Neeraj Joshi’s father, a resident of Karauli, a small village in Uttarakhand, used to do farming along with his job in ITBP and from him Neeraj also got attached to farming and plants from a very young age. That’s why Neeraj decided to return to the village and do farming, rejecting the job in France.
A big house, a long car, a job abroad… just life is set brother! Who wouldn’t want to live such a life, but Neeraj Joshi, a resident of Karauli, a small village in Champawat district of Uttarakhand, gave up a lucrative job offer abroad to go back to his village and do farming.
After doing his early education from his village and Rudrapur Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Neeraj chose agriculture for further studies. He did B.sc from DSB Nainital and M.sc from Pantnagar Agricultural University. After this, Neeraj went to France to study Agrodesign after receiving a scholarship from Charpak Master’s Scholarship and Supagro Foundation.
After completing the course, he also got a job offer with a good package, but he decided to leave that job and return back to his village. He told The Better India, “I had a chance in the last semester, a multinational company offered me a job, but during this time I noticed my village, because I am a Pahari.”
Returned to village after rejecting job abroad, grew 500 plants on barren land
Neeraj Joshi’s father, a resident of Karauli, a small village in Uttarakhand, used to do farming along with his job in ITBP and from him Neeraj also got attached to farming and plants from a very young age. That’s why Neeraj left his job abroad and decided to return to the village and do farming and chose his ancestral land for this work.
He said, “The land where I worked was abandoned by my forefathers 30 years ago. So the land was barren, so the problem was how to work on this land? So I asked the agriculture department and my agricultural friends engaged in agricultural research what to do here? He suggested me to grow such crops which are not threatened by animals.
That’s why Neeraj came to the village after rejecting a job abroad and first started by growing some medicinal plants like turmeric, ginger, aloe vera, ashwagandha, sarpagandha. Gradually this number increased and till now Neeraj has planted more than 500 medicinal and fruitful plants on that land in about 3 years.
30 year old ruins converted into homestay
Neeraj, who returned to the village after leaving his job abroad, said, “The biggest challenge we have right now is organic farming, because we are doing farming, but we are not getting the right price for our produce.” Neeraj’s endeavor is to make a mark in the organic market, bring investors to remote villages and connect farmers directly with customers.
Not only this, to promote tourism in the village, Neeraj has also converted his 30-year-old dilapidated house into a beautiful homestay with the help of the tourism department.
Today, Neeraj is not only helping stop people migrating to cities, but has also given employment to 10 people through his farm and homestay. Neeraj has proved that the search for opportunities and the way to success can be determined not only from the concrete roads of the cities, but also from the footpaths of the villages.
See also: “It is more difficult to build a mud house than IIT!” This couple left the job abroad and settled in the village
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