National Vegetable Initiative for Urban Cluster (NVIUC), Jaipur, RajasthanIndian Society of Agri-business Professionals (ISAP)

Farmers’ Exposure visit to Sunshine Farms (Sikandrabad, Bulandsahar, Uttar Pradesh)05 May, 2012

Indian Society of Agri-business Professionals (ISAP), New Delhi is working as Resource Institution under NVIUC, Jaipur in six blocks of Jaipur District. As the formation of Farmers’ group is nearing to completion, the process of formation of Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) has been initiated in Boraj block of Jaipur, where required FGs have already been formed.

In this regard, process of business plan has been initiated and consultation process amongst FGs has been started. For better clarity of farmers about vegetable business, an exposure visit of 15 Farmers’ Leader from the block was organised to visit Sunshine Farm, a farmers run enterprise dealing in production and marketing of European carrot (Nantis Carrot).

Sunshine Farm:

Sunshine Farm has been developed and run by Col. S. C. Deswal and Mr. Yadav. The farm had started its operation around 11 years ago on 4 acre of leased land near Sikandrabad town of Bulandsahar district in Uttar Pradesh. Objective of starting this farm was to develop a state of the art vegetable production farm. Over period of time, promoters of farm decided to produce a single crop, master in all aspects of this particular crop production and take the farm to a level where they can better bargain in the market based on large volumes. In this manner, European carrot / yellow carrot was finalised.

Slowly, Sunshine increased its area of production through leased land only and now the company has approximately 1200 - 1500 acre of area under carrot production. Company produces around 20,000 – 25,000 MT of carrot annually, which make it single largest producer of yellow carrot in the country.

Carrot price remains Rs. 2 – 5 per Kg during the season. To get better margins, Sunshine decided to take advantage of arbitrage by storing carrot and selling it during off-season. A cold store of 5000 MT was commissioned for storage, which is first carrot specific cold store in the country. Now company also store carrot in rented cold storages. Sunshine stores 10,000 – 12,000 MT of carrot and sell it during off-season at Rs. 10 – 15/ - per Kg.

Sunshine has also developed various technologies for mechanisation of filed activities such as carrot sowing, carrot harvesting and carrot washing. These innovations have helped Sunshine in managing large scale production without much dependency on labour. Sunshine has achieved annual turnover of around Rs. 12 Cr. in last few years.

Interaction with Boraj FG leaders:

Farmers’ leaders from Boraj, during visit interacted with Col. S. C. Deshwal and Mr. Yadav and discussed the challenges faced by promoters and how these challenges were tackled by them.

1 Exposure Visit of Farmers’ Groups’ leader from Boraj, Jaipur (NVIUC)

Following points were discussed during the meeting:

Importance of direct marketing – traders, wholesalers and processers have started procuring directly from the Sunshine, instead of Sunshine taking the product to market. This helps Sunshine in better bargaining, as the product is still in field or cold store and traders can’t dictate their term as they do in case of mandi, where farmers do not have any other option, but to sell;

Importance of scale of economy - Sunshine vegetables, currently produces around 20000-25000 MT of carrot and hold control over carrot market in Delhi & NCR; -Changing as per market - Demand for carrot is there in the market through out the year, Sunshine understood this point and developed first cold store facility in the country for storage of carrot;

Market dominance - it is important to catch single product and strengthen position in market for single product. Farmers understood that Boraj being one of the largest area of pea production, they can replicate same story in Pea in whole of North India.

14 Farmers’ Group leaders, Agriculture Officer from District Horticulture Office and ISAP staff participated in the exposure visit.

Farmers’ Group Leader interacting with Mr. Yadav (understanding arrival of carrot in cold storage)

2 Exposure Visit of Farmers’ Groups’ leader from Boraj, Jaipur (NVIUC)

Farmer’s at Carrot Pack House

Farmers’ leader examining carrot sowing machin developed by Sunshine Farms (to replace an Italian carrot showing machine costing Rs. 10.00 lakh)

3 Exposure Visit of Farmers’ Groups’ leader from Boraj, Jaipur (NVIUC)

Automatic carrot washing machines and carrot grading, before dispetching to market

Carrots in cold storage

4 Exposure Visit of Farmers’ Groups’ leader from Boraj, Jaipur (NVIUC)