Native seeds exporter and Odisha’s ‘Nagpur’ oranges

Dear Reader,

My mother grew up in Lucknow, surrounded by fields and a mango orchard. Her fondest memories are of summer afternoons spent with her cousins, washing fresh mangoes in a narrow stream that ran through the grove. They sat under the shade of trees that their grandfather had planted.

That, perhaps, is how life works. The day you plant a seed is not the day you eat its fruit. The rewards of patience and care often arrive years later.

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For farmer Amarjeet Sharma, it took his grandson, Ravi, to turn his decades-old passion for organic, native seeds into a viable business. Amarjeet began organic farming in Punjab’s Chaina village in 2005 when the state was (and is) the highest user of chemical fertilisers in the country.

He was ahead of his time. Amarjeet told me he would collect desi seeds from farmers and exhibitions and cultivate them on his farm. With limited knowledge of organic practices at the time, the farm just about broke even, and the family struggled financially.

This was till Ravi completed his schooling and joined his grandfather in 2018. He turned the family’s free native seed bank into a startup, Senior Seeds, which now sells them in India and abroad. Farmers in Canada, the US, New Zealand, Australia and other countries run farms using native Indian seeds saved and propagated by the grandfather-grandson duo. I hope you will enjoy reading this piece as much as I loved writing it.

My colleague Niroj wrote about the little-known ‘Nagpur’ tucked away in Odisha. It is the Deoghar district, where orange farming is emerging as a high-return alternative to paddy. Cultivating orange is a low-cost proposition, combined with higher market prices than paddy.

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To top it, the government is providing support through saplings and subsidies. As a result, hundreds of farmers are turning unused uplands into profitable orchards. These stories show how government support and innovative thinking can make farming financially rewarding.

My colleague Riya spoke to Vibhor and Sarika Chauhan from Haridwar, Uttarakhand, last week. After working for eight years in the pharma sector, the couple shifted to mushroom farming in 2019. The decision was based on the results of a pilot project in a room of their house, where they made a profit by selling button mushrooms in the local mandi.

Today, their climate-controlled unit produces up to 150 kg of button mushrooms daily, generating average revenues of Rs 12,000. Their case shows that you don’t always succeed in the field you studied. With the right mindset, entrepreneurship can thrive even in an entirely unrelated domain.

Our weekend feature is on Asia’s largest open-air handloom market – Balijori Haat. Every Wednesday before sunrise, hundreds of weavers and traders from Bargarh’s villages gather at Balijori Haat, where handwoven Sambalpuri textiles change hands between weavers and buyers. The weekly market not only keeps Odisha’s ancient craft alive, but it also provides a livelihood to weavers without any commission to middlemen.

Happy Reading!

Warmly,

Rashmi

Grandfather-grandson duo saves 250 native seeds; farmers in US, Canada also grow them

How orange farming is boosting grower incomes in Odisha’s ‘Nagpur’

Haridwar couple quits pharma sector for mushroom farming, earns Rs 12,000 daily

Balijori Haat: Asia’s largest open-air handloom market where tradition meets trade