Bharti farm project to cover 5,300 acres in Punjab

Punjab is central to Bharti Enterprises' agriculture venture. The company started with a model farm of 62 acres in Fatehgarh Sahib district last year and plans to bring an area of 5,300 acres under vegetable cultivation by next month.

Talking to the media on his visit to Chandigarh, Bharti Enterprises Managing Director Rakesh Bharti Mittal said since farmers in Punjab were highly enterprising, the firm wanted to make a concerted effort in the state and replicate the model in other states.

The Punjab government allotted 300 acres on a long lease to the company last year in Laddowala near Ludhiana. Bharti Enterprises, in collaboration with UK-based Rothschild, is exporting fresh vegetables under the brand Field Fresh (a 50:50 joint venture) to the UK, Middle East and ASEAN countries.

The company is developing the largest R&D centre for agriculture in Asia. It is constructing a glass house, green house and a poly house on an area of 42 acre. Bharti is also making a pack house, covering 20 million square feet.This will ensure a controlled environment and automatic production line for fresh vegetables. Mittal informed that they would develop a state-of-the-art nursery in the same location to cater for the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttaranchal and Rajasthan.

The company has also decided to provide training to the local farmers on the best farming practices.

Mittal said the company's vision was to help farmers through the project. He said a woman gets employment for 40 days a year in wheat and rice cultivation whereas the cultivation of vegetables on the same farms would offer employment throughout the year. He added females made up about 80 per cent of the workforce in the cultivation of vegetables. As women take home 95 per cent of their income, this would improve the standard of living in rural areas.

According to Mittal, the cultivation of vegetables generates 16 times more employment opportunities than the cultivation conventional crops. The company is currently producing okhra (lady's finger), baby corn and sweet peas in the state.

"Logistics are very important in our business and at the present production level we need about 200 cargo flights in a year to reach our export markets. So in the next six months we commence our operations through cargo operators," said Mittal.