Kailash Chaudhary ‘marketing guru’ of Amla cultivation
Practices Amla cultivation for the development of his village
Kailash Choudhary has been doing farming since last 6 decades. Amla cultivation has given him recognition in the country and the world. Kailash Choudhary says that there is no greater work than agriculture. It has immense possibilities.
It is said that one person’s effort is enough to change the society. With such noble thinking, Kailash Chaudhary, a resident of Kotputli district of Rajasthan, worked in his area. Kailash Choudhary has been doing farming for last 60 years. He has very well seen the modernization in agriculture with time.
Earlier camels and bullocks were used for farming, now tractors and many machines have taken their place. Pankaj Shukla, correspondent of Kisan of India, reached Kailash Chaudhary directly in his village. Kailash Chaudhary told us about many aspects related to farming. Further in this article you will know how Kailash Chaudhary has achieved success today by starting from zero. His passion and journey related to agriculture continues with the same warmth even today.
Work done for the development of your village
Kailash Chaudhary was interested in doing something different in agriculture from the very beginning. In the year 1977, Kailash Chaudhary was the village head of his village Kiratpura. During that time a committee was formed in the village, of which he became the president. This was the period when Kailash Chaudhary took a decision along with the committee members for the progress of the farmers of his area. He got the whole village consolidated with the consent of all the villagers.
What is consolidation?
To tell you in easy language, suppose if a farmer has small farms in different places, then on the basis of the size of his different fields, giving him that much land at any one place is called consolidation. The process of consolidating the scattered fields of the farmer in this way is called consolidation.
The movement came in agriculture sector in village
By 1980, electricity connections were to be made available in everyone’s fields. 25 electricity connections were installed in a day itself. Tube wells were also installed. In that decade there was a movement in the agricultural sector in his village. Yield increased by 5 times.
The ill effects of chemical farming
Krishi Vigyan Kendra opened in Tehsil in 1993-94. Kailash Chaudhary used to go there. He used to take advice from scientists. At that time the discussion of organic farming had started in foreign countries. The ill effects of chemical farming were beginning to appear. In a special conversation with Kisan of India, Kailash Chaudhary told that at that time the production of wheat in Canada had fallen. The cultivable land there was becoming hard. Due to this the need for water became more there.
Kailash Choudhary says that green revolution was being emphasized for higher yields in India too, but negative consequences of chemical-rich farming were also beginning to emerge. For how to deal with this crisis, he contacted the scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra. Scientists told him that this problem can be solved by using agricultural waste.
Krishi Vigyan Kendra gave full cooperation
Scientists advised Kailash Choudhary that the waste left after harvesting can be used to make compost. Use that compost in the field. Reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, increase the use of waste compost. With this the crop will start getting better. Water will also be less and the land will also be soft. The water absorption capacity of the land will increase. Kailash Chaudhary started working on this advice of scientists from 1994. Since then till now he is doing organic farming.
Kailash Chaudhary says that he learned all the tricks of organic farming from Krishi Vigyan Kendra itself. From making organic manure and medicine to making compost. He learned how to make insecticide from Neem and Dhatura. Krishi Vigyan Kendra also gave training about how cow urine and cow dung of indigenous cows are used in organic farming.
Suffered loss in the cultivation of gooseberry
Kailash Chaudhary says that when Krishi Vigyan Kendra promoted horticulture in this entire area, in 1998 he was also given 40 gooseberry trees. 40 trees were distributed to each farmer of the area. In this way, Kailash Chaudhary and his brother got 80 gooseberry trees. They planted these trees in the farm and started rearing them. At that time he and his brother did not have any information related to cultivation of gooseberry. Krishi Vigyan Kendra gave full cooperation.
After three years of hard work, the tree started bearing fruit. By 2002, when production started increasing, his younger brother reached the market with the produce of gooseberry. There was no buyer. He got the gooseberry bag kept in the house of an agent. Due to unavailability of buyer, the gooseberries rotten within three to four days.
In search of gooseberry market they reached Jaipur
Saddened by the damage caused to the crop, Kailash Chaudhary reached Krishi Vigyan Kendra. He told the scientists that why did you ask for the cultivation of such a crop, in which not a single rupee comes in your pocket. At Krishi Vigyan Kendra, he met a scientist living in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh. The scientist told that the cultivation of gooseberry is good for the farmers in many ways. Many products can be made from this.
The scientist advised him to go to Gonde village located on Sultanpur road in Pratapgarh. Kailash Choudhary went ot the village where he saw that women are preparing many gooseberry products. She used to prepare these products by hand and then sell them with the help of street vendors.
Gooseberry product
Kailash Chaudhary was also inspired by this work. He brought many samples of gooseberry product from Pratapgarh. He fed the family members. Everyone liked it. After this, from 2002, he started making many products from amla. To sell them, a stall was set up in Kotputli itself. Kailash Choudhary told that during that time Amla products did not get a big market in Kotputli. Then he reached Pant Krishi Bhavan in Jaipur in 2003.
There he met great officers who told them about their products. He also mentioned the problem of not having a market. First of all the officers congratulated Kailash Chaudhary. He encouraged them. After this the officers asked them to set up a stall in the building itself. Without spending any money, making any license, they started selling their products. The products started selling very quickly. They started carrying products in vans and selling them till lunch. This boosted the morale of Kailash Chaudhary.
He became Marketing Guru
Referring to 1990, Kailash Choudhary says that at that time his farm used to have 600 to 700 quintals of grains. At that time he mainly cultivated wheat. The grain did not get the right market. Government procurement in the mandi used to take several days. The price was Rs 400 to Rs 450 per quintal. One day he read in a newspaper that a farmer from Jaipur was selling his grains through a brand at the rate of Rs 600 to Rs 700 per quintal.
They thought why should we not sow the same wheat, which is being sold so expensively. They thought maybe the seeds of this wheat would be different. He went to Jaipur at that address to get the seeds. When he reached there, he saw that wheat is the same, only cleaning, grading, packing and branding is being done. The farmer used to sell this wheat in nearby colonies.
After this Kailash Choudhary came back to the village and took his crop to Jaipur with Choudhary brand. He worked first to win trust of the customers with the promise of no compromise on quality. In a bag of 40 kg, 100 to 150 grams of produce was added more. Kailash Choudhary says that his crop was sold hand in hand and in cash. He used to go to sell his crops in his traditional dress dhoti-kurta. Due to this his crop was sold earlier. By doing this, Kailash Chaudhary started to understand the tricks of marketing completely. His same experience was used in marketing gooseberry products as well.
Awarded with many national and international awards
Kailash Chaudhary has also been honoured with many big awards. He has been awarded with more than 100 awards at national and international level so far. Kailash Choudhary while advising the farmers says that there is no greater work than farming. It has immense possibilities. There are thousands of options in farming. Horticulture, vegetable farming, nursery, animal husbandry, dairy products, adopting any field and work hard in it, then after being successful, you can choose any other farming option. This will open many income opportunities.
Contact us: If farmers want to share information or experiences related to farming with us, then they can do this by calling us on the phone number 9599273766 or by writing an email to kisanofindia.mail@gmail.com or by sending your recording. Through Kisan of India, we will convey your message to the people, because we believe that if the farmers are advanced then the country is happy.