Value-added honey products make Yamunanagar farmer leading agripreneur

Deepender Deswal

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Hisar, march 3

At a time when farmers are struggling to get remunerative returns from farming, innovative ideas to venture into the dual role of farmer and entrepreneur can bring rich dividends.

The Agri Business Incubation Centre (ABIC), set up in Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (HAU), Hisar, to promote agribusiness helped a marginal farmer to script a success story during the Covid crisis.

Subhash Kamboj, a farmer of Hafizpur village in Yamunanagar, emerged as one of the leading agri-business entrepreneurs when Covid had hit trade and industry activities hard. His honey production business witnessed an almost five-time growth during the pandemic.

Kamboj, who visited the Krishi Mela organised at HAU recently, said his annual turnover had risen from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore during the Covid crisis, which was a reflection of the rising demand of honey in the market.

Dr Vikram Sindhu, official at the ABIC, said the centre had sanctioned a grant of Rs 20 lakh to Kamboj after he completed the criteria for the project meant to promote value-added products of honey, especially vinegar.

“Now, Kamboj is one of the main producers of vinegar, gulkand and murabba as value-added products,” he said.

Recalling his journey of transformation from a conventional farmer to an agri-entrepreneur, Kamboj said: “I began beekeeping and honey production in 1996 by setting up six boxes of bee keeping by borrowing Rs 5,500 from a person. Now, I have about 2,000 boxes and have tied up with 160 bee keepers across the country. I offer 26 varieties of honey, which are prepared from different varieties of flowers,” he said.

Kamboj said the health benefits of honey had created a huge market for it, especially during the pandemic. “I have the biggest market in the southern states as I get around 70 per cent of my orders from the health industries of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, etc.,” he said, adding that he had also diversified his occupation, with financial and technical back-up from the ABIC. Kamboj has a processing unit which has 16 employees in his native village.

He said he produces 40-50 tonnes of honey in his own farms. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also made references to his success story twice in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme. “I was specially invited by the PM on the 100th Mann Ki Baat. I urge farmers to diversify their farming activities and try value-addition for remunerative returns,” he said.