Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 12

He is famous far and wide. In the last eight years, Bhupinder Singh Gill (43), a farmer from Sohina village, has set up a nursery on 5 acre land and has now become so famous that he supplies it to various districts of Punjab and even neighbouring states.

After working with vegetable seed firms for 15 years, he has now branded himself as Baba Buddha Nursery. His family owns 8 acre land but used to cultivate traditional wheat and paddy crops only.

“In 2014, I decided to start my own nursery. I started on 1 kanal, as the business involves high risk. Now, we are growing all kinds of vegetable nurseries but are a major producer of cauliflower, onions, tomatoes and chilly. The area under the nursery is increasing day by day. Now, we are cultivating on more than five acre land and hopefully it will be increased in the next few years,” Gill said.

Bhupinder kept in touch with experts from the Agriculture Department and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Naag Kalan, but his personal experience with vegetable seed firms proved beneficiary and came in handy.

“The business involves high risk. Change in weather or unpredictable rain, heat or cold can ruin investment worth lakhs. I have learnt from my experience. We got a major financial setback while doing experiments with seeds and soil. But still, it is more beneficial than traditional crops and my provisions job. More famers should join subsidiary occupations to improve their income,” he said.

Gill visits several states of India and gathers first-hand experiences of farmers to grow a good nursery and use it in his fields.