Hailing from Batala in Punjab, Jagmohan Singh Nagi had a eager curiosity in agriculture and the meals enterprise from a younger age. His father used to do flour mill restore work and wished his son to work within the meals {industry}.
Kulwant Vitamin, which began with one plant and maize crops in 1989, has grown into an organization with an annual turnover of greater than Rs 7 crore.
Jagmohan (63) is doing contract farming on 300 acres of land and grows crops like corn, mustard and wheat, and greens like carrot, cauliflower, tomato and beetroot.
He works with 300 farmers in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and provides produce to firms like PepsiCo, Kellogg’s, and Domino’s Pizza. He additionally exports his produce to England, New Zealand, Dubai and Hong Kong.
Making a corn empire
“Earlier than partition, my household used to remain in Karachi. My father then moved to Mumbai and at last settled in Punjab. At the moment, despite the demand, there have been only a few individuals doing flour mill restore work. So, my father took it up,” says the agripreneur.
Jagmohan’s father wished him to work within the meals enterprise. However, as there have been no programs in Punjab then, he studied meals cereal milling and engineering on the College of Birmingham in the UK.
After returning to India, he began an agribusiness, Kulwant Vitamin. The beginning was bumpy as he wasn’t capable of get a great maize crop.
“I began a plant however we didn’t have a great maize crop in Punjab then. So I began ordering corn from Himachal Pradesh however the price of transportation was very excessive. To get a great crop, we tied up with Punjab agricultural college via the university-industry hyperlink. The college would give farmers good high quality seeds, and I might purchase the produce from these farmers,” says the 63-year-old.
His first buyer was Kellogg’s.
Desirous to develop the crop himself, Jagmohan began contract farming in 1991 and slowly began rising all of it by himself.
In 1992, he began working with PepsiCo and provided corn for his or her snack Kurkure. He says that he had a requirement for nearly 1000 tons of corn per 30 days. In 1994, he began supplying Domino’s Pizza too. In 2013, he ventured into the canned meals enterprise and began rising different greens too.
Pivoting his enterprise in COVID
Whereas his enterprise was booming, the pandemic introduced a bunch of challenges to this agripreneur.
“Covid actually affected the availability chain. What I observed was that whereas many factories and companies shut down, grocery shops continued to run as they got here underneath important companies. Subsequently, I began specializing in grocery objects like natural wheat flour and corn flour. To scale this up, I’m additionally planning to start out processing mustard oil and rising rice and chia seeds,” says Jagmohan.
He supplies employment to 70 individuals via his firm and free coaching to agriculture college students and farmers. He helps farmers study superior strategies of farming and teaches them promote their produce profitably.
“I’ve been working with Jagmohan for a few years. He has taught me market my produce and switch them into value-added merchandise. He says that as an alternative of milk, it will be extra worthwhile to transform it into ghee or curd. He’s additionally shopping for objects from me for his grocery enterprise,” says Satbir Singh, a farmer.
Jaganmohan says, “To encourage the youth to farm, the federal government should present incentives and promote agriculture-based companies at a neighborhood stage. They need to additionally encourage meals safety and agriculture-based applied sciences.”
He additionally urges farmers to observe pointers correctly in order that they get the specified outcomes and don’t face losses.
“Farmers ought to select crops that develop nicely of their space, as an alternative of following tendencies. This may assist them reap income,” he says.
Edited by Pranta Bhat
