Name:Altaf Shaikh

Place:Goa

Protected cultivation for growing flowers and vegetables Golden Leaf Agrotech India Pvt. Ltd. is a private limited company established to grow orchids and tropical flowers on commercial scale. The company is promoted by Altaf Shaikh and the farm is located at Valpoi, Sattari Goa.

The company has taken on long lease 7 acres of land which is under cultivation as under:-

1) 4 acres orchid 2) 2 acres Tropical flowers

Having studied the project for almost 3 years and visiting several states and abroad Altaf Shaikh decided to put up the orchid project in Goa considering its suitability on climate and also the immense opportunities and benefits in terms of Subsidy extended by the State government of Goa as well Central govt. scheme. The Journey was a hard one in the beginning as lots of things needed planning and simultaneous execution, but with well planning, execution and the generous assistance given by the department the project took off in 2013.

The work on construction started almost immediately after the sanction of Loan and various govt. approvals. Since the technology was in house and their own, almost 90% of the construction material that has gone into the building of the shade net house/ polyhouse, the benching system etc was designed, built/ constructed on site by the company itself. The construction of shade net house/ polyhouse was the most difficult process as efficient manpower was not readily available and since a lot of technical requirements were needed in construction of the polyhouse at various stages, construction of the shade net house and the set up took more than 9 months, despite the best efforts by the promoters. During construction stage the promoters were well in touch with the market, keeping themselves abreast of the latest technology and marketing arrangements.

The planting material which is the main source of revenue earning for the project was sourced through Thailand, the world capital of Orchids, Altaf shaikh and his team personally visited Thailand and handpicked the varieties that had good commercial market, though a little expensive, these plants, than those available in India through Tissue culture, the results were almost instant. The plants started commercial production almost after 6 months of nurturing and gestation. Today the flowers that are produced out of the Golden Leaf farm are well known not only in Goa but across the markets of Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi.

According to him maintenance of orchids is not a big deal as the plants are very hardy by nature, however having said that, he also quickly adds that timely maintenance of the plants is equally important and necessary. Scheduled spray of insecticides/ fungicides have to be maintained along with weekly fertigation of the plants. If scheduled maintenance is not followed properly then the plants are at risk to be exposed to various diseases and pest attack which in turn will delay the flowering process thereby affecting the revenue of the farmer.

Immediately after project completion Altaf Shaikh started marketing set up. According to him the floriculture industry is a very price sensitive market and thus lot of initial hard work was needed, customers were indentified according to the market presence, size, their own customer base, their flower requirement, frequency etc and accordingly each customer was approached.

Today Altaf Shaikh says he comfortably has a 70% of the orchid market share in Goa and currently he is on a consolidation phase to retain and add to the base of his existing share. Explaining that orchid cultivation is definitely a profitable venture if done rightly coupled with the subsidy that is being provided by the Government, he is currently encouraging many farmers to take up orchid and other flower cultivation. According to him a farmer who cultivates orchids in 1 acre can make a net profit anywhere between Rs. 1.5 lakhs to Rs. 2.5 lakhs per month depending on how the farmer markets his produce.

He says he owes much of his success to the people of Sattari, the govt. officials from agriculture department, the govt. scheme and the manpower that works on a continuous basis on the farm.

Name:Shri.Kamlakant M.Tendulkar

Place:Shiroda,Ponda-Goa

Shri. Kamlakant Tendulkar is 70 years old and is resident of Torla Village of Shiroda in Ponda Taluka. He has studied upto std. VII th and he is in Agriculture profession as full time farmer from his childhood and the entire family is dependent on agriculture.

He cultivates coconut, arecanut ,black pepper, nutmeg, besides cashews and mango. He has created systematic infrastructure for cultivation with terraces, well, pump sets, drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation etc. He has adopted modern methods of cultivation and maintains required agricultural machinery such as power tiller, weed cutter, arecanut peeling machine etc. He generates vermi compost at his farm. He has maintained a small dairy to support his farming activities and also constructed a biogas to support his family kitchen.

The entire farm has been systematically integrated to generate high returns to make a good living with agriculture. His efforts and approach for agriculture is worth emulating by other. He is recipients of Taluka level Best Farmer awards of 2009-10 and is also rewarded with State Lifetime Agriculture Award that is Krishi Ratna Award for the year 2012-13.

The success of farmer is mainly in controlling wilt in pepper. Farmer control it by use of bio-agents like trichoderma, on regular basis along with timely plant protection measure. The plantation of pepper which was previously devastated was revived and presently he harvests up to one tonne of pepper per year. He has set up pepper processing unit to obtain white pepper which fetches additional income due to value addition.

The total income of farmer from his crops of Rs. 1.93 lakhs gradually increase to Rs. 6.94 lakhs in 2011-12, with a net saving of Rs 3.60 lakhs

Name:Shri.Pritam R.Patil

Place:Dabal,Dharbandora-Goa

Despite having a high paying job as a engineer, Mr.Pritam R.Patil decided to become a entrepreneur and turned towards growing high value flowers in Hi-Tech green houses.

He stared initially with a small unit of orchids and anthurium in 500 sqmts area in 2011 and today is the biggest cultivator of flowers in Goa @5000 sqmts in Hi-Tech green houses. He travelled and met many growers of flowers and learnt the nuances of hi-tech farming.

He is the first one to grow Crysanthemeum in Goa which requires Day-Light control. He has innovated in making polyhouse structures suitable for High temperature and high humidity conditions prevalent in Goa by increasing the area of ventilation in the structure. His greenhouses have semi controlled irrigation and fertigation systems. Despite his office job he manages his farm in the most efficient way.

Brief History

In search of doing something different from the present traditional agricultural activities, happened to visit some gerbera farms in western Maharashtra and dendrobium orchid farms in Aurangabad and Kerala. Getting inspiration from these farms started an orchid farm in 100sq.mts in 2004 under the subsidy granted by Department of Agriculture. But due to lack of technology along with marketing problem (due to lower marketable volume of flowers) discontinued the above activity.

Then again in 2011 , with the help of NGO and Department Of Agriculture, Goa, started cultivation of Gerbera in a green house in an area of 1040 sq. mts. Along with orchids in 150 sq.mts.

In the year 2013 he operationalised an additional unit of 1344 sqmts of Gerbera and 500 Sqmts of Crysanthemeum. Cultivation of chrysanthemum was a first in Goa and proved to be a major success and the flowers were in huge demand with the florist and were sold as hot cakes. This success with chrysanthemum prompted him to go for additional 1000 sqmts.

Started selling flowers since December 2011, presently selling around 1500 gerbera flowers daily along with 8000 sticks of orchids per annum.

The highlight of this farmer is that he is a trained mechanical engineer who has a regular job but still finds time to become a floriculture entrepreneur successfully. He also is serving as a inspiration for other youth to enter this field and readily shares his knowledge and helps them in starting their own venture.

Name:Shri. Cristovam Souza

Place:Macazana,Salcete-Goa

Shri Cristovam Souza from the village of Macazana constructed a pond in his land and reared local fish traditionally.

KVK South Goa implemented the Frontline Demonstration on Composite Integrated Fish Poultry farming in his pond. He was supplied with the Giriraja birds and Etroplus seeds as critical inputs . He was asked to feed the poultry and the excess feed was washed in the pond. With this, his cost of fertilization of the ponds was reduced drastically as he used the poultry droppings to fertilise the ponds. And he got additional income by selling of eggs and poultry meat. Later he was guided to introduce vegetables and horticultural crops on the bund of the pond.

With this too, he started getting additional income through the sale of vegetables and fruits. He has modified the bunds for integrated farming system.