In a world where the lure of quick money, fancy cars and extravagant living has taken the current young generation for a meaningless ride, there are a certain set of Farmers, Engineers, MBA’s, Bureaucrats, Politicians who are making a big difference by going back to Mother Earth’s basics and teaching people how to change the age old profession of Agriculture into a lucrative business. With the advent of technology, everything is being run in the world of online e-business and nobody wants to get their hands dirty and return to Agriculture. But there are people who are constantly pushing to modify the perspective of the young generation by helping them earn a handsome living through innovative farming techniques called Polyhouses and Nethouses.
Let’s talk about Mr. Amardeep Singh Sandhu, a Mechanical Engineer & MBA from Thapar University with Post graduation in Marketing, Fellow Institution of Engineers and also a Chartered Engineer and his son Mr. Harpunieet Singh Sandhu, who also is a Computer Science Engineer and has worked in top companies like Quark Media House and Infosys. Both have started a new revolution to teach young and old on how to earn a good profit of 6 to 12 Lakhs per year through innovative farming techniques using just 2 acres of land. They have floated a company called “Facilitators INC.” which helps people to acquire and sustain an excellent TAXFREE living by growing semi-organic produce in Polyhouses and Nethouses with the help of government schemes which give 50% to 85% subsidy on each acre.
Polyhouse and Nethouse farming is taking over India by storm. This is one of the ways with which the world’s largest democracy called India would be able to survive the onslaught of short term development in the garb of so called real estate booms that agricultural states like Punjab, Haryana and Himachal are witnessing.
The typical farmer nowadays is so disenchanted that they just want to sell off their lands and make quick money. According to the farmer, they get desperate to sell their land because they are not getting enough returns in open farming. That is about to change thanks to people like Mr. Amardeep Singh Sandhu. His vision took form an year and a half back on their farm in Dera Bassi, Punjab where they started growing semi organic vegetables like cucumber, capsicum, cauliflower, broccoli and flowers like roses and gerbera in polyhouses and nethouses to earn handsome profits.
Open farming is costly with very less returns. The amount of pesticides, fertilizers that are being used in open farming are very deadly to consumers and the farmer keeps on using more and more to save his crop and thus putting consumers at great health risks. This motivated Mr. Sandhu to launch an organization to spread their knowledge, their learning’s on how to produce 10 times semi organic produce from just one acre. Now they proudly boast of already setting up more than 100 acres of polyhouses and nethouses for innumerable Farmers, Businessmen, Engineers, MBA’s, Bureaucrats, Politicians etc.
“It’s a business and not farming” says Mr. Sandhu. “Once you understand this and run it like a business only then you can become successful in the field of agriculture”. We hire and teach a lot of young women and men so that they can further replicate our model. “From Infosys to Agrosys” aptly puts his son Harpunieet, who left a white collar profile in Infosys to devote his full time into this cause. The land owner or the farmers don’t have to put in much effort to setup this project. Such organizations like “Facilitators Inc.” get their soil tested, treat their soil to make it fully fertile, build the polyhouse or nethouse, plant the crop, get 50% to 85% subsidy allocated from the government and also help to market the produce and earn a handsome profit between 6 to 12 lakh per year from just 2 acres.
People don’t know that the government is promoting this in a big way by giving subsidy in everything like building the structure, planting the crop, drip irrigation system, and so many other things. The recent finance budget presented by the Finance Minister is the most farmer friendly budget ever. The Modi government is rolling out more schemes to push innovative agriculture techniques. “We plan to double farmers’ income in five years” Jaitley said. The plan foresees introducing crop insurance schemes to boost farmers incomes, increasing access to markets and funding village councils. Soil Health Card Scheme coverage to 14 crore farm holdings by March 2017 is the target. This will help farmers make judicious use of fertilizer. 2000 model retail outlets of fertilizer companies will be provided with soil and seed testing facilities in the next three years. To take advantage of technology to examine soil and its nutrient content, a Rs368 crore soil health facility will be set up and many other farmer friendly schemes have been rolled out.
With such effort from the government and organizations like Facilitators INC. things are looking up for the farmers. India, the biggest democracy in the world, has to reinvent itself to rely on the oldest profession called “Agriculture” and use innovative techniques like Polyhouses and Nethouses to save it’s dying grace. It’s time for the new generation to take a small step for themselves towards Agrosys and a giant leap for India to restore India’s full glory.
Cheers!
Er. Harpunieet Singh Sandhu
Handheld: +91.9297.000006