ISAP entrepreneur series:Story 6 Innovative farming – Need of the hour It is not a child’s play to undertake farming as a profession even after coming from a non-farming background but Dinesh Kumar Rajwar, son of a railway employee from Asanbaniin Bokaro Jharkhand, made it possible. “Asambhav kuch bhi nahi agar dil mei chaah ho aur mehnat karney ka jazba ho” (nothing is impossible if you work hard and with love and passion) comments Rajwar. Rajwar started his career very much in the same fashion like all agriculture graduates do. After completing his B. Sc. in Agriculture in 1993 from Birsa Agriculture University, Ranchi he took up job as horticulture supervisor at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. In the entire period of 16 years, Rajwar kept shuffling between jobs and academics. He completed his post graduation in 1999 from the same university and cleared NET in 2005 but remained confused about the ultimate goal in his life. In 2009 he joined ISAP-Bokaro after which he was a changed man. The business model of Rajwar was unique. Initially he organized 5 farmers to pool their lands in Sirika village of Argada block, district Ramgarh and started Tongi Biotech Nursery. Later on he went on to add more farmers and more land in the same area. Now Tongi Biotech Nursery is a consortium of Rajwar and 12 farmers with a combined land holding of 7.6 acres. The farmers work in their own fields but under the guidance and technical inputs from Rajwar. While the farmers pooled in their land and contribute in production, Rajwar pooled his knowledge, experience, management and marketing services.For the total seed money of ` 6.00 lakh, ` 3.50 lakhs was contributed by Rajwar and ` 2.50 lakhs was contributed cumulatively by all the farmers.The income from the business activities is distributed equally amongst all. Rajwar and his consortium leverages various government schemes to start the following activities in their farm 1. Through assistance under NHM developed a. nursery for mango, guava and amla in 2.5 acre of land b. Vermicompost shade c. Polyhouse to produce Dutch Rose & Vegetable seedlings 2. Through assistance under ATMA started a. Duck keeping b. Piggery farming 3. Through assistance from department of fisheries starter fish farming. He has made 3 ponds of the size 10000 sq. ft. each 4. Through assistance under horticulture department has set up shade nets Some highlights of Tongi Biotech Nursery are as follows 1. Intercropping of vegetables and horticultural crops 2. Producing 4000 cut flowers per month 3. Produce 1.00 lakh vegetable seedlings 4. Grafting done in 20000 plants of mango 5. Planted 50 high density guava plants for fruit production 6. Produce 24 quintals of fish per year 7. Has 100 ducks (90 female + 10 males). Produce 23000 duck eggs per year Rajwar’s consortium also engages with more than 1500 farmers from about 36 villages of Ramgarh, Hazaribagh and Bokaro districts for providing extension services promoting the concept of integrated farming in that region and is doing a turnover upto Rs. 10.00 Lakhs per annum. Independently Rajwar also engages in contract farming with 200 farmers to produce Paddy, Wheat and Vegetable seeds and in landscaping activities. He has done landscaping in 3 schools and 35 households where the farmers of his consortium are used to provide labour. He plans to open a cold storage and processing unit for tomato and chilies along with a refrigerated van for marketing horticultural products. Dinesh Kumar Rajwar details can be collected from [email protected]
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 08:57:02 +0000
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