Raghuveer Singh is a Rajasthani farmer and he is earning lakhs by growing pomegranates in Desert storms. He grows 9000 Pomegranate crops.
Jaisalmer in Rajasthan is well known for its deserted area. Some part of this area belongs to the Sahara Desert and the climate is extremely hot. Cultivation of pomegranate crops is a crucial task here and getting harvest from the well-known crops is also very challenging because of the lowest precipitation annually.
Thinking out of the box
You will not believe the fact that Raghuveer is earning well through farming of pomegranate crops in the most deserted area in India. He has grown more than nine thousand pomegranates in the land where the water crisis is very common and it is the biggest challenge for non-conventional crop cultivation. Now you must be wondering that how he has made this task successful. Well, things are very simple and advance at the same time.
Challenges from nature
He states the fact that when he told about the idea of growing pomegranate crops to other people did not encourage him from going out of line and growing non-conventional crops there. This is so because the annual rate of precipitation is very low. They work with the groundwater only which is also very low and the quality of the water is not good.
Apart from this, many issues are there. Jaisalmer falls in the Western Rajasthan part of India. This receives very low rainfall and experiences extreme weather conditions. The temperature in the hot summers can be around fifty degrees Celsius. In this scorching heat, it is very hard to do any sort of agricultural activity.
Conventional crops – low profit
Farmers of this area only grow crops, which are perfect for the hot weather conditions and do not require much water. But they could earn very less profit because of these low valuable crops like cumin, mustard, and groundnut. But Raghuveer came with the idea of growing of Pomegranate crops and earning huge profit with it.
Taking inspiration
Raghuveer is a 33-year-old farmer and he took the inspiration from the neighborhood city Barmer. The weather conditions are also adverse there but still, he saw that some people are growing the pomegranate there successfully without any complication. He also decided to grow the same in his land using mulching and various other irrigation techniques.
Diverse crops to earn more
After successfully planting the pomegranate he also took the initiative to plant cotton. He faced a great problem in the starting because nobody in a radius of a hundred km was cultivating pomegranate. He decided to take the saplings from Maharastra. He states that people also give them paid services and help them to maintain everything in the right manner for growing pomegranate crops.
Natural protection methods
To protect the crops from the storm he grew some trees that are famous in the area for bearing the fast sand storms. They also helped him to protect the crops from being damaged. He also planted the NEEM and thorny shrubs, which can grow easily there and work as a shield for his pomegranate crops. He used natural fencing to protect the crops.
Making a huge profit
It took nearly four years to take his first harvest pomegranate crops from the land. He made nearly 11 lacks of business with the help of 4000 pomegranates and out of which he was able to earn nearly 7.5 lakhs as his first profit. Now he has nearly 9300 plants of pomegranate and they are getting ready for the next harvesting. He hopes to make a big profit with the help of these plants. He is also earning nearly seven lakhs of profit from cotton cultivation.
Bumper earnings
Now he says that people were not expecting this much success from my pomegranate crops cultivation. He is making a big profit now from the land where people claim that nothing could grow. Local people are surprised by his bumper earnings from agriculture.
