Innovation: Reeva Sood turns dry land into Rs 65 lakh organic business

Nursery Today    03-Jun-2025
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Una: Horticultural farming has revolutionized the life of Reeva Sood. She left Delhi in 2016 and ventured into fruit farming in Una, a rural district in Himachal Pradesh, aiming to live in a natural atmosphere. She started farming without using any chemicals on her farm. Therefore, she kept her farming name, “Jahar Mukt Kheti,” which means chemical-free agriculture. She adopted natural methods such as vermicomposting, Jeev Amrit, and drip irrigation for saving water and proper growth of the plants.
 

Reeva started working on 70 acres of rocky, unused land in Gunghrala, Akrot, and Behar-Bithal villages. In 2018, she started the cultivation of dragon fruit—a rare crop of the region at that time. She planted more than 30,000 plants. In her very first attempt, she tasted a huge success and then became famous as the ‘Dragon Fruit Lady’ of Himachal Pradesh.

She spread her area and started growing medicinal and herbal crops like ashwagandha, tulsi, kalmegh, moringa, turmeric, and black wheat. Their cultivation improved the fertility of the soil and also boosted her income remarkably.

 

In 2021, she founded the Him 2 Hum Farmers Producer Company Limited, a women-led group supported by NABARD and the Ministry of AYUSH. Currently, over 300 women are working in this company. Their main work is packaging and marketing across Himachal, Punjab, Haryana, and beyond.

 

Gradually, dragon fruit cultivation has gained popularity. Today, in Una alone, over 100 women are actively growing medicinal plants and dragon fruit. Besides this, forty families are cultivating dragon fruit and herbal plants with the help of government schemes like MGNREGA.

 

Reeva Sood changed the complexion of agriculture and turned barren land into a Rs 65 lakh green business. She has been encouraging other women to take interest in the cultivation of dragon fruits, inspiring them to go for organic farming. She is now a role model for other women.

 
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