LawgradbringsfarmrevolutioninparchedBundelkhand

Even as the farmers have hit the streets against the farm laws, 23-year-old law graduate Gurleen Chawla is silently bringing a revolution in parched Bundelkhand by growing strawberries.

Her efforts were lauded by PM Narendra Modi during his first ‘Mann ki Baat’ of 2021. In his address, Modi said, “Gurleen’s successful experiment has given a new hope growing strawberries is possible in Jhansi also.”

“I just came back from Delhi Sunday morning only to be thrilled the PM has appreciated my strawberry farming experiment,” she said.

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath has already acknowledged her feat and made her the brand ambassador of the month-long ‘Strawberry Festival’ in Jhansi, which began on Jan 16. Overnight Gurleen has become a celebrity. She is now known as ‘Strawberry Girl’ across

Bundelkhand, where farming, leave alone strawberry, is a distant dream due to poor soil, hot weather conditions, parched land, less rainfall and no irrigation facility.

Talking to FPJ, Gurleen claimed it started during lockdown when she helped her businessman father Harjeet Singh Chawla maintain their terrace garden. “I never had any inclination towards farming. It all started when I bought 10 seedlings of strawberry and sowed them in pots filled with coco-peat at our small terrace garden. I was excited when small plants started bearing fruits,” said she. “Fruits were small in size but they were juicy and tasty,” she recalls.

Her father encouraged her and she developed 4.5 acres of a barren land, bought by dad years ago, but lying vacant. “I bought 20,000 strawberry seedlings, grown with tissue culture, and sowed them in 1.5 acres using organic fertilisers and latest techniques in October last,” she said.

Gurleen claimed since strawberries need little water retention and maximum temperature up to 35°C, the climate and soil in Jhansi just did wonders with strawberry seedlings. “All of them are now bearing bigger and juicy fruits. I am expecting a total yield of 10,000 kgs this season. We pluck daily and sell it to local supermarkets @ Rs 250 per kg,” said she.

To market her produce online, she has developed a website www.jhnasiorganics.com to sell her juicy strawberries outside Jhansi also. “I have a marketing consultant who is exploring bigger markets for the next season,” she tells.