In the Pali district of Rajasthan, a young man 27 years old, named Priyank Surana, hailing from Phalna-Khudala village, has turned his back on the aspirations of becoming a businessman to cultivate a thriving career in agriculture, specifically potato farming.
Priyank’s father, Sanjay Surana, a real estate developer in Phalna, had envisioned his son taking over his business. To this end, he sent Priyank to Mumbai for his education, where he completed his BSc at Poddar World College in Juhu in 2019 and even worked in a digital marketing company during an internship in 2019-20. However, the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be a turning point. Witnessing the impact of the virus and reflecting on people’s immunity, Priyank questioned the quality of food and the environment, ultimately leading him to believe that farming offered a path to providing pure food and a healthy environment. Consequently, he made the decision to leave Mumbai and return to his village.
Initially, Priyank started by cultivating green vegetables and wheat on the family’s five-bigha land near Phalna-Khudala. He prepared the land for cultivation, installed a borewell and drip irrigation system, and used manure as fertiliser, gradually moving towards organic farming. Seeking further guidance, Priyank visited the Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) centre in Jodhpur, where he met agricultural scientist R.K. Solanki. This meeting proved pivotal, as Solanki advised him on the high demand for potatoes suitable for making chips and the relatively straightforward process of their cultivation, with companies often directly purchasing the produce from the farmers.
Inspired by this advice, Priyank dedicated six months to researching potato cultivation, gathering information on best practices, potential challenges, and the suitability of his land. In 2023, he embarked on a pilot project, planting potatoes on three bigha of land. The harvest, ready in just three and a half months, yielded a significant output, and a representative from a chips manufacturing company purchased the potatoes at ₹13 per kilogram. This initial success motivated him to expand his potato cultivation to 10 bigha in November 2024, planting in October-November for a harvest in approximately three and a half months.
The 2024 harvest yielded around 80,000 kilograms of potatoes, which the same company bought at ₹13 per kilogram, resulting in an income of ₹1,040,000 in just three and a half months. After deducting approximately 40 percent for expenses, Priyank earned a profit of ₹600,000 to ₹700,000 from this single crop. He sources his potato seeds from reputed companies. Interestingly, Simplot company which purchases his potatoes, has even provided him with two machines for sowing seeds and harvesting the potatoes. Simplot also covers the transportation costs to their cold storage facilities in Deesa, Gujarat, and other cities, where the potatoes are supplied to various national and international chips manufacturers. Furthermore, the company’s experts regularly visit his farm to provide necessary advice for maintaining the high quality of the potatoes.
Looking ahead, Priyank is not resting on his laurels. He is working towards organically growing wheat, vegetables, and fruits. Driven by his initial motivation to provide a pure environment, he is also developing an agro-tourism resort on his farmland. This resort will offer visitors a chance to experience rural life amidst organic farms, providing accommodation with modern amenities and serving food made from the locally grown produce. Priyank believes he has begun to think like a businessman in the field of agriculture, demonstrating an innovative and forward-thinking approach to farming.
