Young Student farmer carving his own way of success through sugarcane farming

I’m Kaushal Singh from Sallopur village of Gurdaspur. In my family we are 6 members including me- father, two sister (both are married now), elder brother and her wife (both are abroad now).

Basically, I belong to a family where from past few years no one had stepped in the fields (done farming). We use to give our land on lease to other farmers. We were financially good and as my brother is also in abroad, so my plans were of going abroad and pursue my college studies there. Even my Visa was also ready for Australia, but then one day we found out that my mother has cancer. I dropped my plan of going abroad and I enrolled myself in the course of B.S. Agriculture in Punjab Agriculture University.

Although we were not able to save her (my mother) but then I decided to do something productive by staying in India in my home town only. I enrolled myself in B.Sc. Agriculture program in Punjab Agriculture University.

I thought that we have enough money and 12 acres of land here in Punjab, so why not utilize it properly. In 2015 I started farming sugarcane organically and producing Jaggery and Jaggery Powder from it. In the beginning I had no knowledge of marketing and I started selling jaggery openly, but this caused me a huge loss.

I partnered with my friend Harinder Singh Riar and started farming sugarcane with him. I cultivated sugarcane on 10 acres of land and he did on 15 acres of land. I also consulted Dr. Ramandeep Singh- Agribusiness Expert in PAU. He suggested me to start branding, packaging and marketing of Jaggery and Jaggery Powder on my own. I did the same and got a good response from the shopkeepers, but there were also some shopkeepers who rejected my offer.

I decided my brand name SWEET GOLD before getting it registered but later on I changed the name to CANE FARMS because of the unavailability of the name. Slowly I established good base in the market started getting good response.

Now me and my friend manage everything along with the studies- farming to marketing, we also make plastic boxes, tags, stickers and do the packaging also. Profit is good in this business and after completing my study I will expand my business on larger extent.

In future we are planning to take every organic farmer along with us in our venture to sell the products. So that other farmers who are unaware of our brand, can know about the modern agribusiness trends and take advantage of it.

Those young farmers in the age group of 18-20, who thinks that farming is a losing deal, this message is for them- They need to understand what farming is, because if they also start thinking innovatively like us, they can also work untidily with us.