I am Mani Kaler from village Rai Dhariana of Sangrur district. Presently I am living with my family (which includes father – Madan Singh, elder brother – Raju Kaler and mother) in my hometown. Earlier my family used to give land on lease to other farmers, as I was also studying. But after completing my education (Bachelor of Arts) I decided of stepping in the field of horticulture. So, I took half of our land (20 acres) back from lease and started farming on it.

After some time, with the help of one of my relative, I came to know about the RTS Flower business, which is successfully run by Gurwinder Singh Sohi. So, after getting inspired by the owner of RTS Flower, I finally started my own flower venture. I started farming five to six types of flowers like Petunia, Gladiolus, Marigold, Rose and Chrysanthemum etc. In the beginning, I also gave a try to contract farming but after facing a bitter experience with the contracted company, I decided to end the contract with them. In the second year of flower farming, I bought seeds worth rupees 1 lakh from Gurwinder Singh Sohi. I started gladiolus farming from 2 canals and today it’s been 2 years and I have expanded the farm in 5 acres.

I am using 4 acres land for low tunnel farming of vegetables, where I grow bitter gourd, pumpkin, eggplant, cucumber, muskmelon, garlic (1/2 acre), and onion (1/2 acre). For the home purpose, I grow paddy and wheat, and from some time I have also started preparing onion seeds. Diversified farming techniques have helped me a lot in increasing my income. I manage the marketing part on my own and sell the flowers in the market of Delhi and Kurukshetra. I also do dairy farming and I have 7 cattle out of which 2 are Murrah buffaloes. I prepare the fodder myself with organically grown paddy, wheat, and fodder crops. In the free time, I also process sugarcane juice into Jaggery and sell it to the villagers.

I faced many difficulties when I started farming but I never felt demotivated, as my family support was always with me. Floriculture is a great field to invest and I think other farmers should also cultivate flowers along with other crops if they want to earn well.