Posted in by Dr.Bhushan Sood on the June 20th, 2007
PRESIDENT since 1998 of Pragratisheel Kisan Sangh-Kotgarh, founded in 1983.
INDIA’S APPLE MASIHA – Hari Chand Roach
Birth Place: Born in 1938 at Village Saroga. Kotgarh. Himachal Pradesh.India .
Saroga is the heaven on earth. Situated at a height of 7000-ft. approx. on the tip of a mountain, one gets a panoramic view of the surrounding Kotgarh range and Satluj river.Weather in summers is awesome.Winters are very harsh. Saroga is connected to Thanedhar by a commutable road. Thanedhar is the nearest shopping township. This year’s community festival (mela) was held on Sunday,17th June, 2007.
wife : Late Tarawati Roach.(Died 2010)
FAMILY : Father: Dhaval Ram, Mother : Hem Dassi. Wife: Tarawati 1-brother 2-sisters. 2-sons:Pranav and Praveen, 2-daughters: Ritu Mehta-Anil Mehta and Amita-Deepak Thakur and grand children: Vikas, Vikram and others.
( Thanks, Parveen, for introducing me and my family to your most adored parents and rest of the family. The two families have become one family. I have so much affinity for Saroga which is always my SECOND HOME….)
Education: Hari Chand had his schooling at D.A.V.School,Veergarh-Kotgarh. Important activity in the school was..religious teaching (Dharma shiksha)-one day in a week. Pracharak ( The religious messenger) would come once a week. The Pracharak was against worshiping of Devi and Devtas ( Gods and Goddesses). But pracharak was very dedicated and had a simple life style. Arya Samaj brought revolution for country’s independence in North India.
Education : Lahore was the head quarter of united Punjab,with Shimla as summer capital. Lala Lajpat Rai, Mahatma Hans Raj, Bhagat Singh and many others played a big role in freedom movement. Farming : Hari Chand took farming as his main occupation.A person of knowledge, effort and experience.An eminent orchardist , owning lands at Kotgarh and village Matiana-near Narkanda, Himachal Pradesh State of India
An awardee of “Chaudhury Charan Singh Award” for exceptional contribution in Horticulture in 2002-2003. President since 1998 of ‘Pragratisheel Kisan Sangh’ -Kotgarh which was founded in 1983. Successfully runs the organization on four key symbols : Persuasion, Motivation, Deputation and Representation . Does not like to work on agitation. Expenses for the monthly meetings are not borne by the association. He bears the costs of most of the meetings and events.. However, other members do come forward to bear the expenses without putting the burden on association’s funds. He gHe put forward his request to HP government that marketing of apples should have the marketing base with in Himachal State. That would bring the state a tax profit of 100-150 crores. That would also stop the illegal commissions that the farmers end up paying out of the state. And that would generate another 300-400 crores. Employment, with in the state, would also be generated. We can bring in latest infra structure. This helps the state as well the people. His suggestion was conceived by the honorable Chief Minister, Raja BirBhadr Singh. The Government is now working on that… Marketing Regulatory Act is amended and the Market has also been opened up. Any body can get market License. The CM has complimented Mr. Roach on many occasions for his selfless efforts to boost the State’s economy and also helping the farmers.. Another suggestion… The government has opened up in all sectors. Why not horticulture sector. Bring some foreign Nursery and give them the Land to have internationally standardized plants.. should have private participation not public (Govt.) participation. Govt. should also import root stock, plant material, germ plasma. Govt.should have modern mechanism… There is no research going on in India where as India is a big market for Plants.Mr.Roach imported apple root stocks on his association’s plank from Oregon,US. and plants through Adam County Nursery,Pennsylvania.
First Association ; Pragratisheel Kisan Sangh-Kotgarh is the first association in India to have imported ( ref: quarantine Law.) plants and mother root stocks. Till 1990 individuals could not import. In 1999, the Law was liberalized. In 2000, he imported plants individually. After his individual success, 4200 root stocks and 700 life plants were imported through the association which were distributed amongst members of the association on – no profit basis. Research: Around 1904, a Christian missionary adopted to Hinduism’s Arya Samaj, Late Samuel E Stocks alias Satya Nand Stokes from Philadelphia, brought apple stocks to Kotgarh. Mr.Bats had purchased 1200 Bigas land at Barubag, Kotgarh for tea gardens. He went to England and died in an accident. So the tea gardens were not set up.His wife sold the land to Stokes for Rs.10000. Stokes father was an engineer- a rich man, had two sons….. Stokes became missionary. The father made a will that his assets( which were high) be given to the the next generation. So stokes children got those assets.
SatyaKama : a book written by Stokes on Gita, built a temple and inscribed shlokas on the temple wood. Stokes brought revolution in economy. He joined Mahatma Gandhi in his “Non Co-Operation Movement” and was also jailed for six months.
The apple strain was brought in 1915 and till date,we have carried on with that old strain with low yield, poor quality and high cost . Meanwhile, research was carried out in the world and new stocks with more yield, good quality, low cost production came up.The yield is 5- 10 times higher. The waiting period has been reduced also. Old strain used to take 12-15 years where as the new one takes 5-6 years to start giving fruit and the new plants are manageable . Indian yield is 4.5 tons per hectare. International yield is 30-40 tons/hectare. Indian farmer has to meet very high costs of production.
India does not have infrastructure- storing, transportation and marketing compared to what International market provides. Plant material is also of not of international standards. Market is very disorganized and controlled by licensed permits. Input manure and spray is of not international standards. Market regulating Act is not pro farmers. Market system is value eroded and not value added. C.A.stores ( Controlled Atmospheric Pressure), Cool Chain (transport) : He put forward these ideas to Horticulture Minister of Himachal and central development Minister around four years back.He worked hard to get permission from the government to help set up 3 CA Stores in Rivali in Satluj valley, Sainj in Giri valley and Maindali in River Pubber valley. These are first CA stores in India constructed by Adani group. The new stocks and the cultivar (variety like delicious, gala, fuji, breau-bural ) are Virus Free. Old stocks would reduce production by 30-40 percent on account of Virus. All the farmers are effected by Virus which has no treatment.Shere Kashmir University also got the new stock earlier but the stocks brought were not virus free types. Maling University of England started with new stock in 1920 by collecting stocks from all over the world, Hari did tremendous research and brought new strains like.. M series, MM series and the EMLEA stock is virus free. Container Corporation of India were planning. to create transportation facility for the orchardists. Mr Arvind Jhamb, Director Commercial Indian Railways, approached him for a plan to have transported apple to some destination near Delhi…but did not have any provision for pre-cooling. Mr Roach suggested to have a CA store locally and helped them have agreement for land purchase…from the honorable CM. HP. Later on, the project was given to a private company-ADANI group. The CA stores ( Controlled by Atmospheric Pressure Stores) have imported sensors( Griefa Co.Italy) for colour and size grading and automatic weight and washing. The farmer gets an electronic print out of weight, colour and grading. So grading is standardized with minimum error. The farmer gets the same price without depending on the quantity. Now Adani group buys direct from the farmers in raw form, do the grading and packing and storing, transportation and marketing and make the product “value added” That way a parallel marketing system has been created.Earlier all this burden was on the farmer which would cost him a lot in terms of time, labour and money. Now the farmer has less job of 1.production and 2 quality. Contract Farming: Single farmer can not do all the marketing. Global players ( Walmart,TISCO-UK, Care For-France and Metro-Cash and carry-German) would ask growers to grow as per the market demand.This will help the farmers in 1.Direct Foreign Investment in Retail. 2.knowing Global demand. 3. Price settlement. Wastage: wastage is because of four factors:1.Inefficient transportation, 2.poor road conditions,3.Disorganized market and 4.outdated Variety. Processing would save wastage which is 30 percent of fruit and vegetables. (Farmer 15%, Local trader 1 percent, agent 2 percent, trader 3% whole seller 1% retailer 8percent)Global wastage of fruit and vegetable is almost 2 percent where as in India it is 30 percent. We need to take steps to reduce the wastage to help the farmer survive.We need food processing units with modern technologies.Israel has quality stores- weather proof—can store upto 10 years without any loss of quality. The government’s focus has been only on production and least on marketing. Last year, China produced 50% of the total world apple growth and successfully marketed it without any wastage.China has established modern infra structure for global marketing and retailing. In 1947, 270 million were farmers and now it is close to 700 millions. 40 percent has irrigation, 60 percent depend on rains.
NO stable market for horticulture produce. In 1980 Agriculture growth was 3 percent and in 2004 – 1.5 percent.
We need improved delivery chains and increased value chains in farm produce.
We have not worked at all on POST HARVESTING TECHNIQUES. Because we have highest loss in post harvesting and have 1 percent export. Fruit production per day is 75 grams.
Poor seed tech, improver harvesting, poor storing, poor transport.
If we bring down wastage to 20 percent, we can then be the largest exporters.
The low price that the farmer gets is because of the policy failure and not the market failure.
Subsidy system is a failure. Government purchasing system should be abolished as it is against the farmer.
Story of Indian Oil Company : some spray oil that the company supplied to the farmers was expired…..association’s meeting took place…brought to the notice of Indian Oil company…… The GM of Indian Oil finally called the oil lot back…. After a while, a fresh sample was sent to Mr. Roach for approval……now that oil spray is selling all over.
Stokes brought economic revolution to the people of Kotgarh a century ago.
Mr.Hari Chand Roach is instrumental in reviving the dying economy of the area, thus
becoming ‘THE APPLE MASIHA’ of the 21st century.
His leadership qualities are appreciated by one and all.
Apple trees are protected against hail storm by covering the with a net.
3 Responses to ‘HARI CHAND ROACH’
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to ‘HARI CHAND ROACH’.
- ameetathakur said,
ON JULY 10TH, 2007 AT 3:36 PM
wonderfully done.Thankyou so much. Pay my and deepak’s regards to everyone at home. will send you some photos.
- Ritu mehta said,
ON AUGUST 23RD, 2009 AT 8:16 AM
Doc. Bhushan,
was touched by ur gesture! nxt time wen u to India do visit us!!
How r ur family doing!! hop all is well!!
- rajat bhardwaj said,
ON JANUARY 29TH, 2010 AT 2:03 PM
miss u kotgarh…………….
Posted in by Dr.Bhushan Sood on the June 20th, 2007
PRESIDENT since 1998 of Pragratisheel Kisan Sangh-Kotgarh, founded in 1983.
INDIA’S APPLE MASIHA – Hari Chand Roach
Birth Place: Born in 1938 at Village Saroga. Kotgarh. Himachal Pradesh.India .
Saroga is the heaven on earth. Situated at a height of 7000-ft. approx. on the tip of a mountain, one gets a panoramic view of the surrounding Kotgarh range and Satluj river.Weather in summers is awesome.Winters are very harsh. Saroga is connected to Thanedhar by a commutable road. Thanedhar is the nearest shopping township. This year’s community festival (mela) was held on Sunday,17th June, 2007.
wife : Late Tarawati Roach.(Died 2010)
FAMILY : Father: Dhaval Ram, Mother : Hem Dassi. Wife: Tarawati 1-brother 2-sisters. 2-sons:Pranav and Praveen, 2-daughters: Ritu Mehta-Anil Mehta and Amita-Deepak Thakur and grand children: Vikas, Vikram and others.
( Thanks, Parveen, for introducing me and my family to your most adored parents and rest of the family. The two families have become one family. I have so much affinity for Saroga which is always my SECOND HOME….)
Education: Hari Chand had his schooling at D.A.V.School,Veergarh-Kotgarh. Important activity in the school was..religious teaching (Dharma shiksha)-one day in a week. Pracharak ( The religious messenger) would come once a week. The Pracharak was against worshiping of Devi and Devtas ( Gods and Goddesses). But pracharak was very dedicated and had a simple life style. Arya Samaj brought revolution for country’s independence in North India.
Education : Lahore was the head quarter of united Punjab,with Shimla as summer capital. Lala Lajpat Rai, Mahatma Hans Raj, Bhagat Singh and many others played a big role in freedom movement. Farming : Hari Chand took farming as his main occupation.A person of knowledge, effort and experience.An eminent orchardist , owning lands at Kotgarh and village Matiana-near Narkanda, Himachal Pradesh State of India
An awardee of “Chaudhury Charan Singh Award” for exceptional contribution in Horticulture in 2002-2003. President since 1998 of ‘Pragratisheel Kisan Sangh’ -Kotgarh which was founded in 1983. Successfully runs the organization on four key symbols : Persuasion, Motivation, Deputation and Representation . Does not like to work on agitation. Expenses for the monthly meetings are not borne by the association. He bears the costs of most of the meetings and events.. However, other members do come forward to bear the expenses without putting the burden on association’s funds. He gHe put forward his request to HP government that marketing of apples should have the marketing base with in Himachal State. That would bring the state a tax profit of 100-150 crores. That would also stop the illegal commissions that the farmers end up paying out of the state. And that would generate another 300-400 crores. Employment, with in the state, would also be generated. We can bring in latest infra structure. This helps the state as well the people. His suggestion was conceived by the honorable Chief Minister, Raja BirBhadr Singh. The Government is now working on that… Marketing Regulatory Act is amended and the Market has also been opened up. Any body can get market License. The CM has complimented Mr. Roach on many occasions for his selfless efforts to boost the State’s economy and also helping the farmers.. Another suggestion… The government has opened up in all sectors. Why not horticulture sector. Bring some foreign Nursery and give them the Land to have internationally standardized plants.. should have private participation not public (Govt.) participation. Govt. should also import root stock, plant material, germ plasma. Govt.should have modern mechanism… There is no research going on in India where as India is a big market for Plants.Mr.Roach imported apple root stocks on his association’s plank from Oregon,US. and plants through Adam County Nursery,Pennsylvania.
First Association ; Pragratisheel Kisan Sangh-Kotgarh is the first association in India to have imported ( ref: quarantine Law.) plants and mother root stocks. Till 1990 individuals could not import. In 1999, the Law was liberalized. In 2000, he imported plants individually. After his individual success, 4200 root stocks and 700 life plants were imported through the association which were distributed amongst members of the association on – no profit basis. Research: Around 1904, a Christian missionary adopted to Hinduism’s Arya Samaj, Late Samuel E Stocks alias Satya Nand Stokes from Philadelphia, brought apple stocks to Kotgarh. Mr.Bats had purchased 1200 Bigas land at Barubag, Kotgarh for tea gardens. He went to England and died in an accident. So the tea gardens were not set up.His wife sold the land to Stokes for Rs.10000. Stokes father was an engineer- a rich man, had two sons….. Stokes became missionary. The father made a will that his assets( which were high) be given to the the next generation. So stokes children got those assets.
SatyaKama : a book written by Stokes on Gita, built a temple and inscribed shlokas on the temple wood. Stokes brought revolution in economy. He joined Mahatma Gandhi in his “Non Co-Operation Movement” and was also jailed for six months.
The apple strain was brought in 1915 and till date,we have carried on with that old strain with low yield, poor quality and high cost . Meanwhile, research was carried out in the world and new stocks with more yield, good quality, low cost production came up.The yield is 5- 10 times higher. The waiting period has been reduced also. Old strain used to take 12-15 years where as the new one takes 5-6 years to start giving fruit and the new plants are manageable . Indian yield is 4.5 tons per hectare. International yield is 30-40 tons/hectare. Indian farmer has to meet very high costs of production.
India does not have infrastructure- storing, transportation and marketing compared to what International market provides. Plant material is also of not of international standards. Market is very disorganized and controlled by licensed permits. Input manure and spray is of not international standards. Market regulating Act is not pro farmers. Market system is value eroded and not value added. C.A.stores ( Controlled Atmospheric Pressure), Cool Chain (transport) : He put forward these ideas to Horticulture Minister of Himachal and central development Minister around four years back.He worked hard to get permission from the government to help set up 3 CA Stores in Rivali in Satluj valley, Sainj in Giri valley and Maindali in River Pubber valley. These are first CA stores in India constructed by Adani group. The new stocks and the cultivar (variety like delicious, gala, fuji, breau-bural ) are Virus Free. Old stocks would reduce production by 30-40 percent on account of Virus. All the farmers are effected by Virus which has no treatment.Shere Kashmir University also got the new stock earlier but the stocks brought were not virus free types. Maling University of England started with new stock in 1920 by collecting stocks from all over the world, Hari did tremendous research and brought new strains like.. M series, MM series and the EMLEA stock is virus free. Container Corporation of India were planning. to create transportation facility for the orchardists. Mr Arvind Jhamb, Director Commercial Indian Railways, approached him for a plan to have transported apple to some destination near Delhi…but did not have any provision for pre-cooling. Mr Roach suggested to have a CA store locally and helped them have agreement for land purchase…from the honorable CM. HP. Later on, the project was given to a private company-ADANI group. The CA stores ( Controlled by Atmospheric Pressure Stores) have imported sensors( Griefa Co.Italy) for colour and size grading and automatic weight and washing. The farmer gets an electronic print out of weight, colour and grading. So grading is standardized with minimum error. The farmer gets the same price without depending on the quantity. Now Adani group buys direct from the farmers in raw form, do the grading and packing and storing, transportation and marketing and make the product “value added” That way a parallel marketing system has been created.Earlier all this burden was on the farmer which would cost him a lot in terms of time, labour and money. Now the farmer has less job of 1.production and 2 quality. Contract Farming: Single farmer can not do all the marketing. Global players ( Walmart,TISCO-UK, Care For-France and Metro-Cash and carry-German) would ask growers to grow as per the market demand.This will help the farmers in 1.Direct Foreign Investment in Retail. 2.knowing Global demand. 3. Price settlement. Wastage: wastage is because of four factors:1.Inefficient transportation, 2.poor road conditions,3.Disorganized market and 4.outdated Variety. Processing would save wastage which is 30 percent of fruit and vegetables. (Farmer 15%, Local trader 1 percent, agent 2 percent, trader 3% whole seller 1% retailer 8percent)Global wastage of fruit and vegetable is almost 2 percent where as in India it is 30 percent. We need to take steps to reduce the wastage to help the farmer survive.We need food processing units with modern technologies.Israel has quality stores- weather proof—can store upto 10 years without any loss of quality. The government’s focus has been only on production and least on marketing. Last year, China produced 50% of the total world apple growth and successfully marketed it without any wastage.China has established modern infra structure for global marketing and retailing. In 1947, 270 million were farmers and now it is close to 700 millions. 40 percent has irrigation, 60 percent depend on rains.
NO stable market for horticulture produce. In 1980 Agriculture growth was 3 percent and in 2004 – 1.5 percent.
We need improved delivery chains and increased value chains in farm produce.
We have not worked at all on POST HARVESTING TECHNIQUES. Because we have highest loss in post harvesting and have 1 percent export. Fruit production per day is 75 grams.
Poor seed tech, improver harvesting, poor storing, poor transport.
If we bring down wastage to 20 percent, we can then be the largest exporters.
The low price that the farmer gets is because of the policy failure and not the market failure.
Subsidy system is a failure. Government purchasing system should be abolished as it is against the farmer.
Story of Indian Oil Company : some spray oil that the company supplied to the farmers was expired…..association’s meeting took place…brought to the notice of Indian Oil company…… The GM of Indian Oil finally called the oil lot back…. After a while, a fresh sample was sent to Mr. Roach for approval……now that oil spray is selling all over.
Stokes brought economic revolution to the people of Kotgarh a century ago.
Mr.Hari Chand Roach is instrumental in reviving the dying economy of the area, thus
becoming ‘THE APPLE MASIHA’ of the 21st century.
His leadership qualities are appreciated by one and all.
Apple trees are protected against hail storm by covering the with a net.
3 Responses to ‘HARI CHAND ROACH’
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to ‘HARI CHAND ROACH’.
- ameetathakur said,
ON JULY 10TH, 2007 AT 3:36 PM
wonderfully done.Thankyou so much. Pay my and deepak’s regards to everyone at home. will send you some photos.
- Ritu mehta said,
ON AUGUST 23RD, 2009 AT 8:16 AM
Doc. Bhushan,
was touched by ur gesture! nxt time wen u to India do visit us!!
How r ur family doing!! hop all is well!!
- rajat bhardwaj said,
ON JANUARY 29TH, 2010 AT 2:03 PM
miss u kotgarh…………….