“Growing better and bigger with technology”
Haryana based farmer Darshan Singh is making the most of technology and is earning up to Rs. 2 lakh per month not through his farming but through his Youtube channel.
Singh’s channel Farming Leader is one of the most influential and watched farming channels on Youtube with over 2 million subscribers and lakhs of viewers who watch his videos every day.
From innovative desi farming jugaad, to the science of growing crops organically, setting up dairy farms and reviewing agricultural products, Darshan’s channel is a one-stop platform for farmers to find all the answers that they need!
The Beginning of the journey
Singh hails from an agricultural family and always wanted to pursue it as a profession which he did while dabbling between higher studies and practicing agriculture on his family’s 12-acre farm starting 2015.
While many farmers around him were practicing chemical farming, he chose to indulge himself in organic family and started off with a 2-acre patch just to meet the needs of his own family.
The Idea Of Youtube
When asked how the idea of starting a YouTube channel occurred to him, he says, “From a necessity.”
In 2017, Darshan decided to begin dairy farming to boost his income. It was during that period when he came face to face with serval farming-related issues such as cattle training, treatment, etc. to seek help for which he looked online but was let down with the quality of content. It was during then when he realized that the best way for a farmer to learn is to watch it happen practically and replicate it and so he started to travel across Punjab and Haryana to meet other successful farmers.
It was during his travels that Darshan thought about benefiting the farming community through regional farming content and soon ended up with the idea of recording videos of the successful farmers and posting them on YouTube.
Thus, giving birth to the farming leader in 2017.
Success
Darshan started off by shooting the videos on his phone and soon purchased a lapel mic after seeing a phenomenal response on his channel. He then later started posting 3-4 videos a week as he juggled his work at the farm.
His videos garnered lakhs of views within 6 months of the launch and the channel was later monetized by March 2018. Once the income from Youtube outgrew the income he earned through farming, he decided to make it his full-time profession and his channel now boast over 500 videos.
How Does Darshan zero in upon the farmers he wants to cover?
Darshan travels extensively to understand the kind of content farmers want to learn more about. He mostly comes across these farmers through news channels or Facebook and once convinced with their unique skill set or work methods he later gets in touch with them and fixes schedules for shoots.
Darshan’s Farm and Dairy Farm
With Darshan now being caught up with his Youtube channel, he has transferred his farm to a friend and shares the profits as a business partner. Having witnessed a lack of medicinal farms, the duo is now working on growing medicinal herbs commercially.
Learnings and Perils of Being a Youtube Farmer
Darshan shared that he learns from his mistakes too and keeps himself focused always on providing authentic information and techniques that can benefit the farmer.
