Anand Mishra motivational speaker and horticulture-gardening expert, of Uttar Pradesh is a major lemon grower. He appreciated the platform provided to him by Krishi Jagran, which has allowed him to get in touch with fellow farmers. He said he today wants to talk about gardening and economy.
He said economy called "arth vyavastha" in hindi is what he will talk about. He breaks up the word into two "arth" and "vyavastha", and starts talking about "arth". He said "arth" and "earth" are related. If you improve the quality of earth (soil) you work on your economy will improve automatically. He said farming starts with soil and you should get it tested. See what manure it needs and if it lacks any micro nutrients.
Firstly, find the way to fertilize your farm. If you improve the quality of you soil, then you will need half the amount of water for irrigation, compared to what you need currently, hence reducing your work load. Second step is to look after your roots, making sure they are healthy, and grow well. The soil we are working is very hard, we need to make it loose and soft. To achieve this you need to increase the carbonic content of the soil. He said you need to grow Dhaincha, urad, moong and others, chop them up and use them as fertilizers. You will need to adapt crop cycle. Improvement in "earth" will improve your "arth vyavastha". You see the stem, the branches and fruits of the plants but not the roots, where most of the work is to be done. So, if you look after the roots your plants will be healthy.
Another aspect of farming in India, that he points out is that the farmers focus on one type of item at a time, either crops or gardening. The crops grow in 60-140 days on the other hands the trees in your garden provide you fruits for 40 years or more. He explains that chemicals (UREA, DAP) are quickly absorbed by the crops however the trees absorb these slowly. He talks of different ways of curing the crops and the trees and difference in the improvement time.
He said farmers working with crops or in gardening note the amount of inputs they used up, when the seeds were sown, when irrigation was done, when it caught diseases, if any and when we harvested. If you note down and keep these records, in the next crop cycle you will have a good guide on when to do what for the crops.
For example if you grow brinjal and record diseases, if any, it caught and the medicines you used, in the next crop cycle you can easily avoid these diseases by using the right medicine beforehand. So you have upgraded from corrective action to preventive action, and this can double your income. Farmers growing anything can use the records, which will vary for regions as they have different climates, and predict what is going to happen and take action. You can protect your crops this way. This way you can grow quality crops which will sell at good rates. To learn more you can contact him, by searching for lemon man from Raebareli on Google and you can contact him through social media or by calling him directly. You will see the advantages of record keeping in 2-3 crop cycles.
Third aspect of farming he talks about is quality of your produce. He explains with example of potatoes available in a bazaar. If they are low quality they will sell at low prices and high quality at high prices. All potato growers grew their potatoes with great effort however their final products sell at different rates. This is due to the difference in the quality of the potatoes that they have grown.
He raises another point to the farmers related to marketing. He said farmers must make groups locally and then sell directly to consumers. He said all the farming inputs are bought with hard earned money of the farmer and then they sell their products in bulk. If the farmers remove the middlemen they will definitely double their income. He said these middlemen (between you and the customer) make lot of money, as they get rich on your hard work. He has thanked PM Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath for changing the mandi law which now allows the farmers to sell their produce in any city, any state of India. He hopes to solve the problem of buying in retail and selling in wholesale.
He continues that he has never sold to the mandi and businessmen collect his lemons directly from him. He suggests to farmers to find such businessmen who buy and sell in bulk and all your problems will be solved. He suggests that you open some counters in your locality or wherever you can supply easily and you will be selling to these businessmen and directly to consumers. He suggests you rent shops, buy refrigerators and preserve your lemons. He said sky is the limit in agriculture, you can grow and grow.
He said government is asking us to be self-sufficient. He suggests to marginal farmers to sell the byproducts of their products. He gives example of wheat which if sold in raw form will fetch much lower price than if processed into flour. For another example, he takes barley which he says sells at Rs 20 per Kg and if processed is sold as Masala Oats for Rs 350 per Kg. He says sell offline, sell online, sell processed food but sell directly.
Now he comes to farming, particularly lemon farming in his orchards. He said in horticulture and gardening the more you experiment the more you will succeed. He himself has grown Thai varieties, 900 plants of which are now ready in their farm. He said he is now a famous man due to this, being interviewed by media, both print and digital, regularly. He said he is a proud farmer who is son of a farmer. He suggested that horticulture and gardening should be taken up by all farmers as a side business. They can farm at any scale but they should and it will never let you down. You crops may fail and you may suffer big losses but the orchards will never let you down.
The lemons are in demand nationally and internationally. In India its regarded as a good source of Vitamin C, particularly in summers. These are used by other companies like soap producers who buy lemons as raw materials. He has planted 420 lemon plants, 10ft x 10ft, per acre of his farm land. In three years time your orchard is ready for commercial production. Every plant provide 20-25 Kgs of lemons per year which he sells at Rs 40-50 per Kg, hence he earns over Rs 1,000 from a plant per year. He again recommends horticulture and gardening, suggesting the farmers to grow lemons, guavas, mangoes, jackfruits or anything that will grow well locally. He emphasized on the benefits of horticulture and gardening. Please click here to see the video.