Necessity is the mother of invention. The saying has been brought to the ground as reality by a young farmer Rakesh of Rajasthan.
By encouraging medicinal farming in Rajasthan, Rakesh is today teaching farmers a new way of farming. This farming strengthens the economic condition of poor farmers and shows them the way to big earnings.
Farmer Rakesh has joined hands with many farmers of the state. He has also started farming with them providing them all the required information about medicinal farming. Along with the farmers, he also provides herbs and medicines of Ayurvedic importance to big Aayurvedik Medicine Companies, such as Himalayan Drugs, Ambrosia Foods, Gurukul Pharmacy, Patanjali etc.
Rakesh has formed his own herbal company. Through this company, he provides high quality seeds to the farmers. Rakesh also gets good prices for the farmers’ produce. Gradually, he has connected most of the farmers of Rajasthan and thus the farmers of the entire state with the work of medicinal farming.
Born in an average farmer family of the village, Rakesh had an inborn love for nature since childhood. He was always busy in planting trees and acquiring information related to plantation from the beginning. Twenty years ago, he read an advertisement of ‘Rajasthan Medicinal Plant Board’ in a newspaper which sought proposals from farmers for medicinal farming.
The advertisement changed life
This advertisement changed Rakesh’s life. After reading the advertisement, Rakesh reached Jaipur at the address given in it and in the office of the RSMPB in the Pant Krishi Bhawan there, he received all the information about this including when are medicinal and aromatic plants cultivated, when are these crops sown and at what time are they harvested.
Started farming with the info
After this, Rakesh did not look back. With the help of the information about the crops in the folder he had brought to the village, he decided to do medicinal farming. Rakesh started medicinal farming from his home in 2005 after a few months. Not only this, he also taught his father, uncle, paternal uncle and relatives to grow medicinal crops. After this, he brought aloe vera plants from an institute in Jamnagar and distributed among the farmers. When the local farmers became more interested, he invited them in his farming work.
Took time to gather information
In the beginning, the information was not complete, so the right crops could not be selected. This deficiency connected Rakesh with farmers doing medicinal farming in other states. Rakesh kept on improving his farming by taking information bit by bit from everyone.
After this, while getting the right information, Rakesh selected some crops for hot climate and low water environment and not only did he get financial benefits from their cultivation, but he also got an opportunity to connect with the market of medicinal farming.
Grew special crops
After growing crops like liquorice, stevia, white musli, Rakesh now grew aloe vera, sunflower, basil, amla, belpatra, gokhru and ashwagandha. The success of this crop filled him with so much enthusiasm that Rakesh started making the farmers of his village and nearby villages aware about medicinal farming. He also started taking them to workshops and training programs organized by the government.
Started collective farming
After this, Rakesh started farming by forming groups. Got the farmers to sow aloe vera. Initially, there were few buyers of medicinal crops, but later after continuous efforts, information about many companies was received which used to buy medicinal crops like aloevera.
Created a history
After some time, Rakesh got the ‘Marwar Medicinal Plant Self Help Group’ registered. What happened after that has become history today. Today more than 300 farmers from Bikaner, Jodhpur, Churu, Jaisalmer, Sikar, etc. are associated with it. On counting, it was found that young farmer Rakesh has inspired farmers of 11 districts of the state to do medicinal farming by giving them technical education. And it is also true that the farmers who used to earn ten to twelve thousand rupees earlier, are now earning four to five lakh rupees annually from the cultivation of herbs.
