An ODYSSEY : Raju’s integrated farm: A breakthrough an apocryphal

Farmer’s Name: Dil Bhadur Mongar (aka Raju)

Age: 42

Education: Class V (dropout)

Village: Zomlimthang

Geog: Gelephu

Dzongkhag: Sarpang

Business: Integrated farming

A proud farmer

His love for greenery has always encouraged him to take up vegetable farming at his home. Adjusting from his personal loan, he started a small vegetable garden around his house which has eventually stretched to about 1.5 acre of land now. A father of two daughters has initially started the vegetable farming in 2015 with an objective to attain family vegetable self-sufficiency.

Motivated by the successful vegetable farmers across the globe, Raju is confident enough to achieve national vegetable self sufficiency by few years from now if more people could put in effort as him. He says looking at the growing demand trend for home produced vegetables in the town, he does not have to worry about finding the market for his products.

Maize plants in orderly row

Born to a middle income family, he works in one private company which helps him financially to support his investment in farm inventories. According to him as long as farmers make a smart and selfless investment in initial stage of the business, one can reap a good profit within a season or two for vegetable growers. Although he has no formal training from government and relevant sector, he explores for knowledge on vegetables from social media sites and seeks constant guidance from agriculture sector and other successful farmers.

He grows about 20 varieties of vegetables in a season, he also have about 1500 poultry birds and four cross-breed jersey making him one of the most sought after farmer at Gelephu.

Sl.No.	Vegetable/crop				Quantity/season	Price/unit	Total amount
1	Maize				1000 pieces	10	10,000
2	Sponge gut				100	10	1000
3	Beans				200kg	40	8000
4	Bringer				250kg	30	7500
5	cucumber				750 kg	30	22,500
6	Bottle gut				400 pieces	30	12,000
7	Bitter gut				300 kg	30	9,000
8	Spinach				1000 bundles	10	10,000
9	Lady finger				200kg	50	10,000
10	Pea				30 kg	45	1,350
11	Palak sag				400 bundles	10	4,000
12	Coriander				100 bundles	10	1,000
13	Radish				400kg	30	12,000
14	Garlic				20 kg	200	4000
15	Ginger				1500 kg	20	30,000
16	Cabbage				400kg	25	10,000
17	Cauliflower				400kg	40	16,000
18	Broccoli				500kg	40	20,000
19	Tomato				200kg	30	6000
	Total turnover						1,94,350
Total poultry bird		Laying bird		Price/egg		Monthly income
2600		75 % of total birds = 1950 birds(laying)			6.5	12,675*30 =380,250
Total turnover/month						380,250
Return from jersey
No. of cattle			Milking cattle		Yield/day	Price/L	Monthly income
4 (cross breed)		2			7*2 cow=14L	Nu. 35	143035= 14,700
Total turnover/month							Nu.14,700

The total turnover from the vegetables in a season comes around Nu.1, 94,350, about Nu.380, 250 and Nu.14, 700 from poultry and livestock monthly. The vegetable seedlings are also sold with the demand from other farmers. With recent plantation of chilli, he hopes to distribute the chilli seedling to others interested in taking up chilli plantation to cope up with import ban on chilli. He grows vegetables throughout the seasons which give him a lot more than calculated estimates of return annually. He sells most of the vegetables to the vendors which in turn take to local vegetable market at Gelephu. The business being in its initial stage he still is in investment phase where he spends major share of the return in the farm.

Bountiful bottle gut

The byproducts of the cattle and chicken are used in the field as manure without having to use fertilizers. Even the husks of the maize and the remains of vegetables are without wastage used in the field as manure.

Raju attributes his success to his own interest in farming that has always encouraged him to breakthrough an old apocryphal of poor farmer. One of the success factors he states is that of hard work. Right after his duty of the office, he gets into the field and work till late night justifying his dedication in the work. Idea exchange with the lead farmers and other agriculture experts is also found very important in getting immediate solution to some of the issues with plants and the pests.

Poultry farm

Hiring some labourers with reasonable wages and temporal recruitment of young school going children during vacation has created employment opportunities from his farm. He also supplies vegetables to people nearby in relatively lower price benefiting the local community. The increase in family income has not only enhanced the living standard but also improved the nutritional value of the food. It has created many socio-economic benefits while at the same time gearing towards self-sufficiency goal of the country.

He has a plan to extend the farm and increase the productivity in coming years with improved seeds and mechanization. Mushroom cultivation is also on top list of his plan in near future. However, some of the challenges faced are water scarcity, poor seed qualities and pest infestation.

A most moment for a farmer is the harvest time

Being a lead farmer, he receives distinguished guests and spectators to his farm. The Dzongkhag agriculture sectors also sent farmers on tour to the farm and learn new things on farming strategy through knowledge and experience sharing. Upon close interaction and observation of Mr.Raju, one can comfortably make a statement that “Raju works like a coolie. Raju lives like a Raja”.