Farmers’ Column: ‘Wheat and paddy had put me in debt. Ornamental plants gave me dignity and stability’: Barnala farmer on his blooming nursery

Today, Harjinder’s Harvaas Nursery is spread across 13 acres, including three acres of his sister’s land who is settled abroad, and boasts nearly 500-600 varieties of plants. These range from hundreds of seasonal flowers to ornamental plants, including 250 types of palms, bottle brush, gulmohar, sangwan, sheesham, fruit plants, and grasses used for landscaping.

“Nursery farming is very different from wheat or paddy. If I can’t sell a plant today, it doesn’t mean it’s a loss. A sapling that costs Rs 10 today can become Rs 1,000 after two or three years as it grows. Unlike wheat, there is no rush to sell before the crop spoils,” he explains.

On an average winter season, Harjinder raises lakhs of flowering plants, packed in net pots and trays. He supplies these to housing colonies, schools, commercial buildings, societies, and individuals with large gardens. “Two housing colonies are my permanent clients. I never had to do much marketing. People who once come to my nursery never go anywhere else,” he says proudly.

On an average winter season, Harjinder raises lakhs of flowering plants, packed in net pots and trays. (Express photo)

His nursery has around 2.5 crore plants at any time at different stages of growth. “Everything is available in my fields. People who want seasonal flowers come here, and those who want palms for landscaping also find them here,” he says.

A graduate, Harjinder was not afraid to try something different. When he was not able to come out of the debt in the early 2000s, he ventured into bee-keeping, believing honey could give him an alternative income stream. For a while, it did. But by 2015, his experiment collapsed as around 1,800 boxes of bee keeping got destroyed due to excessive pesticide spray on the crops the bees sucked for making honey.

“I had 1,800 boxes of bees. One by one, they all died because of pesticides sprayed on nearby fields where they were kept,” he recalls. “By then, I had decided not to do anything for some time. I shifted with my wife, who was then a teacher (now principal) in Akal Academy Bhadaur (Barnala) and focused on the studies of my two children. At the academy a gardener used to borrow some small amount of money from me occasionally because he was not able to meet his family expenses with his salary. Then I suggested him to use my land for growing flower nurseries as I decided to invest money and then to share the profit 50:50 with him. But he ditched me because he turned greedy and then I started my own nursery with an initial investment of Rs 12 lakh which I took on loan and from my wife.”

Help came from an unlikely quarter — a gardener from Bihar, working in Bathinda. “I did not even know the ABC of nursery work when I began in 2015. It was this gardener who first suggested that I should grow ornamental plants. He helped me understand what to sow and how to manage a nursery,” Harjinder says, who has visited Thailand, the US, Canada and several other countries to gain experience in better nursery growing techniques.

He began small, experimenting with seasonal flowers such as Petunia, Salvia, and Geranium. Mistakes were made, money was lost, and labour was intense. But slowly, the nursery began to take shape.

“I taught myself a lot and am still doing it. I put 16-18 hours at my nursery. I recovered my initial investment in just one year and a half, and then never looked back. Whatever profit I started earning, I started investing that in my nursery only and purchased around four acre more. today I am growing lakhs of plants on 13 acres including every year — both seasonal and round the year — to around 500-600 types of ornamental, fruit plants as well as different grasses on my entire land. And if a plant is costing me Rs 2.5, then I am selling that at Rs 5. This way I am earning around Rs 4-5 lakh per acre and the water usage is not even 20% of the paddy cultivation.”

His initial investment was Rs 12 lakh, which he recovered in just 18 months. Today, the nursery employs 22 people, including six permanent workers. He also hires 10–12 people who take plants from him and sell them by keeping them in their rehris.

“I have now opened four more branches of Harvaas Nursery and handed them over to the youth to run and make profits in Mansa, Sangrur, Raikot and Sunam. There is enough work for everyone but it demands commitment and constant presence. But the returns are steady and far better than wheat-paddy,” he says.

On his 13 acres, Harjinder has diversified. About three–four acres are dedicated to ornamental plants, two acres to timber trees for supplying to panchayats and schools, 1.5 acres to round-the-year flowering plants, and one acre to fruit plants. The rest is rotated for seasonal flowers.

Harjinder credits his wife, a double MA and BEd graduate, for standing by him during his toughest years. “At the time of our marriage, she was only a graduate. I encouraged her to study further. Her determination inspired me too,” he says.

The journey, he admits, was not easy. “People run away from hard work. I could have too. But I chose to stick to it. Every mistake I made in the beginning taught me something new. Today, when I look at the nursery, I feel the struggle was worth it.”

“Wheat and paddy had put me in debt. Ornamental plants gave me dignity and stability. With income from here I made my house, sent my son abroad for study purpose and now my daughter is doing MBBS,” he says, standing amidst rows of flowering trays ready for sale.