The new farmers

August 1, 2007
Ludhiana
 
The chaos of old Ludhiana opens out onto the Grand Trunk Road; on both sides of the highway, new malls rise out of erstwhile farmland as the highway towards Kabul continues northward. But just before crossing one of the state's main arteries, the Sutlej, a small road veers off to the left. At the end of this road, you enter FieldFresh's 'Agricultural Centre of Excellence' (ACE), Bharti Enterprises (supported by the Rothschild) venture into the world of farming.

First, you drive past a seemingly industrial construction zone with greenhouses and factories being built alongside the road that give way to fields full of baby corns, chillies and bitter gourds. After a few minutes, you come to a small building where the technical staff-agriculturalists, engineers and quality control supervisors-sits.

"Managing" baby corns: In this completely sanitised unit, approximately 100 women are involved in the process

Speak to these technicians from South Africa and New Zealand and you realise how fast things are coming up. It has been barely two years since ground was broken at this facility; the first few crops have come and gone. Some mishaps have also happened, including last year's colossal waste of a carrot crop. Plus, the staff that supervises and teaches local hands the nitty-gritty has learnt to deal with the extremes of Indian weather while trying to grow profitable crops.

Rakesh Mittal, the eldest of the three Mittal brothers at Bharti Enterprises, who looks after FieldFresh, considers this a personal mission. "It hasn't been easy," he admits, "But we are not trying to reinvent the wheel. We are trying to put into place practices that will allow us and our partner farmers across the country to better manage, produce and also build an efficient cold-chain, which will allow consumers both in India and abroad access to good, fresh produce."

The cold-chain is still a work in progress, as is work on the main processing unit near the main gate. "This processing unit, which will have four lines, is capable of processing 16 tonnes of fresh produce every hour, once it starts functioning by September," says R.P.S. Dhaliwal, Head (Technical Services), FieldFresh.

On the other side of the 300-acre facility, the company has set up a small processing unit to manage the baby corn crop. In this sanitised unit, there are approximately 100 women working in a production line, opening, cleaning, cutting, sorting and packing baby corn for both the domestic market and for export.

But beyond processing food, another major task at ACE is research. Moving from the temporary processing line to a row of greenhouses that are being built, you reach a couple of functional enclosures. The first one is growing cherry tomatoes, and it seems that farmers have taken soil out of the equation altogether by growing the vines out of 'growbags'-polythene bags packed with a growing medium, primarily coconut husk, with three plants growing out of each bag. The bags are fed with an Israeli-designed micro-irrigation system and in turn feed water and fertiliser to each plant.

But why cherry tomatoes? This is because of the return the crop offers. While setting up a covered greenhouse and micro-irrigation system can cost up to Rs 15 lakh an acre; the return in a year can reach Rs 40 lakh. These returns swell if farmers invest in coloured capsicums, which ACE is growing in the adjoining greenhouse. "What we are telling farmers is that there is a lot of demand for produce like this and when they see the amount that we have invested, they understand that we are serious and that encourages them to invest as well," Dhaliwal says.

At the same time, technicians at ACE are developing crops that can be grown in other parts of the country-Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan-where FieldFresh is setting up shop. "This is just the beginning," says Mittal. "Once we have established our practices, everything will move a lot smoother. We have even taken up cold storage at Amritsar airport so that we can export our produce fast. It could take only a day to get produce from the field to a shelf 5,000 km away," says Mittal.

Yet, not everyone is happy with FieldFresh at Ludhiana. A local businessman, who did not want to be named, told BT that he was unhappy at the low lease rentals that FieldFresh was paying. "This (is happening) at a time when the (Punjab) government has allowed industry in Ludhiana to wither away by not providing any land." While some questions-valid ones at that-are raised, there is little doubt that at FieldFresh's ACE, farming is being given a makeover.

 
 
1. Growing the vines out of 'growbags': The soil has been taken out of the equation in the case of cherry tomatoes
 
2. So, why invest in coloured capsicums? Well, simply because of the return the crop offers

3. Construction work in progress: Farming is being given a makeover for sure, courtesy FieldFresh.