We all love mangoes and if it’s an organic one then our love for the fruit also increases. Here is a story of a young boy from north India who is earning lakhs through organic farming.
A 23-year old civil engineer by profession and a resident of Meerut, Rohan Prakash always wanted to do something big in the agriculture sector and has even succeeded in doing it. Rohan is the lone certified organic mango cultivator in Uttar Pradesh and in the past three years, his farm produce has distinctly earned a name for itself in the organic markets of North India.
Rohan’s zeal for agriculture is entirely home-based maybe because his father and grandfather who were also engineers have been passionately doing farming since long. This young boy, however, took that inheritance a step forward by turning all agricultural processes on their farm totally organic.
Talking about how things actually changed and when, Rohan said “Having grown up seeing both my father as well as grandfather doing farming along with their professions, I automatically got inclined towards agriculture sector. And after observing farmland and produce quality for a short time, I thought about organic farming seriously. The idea came in my mind when I was in second year and together with my father, we decided to swap all chemical fertilizers and pesticides with Neem oil extract.”
According to this young achiever, the move worked very well for them. With a noticeable change in the size as well taste in the fruits, they decided to move ahead with organic farming and within a period of just three years, Rohan became the sole organic mango farmer from Uttar Pradesh earlier this year.
Rohan further told that “The most interesting part was that although the organic farm produce, which we have branded as Sure Organics, was indeed ranking in revenue 3-4 times higher than before, what actually opened up our eyes to the enormous scope and prospects of organic farming was the phase after we got the certification. And within two months, not only has our returns increased several-fold, but our overall productivity also got lifted by 40 per cent.
Apart from varieties of mango like dussehri, chaunsa and safeda, Rohan and his family also grow lychee and turmeric in their farm. He further said as these fruits have a farming cycle of four months, I have started paddy farming along with growing fruit trees of guava and peach.
“We had planted guava and peach plants some time back. They are already gearing up for fruition, by December we hope, these fruits shall also become popular like our mangoes and lychees, added Rohan.
An interesting fact here is that around 15 to 20 people from low-income families in Rohan’s village work on their farm. They do all tasks starting from harvesting, processing, to packaging and transportation.
