30 years of experience is expertise from experience and a knowledge base that would go beyond elephant size.
“My childhood including college education was in Pune because my father was an HOD and Principal at the College of Agriculture, Pune. I was always attracted to fruits and vegetables cultivation and so plunged into the agricultural space. We are currently into commercial cultivation of fruits, flowers and vegetables.”
What service do you provide as an agri-horticulture expert and consultant?
The important thing is the planning of the entire project. This includes the space you choose to grow the plant; the soil, water and climatic conditions of the place are highly important. The market should specifically be taken into consideration.
We plan multiple crops which are in demand and are high-paying cash crops. We try to be different and choose crops that are normally not grown by a bulk of the farmers. Looking into the demand and supply, we give technical advice on cultivation of crops and aid selling it in the domestic and international markets.
We also give a total consultancy package on technological inputs, organic farming, use of pesticides, use of high-yielding varieties, etc.
We educate and train the managers and workers who work on our farm. We develop a micro climate on the farm because our target is quality, production, consistent supply, pricing and delivery.
Please give us an example of a process that you have handled.
I have executed about 150 projects, till date, across 13 states in our country - Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
On 50 acres of land you can cultivate exclusive exotic vegetables. We have Green Tokri which is also into organic cultivation of exotic vegetables as well as we also have one progressive farmer who is into commercial cultivation of fruits, Indian and exotic vegetables.
We grow 40-50 different types of vegetables - Indian and exotic on the same piece of land where the harvesting too happens simultaneously. We grow a lot of fruits like avocado, rose apple, star fruit, guava, pomegranates etc. as well.
In Tamil Nadu we have developed P Mitthu lal Lalas and Sons project, which is into processing. They have huge land in Erode where we have done a lot of work on fruits, coconuts and spices.
How do you provide consultancy services?
There are two projects:
Management of existing projects: We offer professional management services to the farms which are located in India. We take up the existing large-scale farms to increase their production quality, marketing and improve the economic value of the crop.
Developing new projects: There are people who come up with new projects as well. Some people want to go into floriculture where we do tube roses, orchids, anthurium, gladiolus, etc. Some come to us with the plan of venturing into exotic fruits. Some say they want their customers to be 5-star and 3-star hotels and flights etc, Chinese restaurants and door delivery. We go for exotic vegetables and regular vegetables as well.
For both, we help right from scratch. Since we start from scratch, soil development is very important and so we take about 3 months for soil development where we grow green manure crops and mix different kinds of manures, compost, poultry manure, bio fertilizers, micro nutrients etc. First you have to really take care of the soil, irrigation system, nutrient management, integrated pest management and then take care of production, quality to bring healthy crops and produce
Do you cultivate crops or do you only offer consultancy services?
We offer consultancy and cultivate crops as well on our own farm. For example, we grow broccoli, iceberg lettuce, cherry tomato, parsley, leeks, zucchini etc on a very large scale. There are 20-25 different types of exotic vegetables and 15-20 different types of fruits that we grow. The thing is that you grow anything in India - brinjal/cucumber/tomato, etc. - please see that the quality is not tampered with. By quality I mean the fruit quality, color, nutrient value, flavor, shelf life, taste etc. should be top notch. The sensory aspect of the product should be top level. There is then a huge market that opens up for you. We are very particular about all the details right from the quality of the seeds, selection of the variety, growing the seedlings, spacing of the crops, etc. There is nothing that we do haphazardly. We should have a thorough knowledge of the growing stage of crops, what the crop demands at each stage, etc. One has to monitor the entire crop right from the nursery stage till when it is harvested. If these things are taken care of perfectly, then sky is the limit.
What are some of the financially attractive horticulture products that you can suggest to the Maharashtra farmers?
Every state has 50% poor and 50% good farming. In Maharashtra, the southern and western side of Maharashtra is doing extremely well, whilst there is a lot of scope for improvement in the eastern side. There are high-yield cash crops; whether it is dry/heavy rainfall climatic conditions, there are crops that can be grown for various climatic factors. Asparagus, edible bamboo shoot is not very much available in the market and it is in great demand. Then, there is passion fruit, star fruit, dragon fruit etc. In flowers there is Marigold, Jasmine, Bird of paradise, helicona etc. When you take banana, most people grow the regular G9 variety, when there is a lot more varieties like the red banana, Elaichi banana, etc that are currently short in the Mumbai market. The choice is enormous.
I realized that if I wanted to be healthy, I had to grow my own food. And so, I started terrace farming in Chennai, Pune and Mumbai but even then, I found that all this is not giving me the benefit of healthy living. That is when I decided to move to my native place.
How do work towards building awareness among the farmers and the consumers?
I conduct many seminars and workshops and give lectures. I take seminars in the urban and super cities. Awareness should be built everywhere.
It is not just about eating food. Today when I teach the farmers, I educate them about concept farming because today there are many who suffer from diabetes, cancer, heart issues, paralysis, hypertension, etc. There are so many food materials which doctors prescribe that these people must eat.
If you are very particular in growing crops effectively, there are many markets that you can target. You can channel your produce from your farm to the end consumer. At the farmer level, only 5-10% farmers are doing well and thinking out of the box.
The rest of them continue with traditional farming and not ready to listen to scientists or experiment with technology. This is the space I try to bridge out the gap.
Today there are crops for which they can get financial assistance and can grow their income. They should chalk out what are the cash crops instead of sticking to the same old sugarcane, bajra, wheat, etc. There are cash crops that render medicinal values for the end consumer.
At the urban level, youngsters do not really know what to eat. Safflower oil is one of the best oils; flax seed is one of the best seed, etc. But they would rather take in chemical tablets. So, at the urban level, they need to be educated about importance of, for instance, 70gms of broccoli which is a preventive against cancer, etc. At the urban level, we educate them about healthy food.
What is your advice to professionals from other walks of life showing interest in the agriculture space?
I was working as a General Manager and National Head in Reliance Industries. I would always advice these people to be in touch with ground realities.
People from the IT sector look for information on Google. Google will never have a 100% sure shot answer. The internet gives you the basic information.
People should be consulting institutions for advice. In India these institutions have done an excellent research work. They need to get in touch with the scientists working there and follow their advice. That is the correct path they need to tread to have a successful career in agriculture.
For this sector, marketing is not a big issue, it is the phase before it that they should work hard on. They should talk to people like me who have both academic and practical knowledge.
Which vegetable is grown in West UP and how do you suggest they search for a potential market for any crop?
Delhi, Mathura and Agra are nearby areas. So, the market is not an issue when it comes to agriculture. We participate in the International Agricultural Trade Fairs whether it is held in Mumbai/Delhi/Bangalore/Hyderabad, etc. We take a stall and demonstrate all fruits crops and vegetables that we grow on our farm and the services we provide.
In 3 days there are approximately, 30,000-300000 people walking into an agriculture exhibition. Marketing effort is taken up by private as well as government organizations. Displaying your products there will fetch you at least 10 people who approach you who may end up dealing with you year-round. I think in UP you can grow broccoli, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, bitter gourd, ridge gourd, asparagus and have 3-4 harvests in a year and sell it at MP, UP and Delhi markets.
As an agriculture consultant, what are the difficulties you have faced when it comes to selling?
To collect data on crops from Agriculture Universities is very difficult. Whenever I have approached these institutions to collect data on fertilizers or water requirement or crop productivity or technological applications, the answer that I always get is that it is in the pipeline. It is difficult to collect the right information - the data which relates to applications. It is frustrating that you have spent the money and time to go there, talk to the scientist, who may not be available or gives very little time, etc.
Another difficulty is that in India you have seed companies, fertilizer companies, pesticide companies, etc. but the right seed variety, pesticide or fertilizer is not available to the farmer when he is in need. In exhibitions, you will see many companies displaying their products; but, at the point of need, it may not be available. So, if I am doing a project at Cuttak in Orissa or Jharkhand, I have to take products from Pune.
There are many bogus products in the market. By bogus I mean, these products do not perform to the expected levels.
What are some of the requirements for a successful project?
The first requirement is to have a knowledgeable person on the farm. All over India, there is a big gap between the old generation farmers and the new generation farmers, who in reality have nil knowledge in agriculture because they have majorly only taken a degree in agriculture with no pragmatic knowledge. The Delhi government recognized agencies have appointed me as an assessor to assess the students for agricultural knowledge for doubling farmers' income. When we took the interviews, surprisingly, 80% of the people do not work on the farm. With just an agricultural degree, they will opt to become a police inspector, collector, director etc. That means, there is a dearth of farmers, which is an issue. To become a successful agriculturist, it is important to have a knowledgeable person on the farm who takes care of all 17-18 parameters of agriculture. This person must be on the farm, noting down their observations, visit all the exhibitions, collect data - they must have stock of all of that is required by the crop and things must be implemented. This is very easy. It is not complicated. But I am worried how we as a country are going to be in the agricultural path because of this lack of knowledgeable people.
For example, in case of rice, there are varieties like basmati or any such rice which is sold at a rate of say Rs 60 to 120 per kg and yet farmers stick to growing the local variety. Local variety may fetch them just Rs 40/kg. The failure is in not diligently selecting your crop. It is not about growing just any crop on your farm. Farmers must grow high-paying crops which will fetch them good returns. When crops give good returns, your family sticks with you or else, your children will sought to venture out into the urban like Delhi, Mumbai, Dubai, Australia, etc.
What crops do you recommend?
There are two types of crops - crops that can be sold in the fresh form and the other is the ones that can be sold in the processed form.
If you can market your produce in the fresh form to the elite class of people directly from your farm is the best form of marketing.
Alternatively, you can process your produce on the farm itself and sell it via third party or directly sell it to the end consumer, online.
In case of quality chilly and turmeric, for example is really not available in the market. If you grow residue-free varieties of turmeric and chilly, you can have a small unit on your farm wherein you process these produces into chilli powder and turmeric powder and sell it to the end consumer. You can specify the details of what your produce contains and how it stands unique to the ones available in the market. You can sell your products to any metro in the country.
For crop examples, people can approach me directly for a discussion. For example, in case of banana - there are three types - raw banana, red banana, elaichi banana. People can opt to process banana into banana chips as well. If you visit Mysore CFTRI, you will realise that you can have 10 different varieties of banana chips - pudina, black pepper, tomato, cheese, manchurian, etc. There are so many things to explore.
We prepare asparagus soup and process soya sauce, tomato ketchup, tomato puree, juice, etc. Today the market is full of processed products. There is a huge demand for good quality ready-to-eat products. Farmers should explore and catch upto concepts that are in demand such as these. Instead of selling peanuts in the market at throw away prices, they can consider processing them into peanut butter/chocolate peanut butter/cheese peanut butter. There is an Annapurna Exhibition in India, where I have seen drumstick powder with which one can directly prepare drumstick soup. This is a very good product which is not widely available in the market. Then there is bitter gourd/ bottle gourd powders. These products have a huge domestic and international market demand. Farmers, hence, need to select crops and think how they need to sell it such that they make a good profit out of it.
Please tell us about the three-tier cropping system.
To adopt the three-tier cropping system, one must know the crop's duration, spread and geometry. In a three-tier cropping system, one tier can be red radish/beetroot/carrot/radish/asparagus. In between you can grow basil as a cash crop which is sold at the rate of Rs 75 a kg and in between this you can grow cucurbitaceous crop as well.
If you take this as an example, red radish gets harvested in about 40 days, iceberg lettuce also gets harvested at an interval of 45 - 50 days and basil starts getting harvested in about 5 months from the day it has been planted.
Alternatively, I would suggest making a pandal to grow bitter gourd and grow iceberg lettuce or broccoli in between. Iceberg lettuce and broccoli requires very moderate climatic conditions and bitter gourd gives you a yield of 8 - 10 tons per acre, while iceberg lettuce gives 5-6 tons per acre and broccoli's yield is about 4 tons per acre. The average price of broccoli is Rs 60 per kg, which in this case, amounts to Rs 2,40,000/-. Iceberg lettuce will fetch you 2 - 2.5 lakhs and bitter gourd will fetch you about 3lakhs. So, from the same piece of land you are making a total of about 7.5-10lakhs per acre from one single crop. If you really develop the skills, knowledge and technique, I think it is possible for one to adapt to the three-tier system and churn bigger profits.
By now we realised that we are a creative marketing organisation with green hands. That was perhaps our only missing link from the rural ecosystem.
Our packets clearly state that we are into residue free farming and we intend for certified organic. Any end consumer is empowered to come and audit our farming process. They are welcome to stay in the homes of these farmers and pay what you like.
Any last piece of advice before we close?
I would always say that the most important thing is to get into groups and get some NGOs to work with you so that issues can be sorted. It is good to have a scientist whom the group can reach out to when there is a need.
What has happened in the recent times is that all over India, farmer's children go stay in Mumbai, Australia, America, Dubai and Delhi and forget their villages and native places. These talented work as doctors, businessmen and are working in MNCs. Ideally, they can start a small unit wherever they are, employ a few people and start sourcing products from Kerala and Karnataka, India. In Dakshin Kannada, they grow pineapples and areca nuts, cocoa and so many other cash crops.
I do not understand why these people living in the urban interact and start a small business in India which will benefit village farmers as well. I am doing this now. If I go to villages and work towards uplifting farmers; I ask how many people have migrated from the place and check for their post and positions they hold today. Once I get this information, I talk to these migrated people and query what they are doing for their village? We should be responsible as a community.
There are lot of MBA colleges across India. In these colleges there are students who are learning marketing, HR, etc. I teach BSc, MSc, MBA, Ph D Food Science and Technology students from Pune University from Symbiosis, MIT, etc. Without pay, I get a lot of students who come to these farms on a project. I assign many projects to them. I make them do market research on the product, its reach and its capacity to churn money, etc. These things can be achieved by paying them a stipend. You can use that data to foresee how you can do better in a variety of spaces. To get innovative results, we need to think innovatively. These youngsters are also in need of pocket money.
It is a win-win situation. This is the way I work. This way we can bring a lot of land under cultivation because many more hands will get involved in the agricultural sector.
Contact
Mr. Nitin Bhore
Company-Green Garden
Street-Senapati Bapat Marg
City-Pune
Zip Code-411016
State-Maharashtra
Phone-9822604275,9421913040 (whtsapp)
Email-bhorenitin@rediffmail.com
“My childhood including college education was in Pune because my father was an HOD and Principal at the College of Agriculture, Pune. I was always attracted to fruits and vegetables cultivation and so plunged into the agricultural space. We are currently into commercial cultivation of fruits, flowers and vegetables.”
What service do you provide as an agri-horticulture expert and consultant?
The important thing is the planning of the entire project. This includes the space you choose to grow the plant; the soil, water and climatic conditions of the place are highly important. The market should specifically be taken into consideration.
We plan multiple crops which are in demand and are high-paying cash crops. We try to be different and choose crops that are normally not grown by a bulk of the farmers. Looking into the demand and supply, we give technical advice on cultivation of crops and aid selling it in the domestic and international markets.
We also give a total consultancy package on technological inputs, organic farming, use of pesticides, use of high-yielding varieties, etc.
We educate and train the managers and workers who work on our farm. We develop a micro climate on the farm because our target is quality, production, consistent supply, pricing and delivery.
Please give us an example of a process that you have handled.
I have executed about 150 projects, till date, across 13 states in our country - Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
On 50 acres of land you can cultivate exclusive exotic vegetables. We have Green Tokri which is also into organic cultivation of exotic vegetables as well as we also have one progressive farmer who is into commercial cultivation of fruits, Indian and exotic vegetables.
We grow 40-50 different types of vegetables - Indian and exotic on the same piece of land where the harvesting too happens simultaneously. We grow a lot of fruits like avocado, rose apple, star fruit, guava, pomegranates etc. as well.
In Tamil Nadu we have developed P Mitthu lal Lalas and Sons project, which is into processing. They have huge land in Erode where we have done a lot of work on fruits, coconuts and spices.
How do you provide consultancy services?
There are two projects:
Management of existing projects: We offer professional management services to the farms which are located in India. We take up the existing large-scale farms to increase their production quality, marketing and improve the economic value of the crop.
Developing new projects: There are people who come up with new projects as well. Some people want to go into floriculture where we do tube roses, orchids, anthurium, gladiolus, etc. Some come to us with the plan of venturing into exotic fruits. Some say they want their customers to be 5-star and 3-star hotels and flights etc, Chinese restaurants and door delivery. We go for exotic vegetables and regular vegetables as well.
For both, we help right from scratch. Since we start from scratch, soil development is very important and so we take about 3 months for soil development where we grow green manure crops and mix different kinds of manures, compost, poultry manure, bio fertilizers, micro nutrients etc. First you have to really take care of the soil, irrigation system, nutrient management, integrated pest management and then take care of production, quality to bring healthy crops and produce
Do you cultivate crops or do you only offer consultancy services?
We offer consultancy and cultivate crops as well on our own farm. For example, we grow broccoli, iceberg lettuce, cherry tomato, parsley, leeks, zucchini etc on a very large scale. There are 20-25 different types of exotic vegetables and 15-20 different types of fruits that we grow. The thing is that you grow anything in India - brinjal/cucumber/tomato, etc. - please see that the quality is not tampered with. By quality I mean the fruit quality, color, nutrient value, flavor, shelf life, taste etc. should be top notch. The sensory aspect of the product should be top level. There is then a huge market that opens up for you. We are very particular about all the details right from the quality of the seeds, selection of the variety, growing the seedlings, spacing of the crops, etc. There is nothing that we do haphazardly. We should have a thorough knowledge of the growing stage of crops, what the crop demands at each stage, etc. One has to monitor the entire crop right from the nursery stage till when it is harvested. If these things are taken care of perfectly, then sky is the limit.
What are some of the financially attractive horticulture products that you can suggest to the Maharashtra farmers?
Every state has 50% poor and 50% good farming. In Maharashtra, the southern and western side of Maharashtra is doing extremely well, whilst there is a lot of scope for improvement in the eastern side. There are high-yield cash crops; whether it is dry/heavy rainfall climatic conditions, there are crops that can be grown for various climatic factors. Asparagus, edible bamboo shoot is not very much available in the market and it is in great demand. Then, there is passion fruit, star fruit, dragon fruit etc. In flowers there is Marigold, Jasmine, Bird of paradise, helicona etc. When you take banana, most people grow the regular G9 variety, when there is a lot more varieties like the red banana, Elaichi banana, etc that are currently short in the Mumbai market. The choice is enormous.
I realized that if I wanted to be healthy, I had to grow my own food. And so, I started terrace farming in Chennai, Pune and Mumbai but even then, I found that all this is not giving me the benefit of healthy living. That is when I decided to move to my native place.
How do work towards building awareness among the farmers and the consumers?
I conduct many seminars and workshops and give lectures. I take seminars in the urban and super cities. Awareness should be built everywhere.
It is not just about eating food. Today when I teach the farmers, I educate them about concept farming because today there are many who suffer from diabetes, cancer, heart issues, paralysis, hypertension, etc. There are so many food materials which doctors prescribe that these people must eat.
If you are very particular in growing crops effectively, there are many markets that you can target. You can channel your produce from your farm to the end consumer. At the farmer level, only 5-10% farmers are doing well and thinking out of the box.
The rest of them continue with traditional farming and not ready to listen to scientists or experiment with technology. This is the space I try to bridge out the gap.
Today there are crops for which they can get financial assistance and can grow their income. They should chalk out what are the cash crops instead of sticking to the same old sugarcane, bajra, wheat, etc. There are cash crops that render medicinal values for the end consumer.
At the urban level, youngsters do not really know what to eat. Safflower oil is one of the best oils; flax seed is one of the best seed, etc. But they would rather take in chemical tablets. So, at the urban level, they need to be educated about importance of, for instance, 70gms of broccoli which is a preventive against cancer, etc. At the urban level, we educate them about healthy food.
What is your advice to professionals from other walks of life showing interest in the agriculture space?
I was working as a General Manager and National Head in Reliance Industries. I would always advice these people to be in touch with ground realities.
People from the IT sector look for information on Google. Google will never have a 100% sure shot answer. The internet gives you the basic information.
People should be consulting institutions for advice. In India these institutions have done an excellent research work. They need to get in touch with the scientists working there and follow their advice. That is the correct path they need to tread to have a successful career in agriculture.
For this sector, marketing is not a big issue, it is the phase before it that they should work hard on. They should talk to people like me who have both academic and practical knowledge.
Which vegetable is grown in West UP and how do you suggest they search for a potential market for any crop?
Delhi, Mathura and Agra are nearby areas. So, the market is not an issue when it comes to agriculture. We participate in the International Agricultural Trade Fairs whether it is held in Mumbai/Delhi/Bangalore/Hyderabad, etc. We take a stall and demonstrate all fruits crops and vegetables that we grow on our farm and the services we provide.
In 3 days there are approximately, 30,000-300000 people walking into an agriculture exhibition. Marketing effort is taken up by private as well as government organizations. Displaying your products there will fetch you at least 10 people who approach you who may end up dealing with you year-round. I think in UP you can grow broccoli, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, bitter gourd, ridge gourd, asparagus and have 3-4 harvests in a year and sell it at MP, UP and Delhi markets.
As an agriculture consultant, what are the difficulties you have faced when it comes to selling?
To collect data on crops from Agriculture Universities is very difficult. Whenever I have approached these institutions to collect data on fertilizers or water requirement or crop productivity or technological applications, the answer that I always get is that it is in the pipeline. It is difficult to collect the right information - the data which relates to applications. It is frustrating that you have spent the money and time to go there, talk to the scientist, who may not be available or gives very little time, etc.
Another difficulty is that in India you have seed companies, fertilizer companies, pesticide companies, etc. but the right seed variety, pesticide or fertilizer is not available to the farmer when he is in need. In exhibitions, you will see many companies displaying their products; but, at the point of need, it may not be available. So, if I am doing a project at Cuttak in Orissa or Jharkhand, I have to take products from Pune.
There are many bogus products in the market. By bogus I mean, these products do not perform to the expected levels.
What are some of the requirements for a successful project?
The first requirement is to have a knowledgeable person on the farm. All over India, there is a big gap between the old generation farmers and the new generation farmers, who in reality have nil knowledge in agriculture because they have majorly only taken a degree in agriculture with no pragmatic knowledge. The Delhi government recognized agencies have appointed me as an assessor to assess the students for agricultural knowledge for doubling farmers' income. When we took the interviews, surprisingly, 80% of the people do not work on the farm. With just an agricultural degree, they will opt to become a police inspector, collector, director etc. That means, there is a dearth of farmers, which is an issue. To become a successful agriculturist, it is important to have a knowledgeable person on the farm who takes care of all 17-18 parameters of agriculture. This person must be on the farm, noting down their observations, visit all the exhibitions, collect data - they must have stock of all of that is required by the crop and things must be implemented. This is very easy. It is not complicated. But I am worried how we as a country are going to be in the agricultural path because of this lack of knowledgeable people.
For example, in case of rice, there are varieties like basmati or any such rice which is sold at a rate of say Rs 60 to 120 per kg and yet farmers stick to growing the local variety. Local variety may fetch them just Rs 40/kg. The failure is in not diligently selecting your crop. It is not about growing just any crop on your farm. Farmers must grow high-paying crops which will fetch them good returns. When crops give good returns, your family sticks with you or else, your children will sought to venture out into the urban like Delhi, Mumbai, Dubai, Australia, etc.
What crops do you recommend?
There are two types of crops - crops that can be sold in the fresh form and the other is the ones that can be sold in the processed form.
If you can market your produce in the fresh form to the elite class of people directly from your farm is the best form of marketing.
Alternatively, you can process your produce on the farm itself and sell it via third party or directly sell it to the end consumer, online.
In case of quality chilly and turmeric, for example is really not available in the market. If you grow residue-free varieties of turmeric and chilly, you can have a small unit on your farm wherein you process these produces into chilli powder and turmeric powder and sell it to the end consumer. You can specify the details of what your produce contains and how it stands unique to the ones available in the market. You can sell your products to any metro in the country.
For crop examples, people can approach me directly for a discussion. For example, in case of banana - there are three types - raw banana, red banana, elaichi banana. People can opt to process banana into banana chips as well. If you visit Mysore CFTRI, you will realise that you can have 10 different varieties of banana chips - pudina, black pepper, tomato, cheese, manchurian, etc. There are so many things to explore.
We prepare asparagus soup and process soya sauce, tomato ketchup, tomato puree, juice, etc. Today the market is full of processed products. There is a huge demand for good quality ready-to-eat products. Farmers should explore and catch upto concepts that are in demand such as these. Instead of selling peanuts in the market at throw away prices, they can consider processing them into peanut butter/chocolate peanut butter/cheese peanut butter. There is an Annapurna Exhibition in India, where I have seen drumstick powder with which one can directly prepare drumstick soup. This is a very good product which is not widely available in the market. Then there is bitter gourd/ bottle gourd powders. These products have a huge domestic and international market demand. Farmers, hence, need to select crops and think how they need to sell it such that they make a good profit out of it.
Please tell us about the three-tier cropping system.
To adopt the three-tier cropping system, one must know the crop's duration, spread and geometry. In a three-tier cropping system, one tier can be red radish/beetroot/carrot/radish/asparagus. In between you can grow basil as a cash crop which is sold at the rate of Rs 75 a kg and in between this you can grow cucurbitaceous crop as well.
If you take this as an example, red radish gets harvested in about 40 days, iceberg lettuce also gets harvested at an interval of 45 - 50 days and basil starts getting harvested in about 5 months from the day it has been planted.
Alternatively, I would suggest making a pandal to grow bitter gourd and grow iceberg lettuce or broccoli in between. Iceberg lettuce and broccoli requires very moderate climatic conditions and bitter gourd gives you a yield of 8 - 10 tons per acre, while iceberg lettuce gives 5-6 tons per acre and broccoli's yield is about 4 tons per acre. The average price of broccoli is Rs 60 per kg, which in this case, amounts to Rs 2,40,000/-. Iceberg lettuce will fetch you 2 - 2.5 lakhs and bitter gourd will fetch you about 3lakhs. So, from the same piece of land you are making a total of about 7.5-10lakhs per acre from one single crop. If you really develop the skills, knowledge and technique, I think it is possible for one to adapt to the three-tier system and churn bigger profits.
By now we realised that we are a creative marketing organisation with green hands. That was perhaps our only missing link from the rural ecosystem.
Our packets clearly state that we are into residue free farming and we intend for certified organic. Any end consumer is empowered to come and audit our farming process. They are welcome to stay in the homes of these farmers and pay what you like.
Any last piece of advice before we close?
I would always say that the most important thing is to get into groups and get some NGOs to work with you so that issues can be sorted. It is good to have a scientist whom the group can reach out to when there is a need.
What has happened in the recent times is that all over India, farmer's children go stay in Mumbai, Australia, America, Dubai and Delhi and forget their villages and native places. These talented work as doctors, businessmen and are working in MNCs. Ideally, they can start a small unit wherever they are, employ a few people and start sourcing products from Kerala and Karnataka, India. In Dakshin Kannada, they grow pineapples and areca nuts, cocoa and so many other cash crops.
I do not understand why these people living in the urban interact and start a small business in India which will benefit village farmers as well. I am doing this now. If I go to villages and work towards uplifting farmers; I ask how many people have migrated from the place and check for their post and positions they hold today. Once I get this information, I talk to these migrated people and query what they are doing for their village? We should be responsible as a community.
There are lot of MBA colleges across India. In these colleges there are students who are learning marketing, HR, etc. I teach BSc, MSc, MBA, Ph D Food Science and Technology students from Pune University from Symbiosis, MIT, etc. Without pay, I get a lot of students who come to these farms on a project. I assign many projects to them. I make them do market research on the product, its reach and its capacity to churn money, etc. These things can be achieved by paying them a stipend. You can use that data to foresee how you can do better in a variety of spaces. To get innovative results, we need to think innovatively. These youngsters are also in need of pocket money.
It is a win-win situation. This is the way I work. This way we can bring a lot of land under cultivation because many more hands will get involved in the agricultural sector.
Contact
Mr. Nitin Bhore
Company-Green Garden
Street-Senapati Bapat Marg
City-Pune
Zip Code-411016
State-Maharashtra
Phone-9822604275,9421913040 (whtsapp)
Email-bhorenitin@rediffmail.com
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