MBA woman farmer turns barren land into organic vegetable farm; clocks Rs25 lakh revenues

When Purva Jindal completed her MBA from Mumbai’s SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) in 2017, little did she know she would be a successful organic farmer one day. Her father owned a textile business in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, and Purva pursued her MBA in Family Business to take it forward.

“I was involved in the textile business and learned everything about it. But after COVID hit in 2020, all businesses were down including textiles. We thought of diversification at that time,” she says.

“Given that people around us were falling ill due to low immunity and the chemical-laden food they had been consuming for years, we thought of starting something that could bring back good health. Organic farming seemed like the best idea,” says the 29-year-old agripreneur.

In 2021, she began visiting organic farmers in Rajasthan and found that most of them were growing chemical-free food either for food processing or for export. 

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“Very few farmers were catering to the local market. So I decided to follow the farm-to-fork model to provide healthy fresh produce directly from the farm to people,” she says.

Barren land to bountiful harvests

Purva’s family had purchased a 10-acre parcel of agricultural land in Hamirgarh, about 22 km from Bhilwara, in 2014-15. “It was a barren land full of stones and rocks and nobody ever grew anything there. There were only cacti and some wild plants,” Purva says.

So her first task was cut out – make that barren land cultivable using organic farming practices. She removed the plants, stones and rocks using a tractor and backhoe loaders. “We divided the land into three parts -- one was kept for fixed development including our office, cow shed, and irrigation system and two-thirds was to be used for farming. We focused on one-third of the land first as it was less rocky and the other was developed in the second phase as it was full of stones and rocks and lacked topsoil.”

Purva began by adding cow dung to the three acres of land to improve fertility. “We added more than 50 trolleys (each trolley has 2,000 kg) on three acres and left the land for aeration,” the woman says.

Purva also used organic termite treatment since the soil had never been used for farming. “We prepared bacteria cultures in-house like jeevamrit, neemastra etc. We also used castor oil for pest management,” she says adding that they also have six vermicompost beds.

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The young farmer prepared her own nursery of seasonal vegetables from seeds instead of buying saplings. “We started seed plantation in October 2021 and the saplings were ready for transplantation in a month. They included winter vegetables like broccoli, carrot, radish, cauliflower, cabbage,” she says. 

At that time, Purva says, she was just experimenting with veggies. “The first harvest was ready by December-end and we got very good response from the land and were encouraged to cover the whole area,” she says.

Purva installed drip irrigation as it takes water and liquid organic fertilisers directly to the roots of the plants and cuts water wastage. “I also used mulching to reduce the growth of weeds and reduce water evaporation. It improves soil health,” she adds.

Encouraged by the results, she decided to prepare the other three acres of farm as well. Since the land was rocky, she purchased soil to create the top layer for the plantation. 

“We need at least six inches of soil to grow vegetables. So we added soil on top of the rocky layer to make the land cultivable,” Purva says.

Since then, there has been no looking back. “We haven’t stopped despite challenges like excessive rains or insect attacks. We control pests through sticky traps and plant crops like marigolds with tomatoes. Any insects that attack the crop feed on marigolds and don’t attack the tomatoes,” she says. 

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She has recently installed net houses over two acres for which the work was completed this month. “That will improve yield further,” rural entrepreneur says.

Net houses regulate light and protect crops from extreme weather like rain, and wind, increasing yields by two to three times. They reduce the need for chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and water and also the chances of pest attacks. 

Expansion through farm-to-fork model

Purva sells organic produce directly to customers through her brand Saakhi Organic, with a tagline of ‘Live Poison-free Life’. “Our harvests are good and we cater to local clients in and around Bhilwara. Our peas are so sweet that there is always advanced booking for our products,” she says.

In winter, she cultivates cabbage, broccoli, beetroot, radish, carrot, tomatoes, peas and other vegetables. “From the second year, we also started growing strawberries and they are sweet and large-sized,” she says.

In summer, the farm produces watermelon, tomato, ladyfingers and other vegetables. “Sowing and harvesting continues on the farm throughout the year. We harvest produce almost every second day (almost 200 days in a year) and deliver to customers’ homes thrice a week,” she says.

The annual turnover from the vegetables is Rs 25 lakh right now and will go up as more land is brought under cultivation. 

On some parts of the land, she also grows organic manure for cows. “We have eight Gir cows. While cow dung and urine are used to make farming inputs, we make ghee from milk and sell it at Rs1800 per kg.”

About six months back, Purva started sourcing groceries from certified organic farmers for sale to her customers. The products include organic wheat flour, pulses, spices and other items. “Right now, we are procuring and selling locally. Our sales are around Rs1 lakh monthly. We plan to expand to other cities soon,” she says.

(Rashmi Pratap is a Mumbai-based journalist specialising in business, financial, and socio-economic reporting)

Also Read: MBA woman farmer harvests 55,000 kg tomatoes per acre; turns around her family farm

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