Engineer Farmers and Honey

Dear Reader,

Children are keen observers and learn quickly from their environment, consciously or subconsciously. When they grow up seeing the struggles of their parents, they often want to find a solution – at the earliest.

One of them is Kashmir’s Saniya Zehra, who turned around her father’s beekeeping business at 19! She told my colleague Sameer that she had seen her father being paid a pittance by middlemen who purchased his organic honey and sold it at four times the rate. They also adulterated it before sale.

But her father could not find a direct market. So when Saniya was grown enough to keep bees, she started with 35 honeybee colonies and soon increased the number to 650 by multiplying them. She then started selling the honey directly from her farm to customers and soon, the word spread.

The teen now earns Rs2 lakh per month by selling honey and has recently expanded to beeswax-based personal care products. She is targeting to clock Rs4 lakh per month next year. Kudos!

My colleague Riya’s story is somewhat similar. She spoke to Anshul Mishra, an engineer from Chilauha village in Uttar Pradesh. A major part of Anshul’s family land was barren and lying unutilized. While pursuing engineering in computer science, he began researching crops that could grow in barren land. 

The search led him to dragon fruit farming and today, he earns Rs22 lakh annually from just 1 acre of that barren land. His success strategy has been detailed in the story. 

Last week, I spoke to Lohith Reddy, also an engineer, who learned about floriculture at his cousin’s farm. Not the one to enjoy a 9-to5 job, he started growing flowers on half an acre after completing his engineering in computer science. He now grows chrysanthemum flowers over 2.5 acres in Bengaluru, sells them across India and earns Rs7 lakh monthly. Lohith is also helping other farmers market their products.

Our Sunday story is about Karnataka’s Gudibande Fort, built 400 years ago by Vijayanagara Empire's Byre Gowda, who earned the nickname of ‘Robin Hood’. The fort has hidden escape routes spread over seven levels, and an advanced rainwater harvesting system intact even today.

In the Money section, my colleague Karan has listed the top ten fixed deposit investment options. So if you want to lock in your savings at higher interest rates before rate cuts start next year, then do read this one.

Happy Reading!

Warmly,
Rashmi