Tag: Uttar Pradesh

Amitesh Tripathi and Arunesh Tripathi

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Two Brothers Fulfilled their Dreams by Continuing their Father’s Profession of Banana Farming

It is said that a person can do anything if he has his family’s support, either it is about starting something new or taking an old work to new heights of success.

One such story is of two brothers who made their own mark in the society with their hard work and gained success by taking their inherited banana farm to new heights.

Continuing their father, Hari Sahay Tripathi’s occupation of banana farming, the two brothers worked hard and made their father proud of their achievements.

Being a resident of Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh, father of Amitesh and Arunesh was the head of the village and he used to do banana cultivation along with conventional farming in his 65 bighas of land.

Mr. Tripathi was the first farmer to start banana cultivation in his village and at that time both of his sons were studying. Amitesh (elder son) studied B.Sc in Agriculture and used to work in a private company and Arunesh (younger son) was preparing for SSC exams along with that pursuing B.Sc degree in Biology. During this time Mr. Hari Sahay Tripathi passed away.

In those difficult times both brothers returned to their village to support their family. As their father was the village’s head, the villagers decided to make Mr. Tripathi’s elder son Amitesh as the new head of the village. And along with that both the sons decided to continue their father’s occupation of banana farming.

But during this time, a storm came in the village and destroyed the entire banana crop. In those difficult times, Tripathi brothers didn’t lose their hope and courage and after trying hard they were compensated by the government for their affected crops.

After this incident, both decided to start a new beginning with the compensated money they received from the government. Animesh and Arunesh planted all the nine varieties of banana that were earlier planted by their father. They started banana farming in 30 bighas of land and in the rest of the 35 bighas they continued conventional farming.

During this time, whenever we faced any difficulty, we resolved it by consulting the experts of banana farming. – Arunesh Tripathi

As a result of the new beginning, the crop production was very good and the income was around 1 lakh per bigha. Quality of the crops grown by Tripathi brothers was excellent, resulting to which many companies started contacting them directly to do business with them.

As banana is an evergreen and nutritious fruit, so while marketing the crops we didn’t face any hurdles as the merchants directly visited our farm to buy it. Along with bananas we also grow wheat in large quantities. – Amitesh Tripathi

Both the brothers fulfilled their dreams by taking their father’s business of banana cultivation to new heights with their hard work and understanding. Apart from being a farmer, Amitesh is also the village’s head and also has some duties & responsibilities towards his village which he manages honestly. And due to this reason, both the brothers are quite famous among the good farmers of the city.

Future Plans

In the coming time, the two brothers want to prepare banana plants by setting up their own factory together and become a successful farmer like their father.

Message
“If we do something different in the field of agriculture along with following conventional farming practices, then also we can earn good profit from farming. The young generation should come up with new discoveries in the field of agriculture with their understanding and skills, so that they can earn great benefits & profit from agriculture which is also commonly known as the deficit deal.”

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.

Nanil Chaudhary

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Meet Next Generation’s Flourishing Farmer Who Is Fostering Local Employment in Uttar Pradesh

View of Nanil Chaudhary’s farm will blow away anyone in the dreamy aromatic world… Well, you must be wondering what other than crop, cows, buffalo, dirt, and dung will be seen there? Then you guys are mistaken, because Nanil Chaudhary is a booming floriculturist from Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh, and in his farm, you are only going to find colourful flowers of Gerbera, Rajnigandha, Gladiolus, and many more.

Coming from a conventional farming background, the farming journey of Nanil Chaudhary started like other farmers with the cultivation of Wheat, Bajra, Potato, Barley, and Mustard till 2014-15. Although he started like a conventional farmer, he never let his mind confined in those stereotypical thinking, and in the year 2015-2016, he entered the field of floriculture.

Nanil Chaudhary came to know about the Gerbera plantation in poly-house near Iglas tehsil in Aligarh district. After making some inquiries he came to know that large land holding is required to establish it. Since, his mother, Smt. Krishna Kumari holds large land holding, so in her name, the project was sanctioned; and this is how the Krishna Biotech was established.

“For the establishment of climatically controlled poly-houses, I invested around 1.10 crores out of which 75 lakhs were financed by RBL Bank Ltd and this was a great help for me.”

Aiming towards generating employment to improve the rural economy, he moved towards floriculture and today he has his own climatically controlled two poly-houses where he has planted around 40,000 plants of Gerbera in 2 acres; outside the poly-houses he has planted Gladiolus in 6 acres, Rajnigandha in 6 acres, Brassica in 1 acres and Chrysanthemum in 3 acres.

And how these flowers are turning the business of Nanil Chaudhary into riches:
One Gerbera plant gives 25 flowers a year which ultimately turns the production number around 1000000 flowers, and when these number of flowers are sold at the rate of Rs. 2.50 the income is Rs. 20 lakhs a year. After deducting all the expenditures there is a net profit of 6-7 lakhs per year to Nanil Chaudhary. This profit is only from the Gerbera flower, other than this Rajnigandha gives profit around Rs. 2 lakhs per acre, Gladiolus around Rs. 1.50 lakhs per acre and Chrysanthemum gives profit around Rs. 3.00 lakhs per acre.

“Excluding expenditure of labour charges, bank instalments and other input costs, this floriculture business is giving me profit around 14 lakhs per year.”

Marketing was a bit difficult in the beginning for Nanil Chaudhary, as it was difficult to deliver flowers to Delhi, but later, in 2017-18, Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Buses were the best means through which flower marketing was done mostly.

Few people who were always there standing like supporting pillars for Nanil Chaudhary throughout his floriculture journey are his mother, Dr. Mam Chand Singh (Scientist and Head of Protected Cultivation Division at IARI, PUSA, New Delhi), and Shri Kaushal Kumar (District Horticulture Officer, Aligarh).

Knowledge diffusion is the most important thing in which Nanil Chaudhary always believes and has expanded floriculture to various farmers in Etah, Hathras, Meerut and Ghaziabad districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Currently, Nanil Chaudhary’s farm is equipped with a force of 20-22 skilled workers, who make the working of the farm totally mechanized with the help of modern equipment like specially designed planter, drip irrigation system, solar power irrigation pump and much more.

In future Nanil Chaudhary has few sets of plans:
• Planning to explore the possibility of extracting essential oil from Rajnigandha,
• Expand floriculture in Uttaranchal on a larger scale
• Venture into large-scale production of Gladiolus bulbs, Rajnigandha bulbs and Chrysanthemum nursery for commercial cultivation

By venturing in floriculture, Nanil Chaudhary has observed a big change in his area, people get regular income due to the cultivation, harvesting, packing, and transportation of flowers, income of those people shows the real happiness on their faces…Concludes Nanil Chaudhary

For putting tremendous efforts in floriculture field, Nanil Chaudhary has been honoured with –
• Received Progressive Farmer Award by the Divisional Commissioner, Aligarh in 2016-17
• A documentary was also prepared on Krishna Biotech Farm, by the Doordarshan, Delhi and telecasted in Krishi Darshan Programme on 22 November 2016
• Later in the year 2017-18, another documentary was prepared by the Doordarshan and telecasted on DD Krishi Darshan on 27 December 2017
Floriculture expanded through Krishna Biotech farm with the determination and hard work of Nanil Chaudhary has attracted remunerative prices leading to set a quality standard for his family and the people living around.

Ankur and Ankita Singh

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Graduated From Symbiosis This Husband-Wife Duo, Giving a New Definition to Agribusiness with Their New Concept of Dairy Farming

What life do you imagine after doing MBA in Agribusiness from a prestigious university of India, maybe an Agricultural Analyst, Farm Appraiser, Market Analyst, Quality Controller, or Agribusiness Marketing Coordinator?

Well, all these are dream job profiles for MBA Agriculture graduates and it will become cherry on the top if you have done your MBA from an esteemed university like Symbiosis, Pune. But there are very few people who instead of being part of a multinational organization, prefer to emerge as a start-up which gives true meaning to their skills and adequacy.

Urban Dairy- An initiative taken by a power couple- Ankur and Ankita with the mission to redefine the concept of dairy farming with their distinctive idea of selling milk in raw form. This farm is located in district Unnao, 55 kilometres from Kanpur city.

Before starting this milk venture, Ankur was working as a Bio-technologist and Agriculturist in different companies (total work experience 2 years). In 2014, Ankur tied love knot with his friend Ankita, who also did MBA from Symbiosis, Pune with him.

Well, this idea of selling raw milk came into accomplishment after Ankur’s nephew came from abroad to visit him. As this was the first experience of Ankur’s nephew in India, so he decided to make it special.

Ankur especially bought an indigenous breed of cow- Shahiwal and started rearing her for milk purpose. Although the purpose of raw cow milk was only for Ankur’s nephew as he had realised that unpasteurized cow milk is more healthy and tastier than packed milk. Slowly, the whole family started drinking the cow milk and everyone liked it.

Ankur was fond of animals since childhood, but after this instance, he thought why to compromise with the health, and in 2015 both husband and wife (Ankur & Ankita) decided to start their own dairy farm. Ankur attended a short training at NDRI Karnal before starting dairy farming and in the meanwhile, his wife Ankita looked after all the construction work of the farm. They began with 6 Holstein cross breed cows, and now it has been 3 years and they have 34 Holstein/ Jersey cross breed cows and 7 indigenous cows (Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparker) at their farm.

Urban Dairy is what they thought of naming their brand, blending the rural theme with the city, a fusion of two regions, which are completely opposite to each other. From managing dairy farm to product marketing & development, they did not leave even a single step to reach where they are today. The whole farm is build-out in 4 acres of land and there are 7 workers for its maintenance. Bathing, feeding, maintaining hygiene of cows and other farm-related work are done manually by the worker and milking is done by the milking machine as well as manually by hands as per the comfort of cow. Both Ankur and Ankita make it a point to visit the farm once daily without fail. They not only like to spend most of their time at the farm but also it helps them supervise the workers in a better way. The entire milling and bottling and transport is under strict supervision of the founders.

“Ankur: We also prepare the cow feed ourselves, because milk yield & cow’s health totally depends on the feed and we never compromise on this. The cow feed formula that we follow is- 33% protein, 33% industrial waste (choker), 33% grains (maize, chickpea) and extra minerals.”

Other than dairy farming they are also actively involved in organic farming of vegetables. They have leased an extra 4 acres land. Earlier Ankita used that land as a kitchen garden. She never used any fertilizer/pesticide on that land other than cow dung. Now the land has totally turned into an organic piece of fertile acreage which they are using for farming wheat, chickpea, carrot, garlic, chillies, coriander, and seasonal veggies. They use farm crops for the cow’s feed and home purpose.

“In the beginning, my HF crossbreed cow was giving 12-litre milk, after second pregnancy she started giving 18-litre milk and now she is pregnant the third time and we are expecting 24-litre milk. There is a possibility of increase in milk production imminently.”

Marketing:

Instead of carrying milk in large milk containers to the customers and using primitive milk measuring ladle, they have come up with an innovative concept to enhance their product image. They pack the raw milk directly into glass bottles after filtration process and then deliver it to the door of the customers.

People have accepted their product with open arms. Till today, i.e. 3 years and they haven’t used a single marketing strategy or advertising to allure the customer to use their product. The entire market they are catering to, has been formed through word-of-mouth publicity by their existing customers. The response has motivated them to a level that they have started with the production of paneer, ghee and other milk based dairy products. The positive response from customers has increased their sale.

They have their own distribution network in the city for milk sale and by seeing their advancement slowly with the time it will increase to manifolds.

Future Plan:

Indigenous cow breeds milk production capacity is not that high, and he wants to develop a new cow breed by cross-breeding indigenous cows which have good milk production capacity as the milk of our Indigenous breeds is considered better in quality and proven to have multiple health benefits for humans.

According to him, milk can be kept at 2 degree centigrade for one week in healthy condition, and for that purpose, he wants to invest in chiller storage in the coming time, to store the milk for long time and use it for multiple purposes.

Message:
“Dairy farmers should never neglect the hygiene and care of their cows, they should care about them as they care for their own health. And before starting dairy farming every farmer must acquire knowledge and keep themselves updated with the current dairy farming trends for better future. Dairy farming can only be profitable if the animals in your farm are happy. The selling price of your product wouldn’t get you to earn profits, but a happy animal can definitely help you earn good profits.”

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.”

Mahak Singh

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FOR THE LOVE OF FARMING– HOW THIS MAN IS HELPING FARMERS BY UPDATING THEM WITH MODERN FARMING TECHNIQUES

Nowadays, very few people justify the true meaning of philanthropist and Mahak Singh is one of them.

Mahak Singh is a normal agriculture expert from Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. For making his own retirement a positive experience for others, this man chose to help farmers by updating them with better farming methods.

From the beginning, Mahak Singh was interested towards agriculture, because he was from a farming background. He always felt a pull towards the land, towards that land which gave him everything throughout his life, and because of this reason agriculture still, exists in his life and plays an important role.

Well, in many farmer’s families it is a trend to give your child higher education so that he doesn’t have to be dependent on farming occupation and he can choose any other job profile as his career. But in Mahak Singh’s family, the situation was just opposite, his parents always inspired him towards agriculture, and that is why he chose B. Sc. Agriculture during his college time. After completing his college he got a government job in District Agriculture Department of Muzaffarnagar as a Subject Matter Expert.

“There was one more reason for choosing B.Sc. Agriculture, I wanted to help the unprivileged farmers who were not aware of better farming techniques and methods and after joining the hob as an agriculture expert I got a chance to do that.”

As being a farmer’s son, he always understood the common problems of farmers. While working in Agriculture Department, he was always posted in backward areas (tribal areas) like Sonbhadra, Lakhimpur, Mirzapur and Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh. During that time he used to work for poor farmers and he also rented a quarter near their village, so that, he can closely observe them and help them in farming. He devoted 40 years to his profession and got retired in July 2016.

His passion towards farming was so much that after retirement, he decided to devote the rest of his life to agriculture so that he can contribute to the farmer’s society and help them. Even today also if any farmer needs help at any odd hour of time, he is always ready to help them.

“I’m very grateful to my life that I got the opportunity to help farmers.”

To help the farmers he has especially created a Whats App Group by the name ‘Hello Kisaan’ and he is also using Facebook as a medium to reach farmers and help them. Even after serving the state service and helping farmers at such a great level, he never accepted or showed any kind of interest in any kind of award.

Future Plans:
In the future also he wants to continue his work and help the farmers.

MESSAGE TO FARMERS-
“Every farmer must get their land tested from the experts and check that which minerals are present in it and in what amount. So that they can grow crops accordingly and also add required bio-fertilizers. ”