Meet the Woman behind our Datalpara Farms

Let us meet one of our promoters, and proprietor of Manjushree Plastics, Mrs Suman Budhia. Over the course of the past seven years, she has transformed one bigha of free land in our Datalapara premise into a self-sustaining organic farm, dairy farm and vermicompost farm. The farm is referred to as Freedom Farm.

She started with one cow and one calf in 2011. Since then there have been 17 births, some of whom have been gifted to farmers, and her herd comprises 5 cows and 7 calves. Mrs Suman quoted a research which says that Indian cows give healthier milk, even though the yield is way lesser, so all the recent insemination in her farm has been from Indian cows, with semen especially procured from Karnataka and Sabarmati Ashram, Gujarat.

Mrs Suman personally tends to the food of the cows and has started Ajola farming, which provides a healthy and cost-effective alternate to only grass. The cow urine is also RO-filtered and sold in the market because of its medicinal properties.

The cow dung goes into the vermicompost pits. What started as one vermicompost pit, now has a dozen, with seven modern ones commissioned very recently. The pits are layered with waste cartons and corrugated sheets and rope from our plant, and ingested with specially imported worms. These produce almost no odour. The fertilizer made has high potash and nitrogen and has 10x potency than the normal fertilizers available in the market. The drained water from these pits, known as vermiwash acts as a natural pesticide, which is innocuous for the crop. With already a monthly yield of 500kg, Mrs Suman has plans to take the production upto 1MT per month by the end of the year.

What takes up most of her time and research is her organic farm. All kinds of vegetables available in the market are grown here. Moreover, many rare spices and herbs such as parsley, basil, lemon grass and celery which, through wholesalers, find their way to five star hotels and other restaurants. Different kinds of fruits and flowers, especially ones used for Puja are also grown. Off late, her focus has been on growing medicinal plants. She makes use of organic fertilizers and pesticides only. Drained water from the industrial ETP is used. Drip lines have also been installed in some areas to conserve water.

When asked about her source of inspiration, she says that after her recovery from a major illness some five years ago, she had made healthy living her purpose of life. In times when purely healthy food or milk is a rarity, she opines that even if she is able to cater to even 10 families (to start with), she is making a vast difference to atleast those families. Mrs Suman said she spends considerable time on research and relies mostly on books, besides TV and internet.