This Teacher, Farmer, State Govt Awardee Earns a Profit of 35 Lakhs a year through Cucumber Farming in Polyhouse and Open Farming

GangaramSapet, Post graduate Degree holder in Geography andB.Ed, is a resident of village Kalkh district Jaipur, Rajasthan. While speaking to the Editor, Agriculture World, Dr Lakshmi Unnithan, he says he studied in the Faculty of Agriculture till 12th standard and did BSC Zoology Botany Chemistry, after that he even went to open a Private School in 1999 named S.K. R. Public Senior Secondary School in Kalkh.

Till 2013 he says his Dad and brother used to do farming, and he used to observe their work but after 2013 he started doing organic farming and in 2017he started farming in polyhouses, in soil where he has been continuously growing cucumber crop and constantly working towards increasing production and productivity and in turn increasing profits in his poly house.

Regarding cultivation practices, he says the only thing he gives attention to is the soil. Every year in the month of April and May he does soil solarization. By putting drips, and allowing water to flow within the soil for a meter depth where the root system would be active. Covering the soil with mulch thereby increasing the temperature of the soil to 65 degree celsius. 65 degree Celsius will not allow any harmful microorganisms to survive, thereby providing a good base for the crop to survive perfectly.

Seeds are brought from companies like RijkZwaan, says Ganga Ram. Protected cultivation has helped him reap profits and he gets 5 lakhs profit every 6 month for an acre. He has 3 acres of polyhouse. The rest of 7 Acres open farming he grows Strawberry, Broccoli, Lettuce, Sweetcorn, wheat, Barley. His economic situation is also getting strengthened. Seeing his good farming practices, the state government bestows him the award of Panchayat Samiti level by the state government in 2018-19 and in 2019-2020. He was awarded for outstanding work in state level organic farming with a citation and a ₹ 100000 cash prize. Farmers from all over India come to his farm to study various aspects of good practices of cultivation. He also tries to spend his time propagating all the good aspects of cultivation among his fellow farmers.