This farmer grew his agri-business ‘organically’

Rajkot: At a time when the country is still debating on how to double farmers income by 2022, this Junagadh farmer has made a killing.
By supplying organic farm produce to nearly 5,000 customers across the country and eleven outside India simply through couriers, Parshottam Sidpara’s yearly turnover has reached Rs 2 crore. And that too without any marketing or online presence.
Sidpara, who owns a farm in Jamka Gir village of Junagadh’s Mendarda taluka is into cow-based organic farming for the last 17 years.
“I have customers in metros like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad as well as those in America, UK, Norway, Dubai, Ethiopia, Germany among others,” said Sidpara, adding that his business has grown through word-of-mouth.
“I invite my customers with the family to visit my farm once in a year. I provide them accommodation to show them how I am working here,” said Sidpara, who cultivates everything from grains to fruits and vegetables at his farm.
“I share the details of harvesting crop on WhatsApp and customers place their orders accordingly,” he said, whose engineer sons and graduate daughters-in-law too have joined organic farming as a profession.
From pulses, grains, fruits, this farmer also started value addition with drumstick and its powder, ‘amra pak’ from mango, garlic ‘chatni’, ‘chawanprash’ made out of medicinal plants.
“I had first brought cow ghee from Sidpara in 2008 after I visited his farm for the first time. Later, I started buying organic wheat, spices and pulses in big quantities for my family and friends,” said Mumbai-based businessman Harshad Mehta, whose Ahmedabad-based daughter and son-in-law, both doctors, have also started placing their orders to Sidpara.
“It is not easy like an e-commerce website where you order and get delivery. There are waiting periods and you have to place orders accordingly,” said Bhavina Modi, a Jamnagar-based tax consultant, who even ordered sweets when her son turned a chartered accountant. Sidpara also provides training to other farmers free of cost.
He has prepared a liquid using cow urine, cow dung, buttermilk and post-harvest waste of the farm. He claims this liquid is useful to keep land fertile.