“It was one of the most ecstatic feelings ever. It had been 3 years since I quit my B-tech, but I felt the transition was turning out to be fruitful,” Neeraj Prajapat quips.
Back to the roots: How this B-tech dropped out student named Neeraj Prajapat turned as a farmer and helped farming community to embrace organic farming and GAP in India through his cycle tours across different regions of the country.
A few years later, he bought a bicycle from his savings. After undertaking a great deal of research, he began exploring different places of research institutes, colleges as well as villages.
After carrying out organic farming and GAP for 3 years, he gained the confidence to train other farmers in the nearby districts of Haryana. He started training the farmers, and now the number stands at more than 10,000. Not only did Neeraj teach them the techniques of organic farming, but also devised marketing channels and selling points for their produce. Today, all these farmers are not only getting to earn more but are also producing more with limited resources.
Today, Neeraj has trained nearly 70,000 farmers and is helping them produce a whopping 1,000 kilograms of food every month. In 2018, he successfully tied up with International agriculture institutes and housing societies to sell the harvest. His efforts did not stop there. He made it possible for farmers to travel across the country in his bicycle and set up market vegetables and grains through his approach and communicative skills of dealing.
After his bicycle touring adventures with farming, he decided to write about his journey in a book titled ‘Farmer's life' From learning organic farming and adopting its methods, to convincing farmers, training them and providing support to sell their produce, he has done it all now.
Now, he is planning to rope in more farmers in the next few years with his upcoming programmes of bicycling in different areas of horizons, and wants to spread awareness about the advantages of consuming organic produce and GAP.
Authors
Rathod Siddarth Naik, Ph.D research scholar, Agronomy
Dr. Sharvan Kumar Yadav, SRF in Agronony
Piyush Chaudhary, Ph.D research scholar, Agronomy
Rupesh Tirunagiri, P.G research scholar, SSAC MPUAT,RCA, Udaipur
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