Turmeric Powder, Chilli Powder, Sabzi Masala, Coriander Powder, Butter Milk (lassi), Curd, Chat Masala, Garlic Pickle, Cumin Seeds, Gram Flour (besan), Tea Masala etc.

This duo is not only making food processing a profitable venture but are also encouraging other farmers to adopt food processing with farming to gain better revenue.

Future Plans: Planning to adopt crop diversification in the future to make their harvest nutrient rich and farming more economical. Also planning to sell their processed products to farther areas, and make people aware of food adulteration and importance of health.

Message
Farmer should start food processing with farming if they are seeking better returns from agriculture.

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.
”

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.”

Narpinder Singh Dhaliwal

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Story of a Man Achieving Sweet Taste of Success with Beekeeping

Beekeeping is a long-standing practice in India and after the independence, it is being promoted through various rural development programs. But when it comes to taking the beekeeping to the next level through commercializing the bee products, then even today also most of the people are lacking these types of skills. But there are many people who have achieved great revenue and success from it. One such person who is practicing beekeeping from last 20 years and is generating good profit from it is Narpinder Singh Dhaliwal.

It is said that we don’t grow when things are easy, we grow when we face challenges, and Narpinder Singh Dhaliwal is one of those people who has achieved this success in his life by doing great hard work and facing many failures. Today Mr. Dhaliwal is the owner of Dhaliwal Honey Bee Farm having around 1000 bee boxes, which is situated in his own native place- Chuharchak Village of district Moga (Punjab).

Before starting beekeeping, Narpinder Singh Dhaliwal was almost unemployed and was working at a measly salary of 1500 and it was very difficult for him to meet his needs. His low qualification was also a downside for him. So he decided to take over his father’s work and help him in beekeeping. His father was an ex-army man and he started beekeeping with 5 boxes in 1997. He was the first one who started beekeeping on a commercial level.

Mr. Narpinder did everything himself from the beginning to setup his business and also faced many difficulties in it. Due to fewer resources and less money, he also faced many failures, but he never gave up. He took 5 days training from Horticulture Department of PAU to give beekeeping business a perfect direction. He took help from friends, money from the bank, and from the joint effort of his family and some helpers he finally setup his bee farm in his village.

He started with 5 boxes and today he has around 1000 boxes, he keeps on migrating those boxes from places to places to get the good yield of honey. He has mainly western bees on his farm and that is European and Italian. He does not give any artificial or supplemental feed to bee colonies, he prefers only natural feed. Moreover, he doesn’t use any type of pesticide or chemical spray for pest control, he prefers natural method for controlling or preventing the pests. Because he believes in doing everything in a natural way.

The problems that he generally faces are Varroa Mites and Hornets attack during the rainy season and to cope up it, he uses natural preventive methods. And even after following the natural method he gets good ROI (return on investment) over his investment in one year. Well, many people practice beekeeping, the thing that makes him a smart beekeeper is that he directly make contact with his customers and market his product himself. From honey processing to packaging to branding, he does everything himself with the help of 6 helpers, he is not dependent on anyone for anything. Currently, he is also getting the subsidy for his beekeeping business from the government.

In the beginning, many people were there who criticized his work and honey quality also, but then also he never got demotivated and continued with beekeeping. Other than beekeeping he also does organic farming, dairy farming, fruit farming, poultry farming and conventional farming but the produce generated from all these farming is mainly to fulfil his own family needs.

Narpinder Singh also discussed his views on how to confirm about the honey pureness and the different colour of honey samples. According to him –
“The good quality of honey is not checked with its colour or liquidity. Because honey obtained from different flowers of different plants have different properties. And the best type of honey is obtained from mustard flowers and it is very thick in consistency. Thick honey is also known as frozen honey which is mainly obtained from mustard flowers; it is a very high in demand bee product in the international market because of its health benefits. Good identity and pureness of honey can only be known by the experts present in labs or agriculture universities. So if a person is in doubt about the honey quality then they should get it confirmed from the experts or buy it from a certified person, rather than believing on someone’s sayings.

Mr. Narpinder Singh himself is doing apiculture and is producing honey of multi-flower, litchi, and mustard, and is also exporting most of the mustard honey to Europe. He is also a Member of Progressive Beekeeper Association in PAU. Other than producing honey, he is also planning to launch some other bee and turmeric products like “Bee Pollen, Bee Pollen Capsule, Turmeric Capsule and Royal Jelly” in the market. And he has also taken advanced training to make Bee Pollen Capsule from PAU especially.

Bee Pollen has the important nutrients required by humans and Royal jelly has multiple health benefits- both are the most in demand product in the international market and very soon its demand will also increase in India. Currently, his main focus is on marketing Bee Pollen Capsule and Turmeric Capsule and making aware the people of its health benefits and uses.

His work has made him achieved many awards and prizes in different Kisan Melas. He also won Jatt Expo Award in Paragpur. He was also honoured by Agricultural Department of Moga in 2014 and in 2016, he was also honoured on World Honey Day.

Message by Narpinder Singh Dhaliwal
“Today farming has a lot of potentials and if a farmer is ready to diversify the field of agriculture. I diversified my farm and today I’m reaping benefits from it. I want to give this message to my farmer friends that in order to be successful, you have to diversify. Beekeeping is one practice which has been ignored by farmers for too long. One can achieve a lot of success in this field as it is very profitable. And nowadays government is also giving subsidy on 5-10 boxes to the person who want to start beekeeping. ”

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.”