Sudhanshu Suresh Godbole owner of G Naturals and dairy Farm LLP based out of Nagpur, Maharashtra recently released his video on FTB. He explained in great details his experience as a natural farmer, what he has done and what he has achieved.
He is a software developer turned farmer who has changed his career path from Information Technology to Natural farming. He started his farming startup 3 years back in Nagpur based over 70 acres of farm land, of which 12 acres he owns and 58 acres that he has leased. His idol is Padma Shri Subhash Palekar who started the Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) movement in India.
Sudhanshu has used his software industry knowledge very well in his farming business. He has released his mobile app, GNaturals, on Google play store. You can download and install it on your Smartphone, free of cost. You can purchase all type of food products from this app to be delivered to your doorsteps. Sudhanshu is prepared to supply his products all over India. His theories which are mentioned on his website include "food as medicine" and "changing the way people think about food", will not be too difficult to convince average consumers to follow.
He believes in adding value to his farm produces by processing what he grows. He sells processed food like naturally fried namkeen, banana chips, biscuits, papads. He sells almost 15 value added farm products. He has hired local people to work on his farm thus providing employment to local people.
He does marketing of perishable and non-perishable food items. In last 3 to 4 years has created a customer base for his farm products in and around Nagpur. He is part of the natural farming group selling flowers, fruits, vegetables, rice and oil. He said if you sell good quality products, you will get lots of customers. There are about 350 people in his whatsapp group who buy his products when advertised on the group by him.
He is trying to build an online model for sales of his products. Farming is a labour intensive work and requires use of machinery which can be expensive. He sells online and can provide home delivery option. He does natural farming and his main objective is to grow food items in close proximity to nature and without using any chemicals.
He listed three main aims and objectives of his farming business:
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provide non-toxic food to all citizens
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job creation in rural areas
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educating and motivating youth towards self-employment
Recently he held a kite flying festival on his farm, where people bought entry tickets to participate in kite flying. This ticket included the price of natural breakfast, natural lunch and tea made from freshly grown farm crops. They have started eco-tourism as a new experiment in which they charge a fee of Rs 500 per person and demonstrate how the work is done in the field. Tourists from urban areas, especially children will get not only a family trip but will also learn about farming. They also carry out activities like night trekking and overnight stay on Machan.