In the district of Karnal, located in the state of Haryana, India, there is a mastermind being birthed in the field of agriculture. Having combined the benefits of Marketing, Technology and Science, G4 Agri, the largest commercial farm in all of North India is making crores out of Cauliflowers!
And how does that happen?
This brainchild has been developed under the working of Dr Manoj Bhatia and Manish and is now a six-partner farm which uses ‘drip pipes’, a method of precision farming to grow the unique cauliflower which are later exported to different parts of the world. This rare form of farming in Haryana has led to the employment of over 150 women and 10 men from nearby villages to a total of 300 days of working.
It started off with the farm first having produced gherkins (pickled cucumbers) and exporting them to Russia. After a 3-year stint of exporting the likes of tomatoes and cucumbers, the duo understood the works of making it a profitable business.
Today for the vegetable that sells for only Rs. 15-18a kilo, G4 Agri makes Rs. 2.8 lakhs per acre. The science behind understanding how a cauliflower is produced is very simple, Indians have been at it for the past 150 years. However, Dr Bhatia realised that in order to ensure successful farming, price realisation is key.
Drip irrigation which is a lot more precise and doesn’t cost as much proves to be more beneficial than depending on the monsoon or dousing the whole field of crops. The curds of the cauliflower (the white flesh) are given the utmost attention and metamorphosed after Dr Bhatia’s immense study on the subject to produce 4-5 curds out of one single cauliflower.
All of this has led to the G4 Agri crops being available in the market, rather much in advance (on occasion, around 2 months earlier than the rest of the harvest from other farms) which also lets them charge a premium on the crop, as high as Rs 50 a kilo to the usual Rs 18.
It’s safe to conclude that the paradigm of low or no profit in the field of agriculture may see a shift with technology and its crucial for us to pay heed to any of the advancements. The field is ripe and ready to have been sown by the seeds of technology, and no time as in the present must it be acted upon.
