: Indias Saunf King Grows 25 Tonnes of Fennel on 15 Acres While Also Saving Water #IndiaNEWS #Agriculture It’s never easy to be the harbinger of change and for Ishaq Ali (49), a farmer from Sirohi

Indias Saunf King Grows 25 Tonnes of Fennel on 15 Acres While Also Saving Water #IndiaNEWS #Agriculture
It’s never easy to be the harbinger of change and for Ishaq Ali (49), a farmer from Sirohi district in Rajasthan, it was no different. Today, after almost three decades of consistent hard work, Ishaq has earned himself the title of ‘Saunf King’ and along with other farmers who work on his field, he is responsible for the production of more than 25 tonnes of fennel or saunf on 15 acres, earning close to Rs 30 lakhs each year.
Hailing from an agricultural family, Ishaq grew up knowing that he would also be involved in the same. After he completed his class 12 examination he expressed an interest in working with his father and grandfather on the field. “For the longest time my family was involved in the cultivation of commercial crops like cotton, mustard, and wheat. While I began with doing that, I wanted to try something different and would constantly have conversations with my father about the same,??? he tells The Better India.
The idea of cultivating fennel, while not new, was something that Ishaq felt he could bring back.
With Late President Pranab Mukherjee speaking about saunf cultivation
“Almost 50 years ago, a handful of farmers in the Sirohi district of Rajasthan did try and grow fennel in very small quantities. However, since they did not get any great success with it, they chose to go back to traditional crops,??? he says. He mentions here that the technique that the farmers used was of direct sowing.
Some of the disadvantages that Ishaq found in the older method of growing fennel included the excessive use of seeds because of the direct sowing method and also lack of any value addition to the production and distribution of fennel. Ishaq says, “I knew that fennel is a crop that had great demand in the export markets and I wanted to work towards tapping into that. ???
2005 – a new dawn
Saunf cultivation.
It was in 2005 when after a lot of discussions and deliberations with his family members, Ishaq embarked upon the cultivation of fennel with newer techniques. “All we did was spend time researching good practices like changing the seed quality and paying attention to the sowing and irrigation procedure. The new technology also helped in curbing the pest problem and that in turn led to an increase in the per acre production of fennel,??? he says.
Speaking about some of the techniques, he says, “Usually, in the traditional method of fennel cultivation, the gap between the beds range from 2 to 3 feet. This is something that we changed. We now follow a gap of almost 7 feet between every bed. In terms of the yield, we found that this technique was yielding almost double. ??? He also mentions here how he was often ridiculed for trying these new techniques and it was only when he started seeing better yields that people around him took note.

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