Horticulturist of the Month- Mr. Ghanshyam Gaudani

Ayushi Roully

Mr. Ghanshyam Gaudani, Horticulturist is a M.Sc. (Agro Forestry) from Gujarat Agriculture University and currently working as DGM, Horticulture at Nyara Energy Ltd, Vadinar-Jamnagar. He is having over 22 years of rich experience in the development and maintenance of Landscapes, Greenbelts, Commercial Horticulture and Fruit Orchards, with a wide knowledge of plant species and techniques including rainwater harvesting, sub-soil irrigation, tough soil reclamation etc.
He has Landscape Architectural Knowledge, working with landscape drawing, AutoCAD knowledge. He has the ability to give a lead to the department of Horticulture, Environment, and Administration and transform the outlook of an organization. He possesses excellent interpersonal skills i.e. interaction with downline colleagues, workers and top management as well as Vendors, Customers, etc.

One of the team members from INA had an interview with Mr. Gaudani to know his work experiences as a horticulturist.

Q. Please tell us about you and your establishment including your accomplishments?
Ans. Being a son of a farmer, I have inclination toward agriculture since my childhood. After getting Post-Graduation in the field of Forestry and Agriculture from ASPEE College of Horticulture and Forestry, GAU, Navsari, my career started in the private corporate sector as Horticulture/Forest Officer. I worked for Core Healthcare and Essar Group and now I am working with Nayara Energy Ltd, Vadinar, Jamnagar and heading Horticulture Department.
Nayara Energy Ltd, a leading, second-largest private sector oil refinery in India is having a huge asset of Horticulture at its Refinery site in Gujarat. More than 800 acres of Kesar Mango Greenbelt with high-end technology for commercial mango production and more than 10 L Sq Mt of Landscape area add value to the refining business of the company. I and my team of Horticulturists take care of these Green Assets and increase the value of the assets year by year by establishing a very effective maintenance system.
Large manufacturing units are generally established in large areas and as per environmental laws, almost 1/3 of the total area must be covered with greenbelts. Generally, greenbelts are non-productive. Greenbelts with the production of fruits relieve some financial burden of maintenance of greenbelts. Nayara Energy has established hundreds of acres of its greenbelts with varieties of fruits with forest species of trees. My endeavor for good management with timely followed schedules, our harvest of mango has reached three times higher than the average harvests.

Q. How and why did you choose this career?
Ans. Making a small garden and small orchards of fruits was my hobby during my childhood. My native is in the vicinity of GIR Forest and we had a fruit orchard having many varieties of fruits. My creative nature and being in orchards during my childhood developed me to incline more toward Forestry and Horticulture. Moreover, new ideas of how to make a landscape used to sprout in my mind during my graduation. Creativity is always an inbuilt element for a human being. I love creativity and landscape gardening generally requires full of creativity. When I started developing creative colourful gardens during my initial career at Essar Group, Hazira, Surat, people started praising my work and that fueled me to choose this career of Horticulture and helped me perform with superior results.

Q. What is it about horticulture that attracted you?
Ans. I believe that horticulture has the potential to create wonders in the world. It has the potential to create a huge number of jobs in India. When we compare ourselves with the horticulture of developed countries, we can see huge opportunities to be attracted to horticulture. It is in all fields of horticulture, be it landscape horticulture or commercial horticulture, there are wonderful opportunities to grow and that attracted me to horticulture. Just a simple example: Why can’t we create a “Miracle Garden” like Dubai in India? Huge opportunity, isn’t it?

Q. What challenges did you face while growing up in Corporate Horticulture?
Ans. Corporate Horticulture is a huge field where every industry especially large establishments develops the area under Greenbelt and Landscapes in the manufacturing units and residential areas or townships. Though the horticulture development and greenbelt is a very important element for any organization, it is generally treated as expanding activity and less weightage is given to these activities in some organizations. I believe that horticulture in any organization is like clothes on the body. It requires for everybody, if you want to look better, you have to wear good clothes and it requires good expenses also. Getting enough funds for horticulture activities in non-horticulture corporate is the challenge we face. It is very difficult for many organizations to spend more on horticulture as it is not its core business. But now a days, more awareness has come among developers and they started spending too.
One more challenge is to get exact information on technical part especially plant nutrient deficiency and exact medicine for diseases and pests. There should be a diagnosis center for horticulturists and farmers to get exact help on their technical problems.
Q. What is it that you contribute to increase awareness amongst people about this field?
Ans. In any field, awareness among people will definitely increase its importance. At Nayara, we treat horticulture as a very important element for our Refinery. “Shramdaan Plantation” is the concept where we call our employees to come and plant trees in Refinery Greenbelt/Avenue areas. In the same way “Plant Your Own Vegetable” activity boosted the interest level of residents of our township in Horticulture areas. Series of Awareness Sessions on various horticulture topics like ‘how to grow vegetables’, ‘how to grow potted plants’, ‘How to make bonsai’, ‘How to make flower arrangements’ etc during our Annual Winter Seasonal Flower Show with good participation of people creates a good amount of awareness among not only our company employees and their families but also among the students of schools of surrounding villages.

Q. What are your long- term professional goals as a horticulturist?
Ans. I have started my career as a horticulturist in corporate organizations. As it is a very limited field to grow professionally, the growth is stagnant after certain years of experience. In our field, the use of high-end techniques to boost production is very limited and it requires systematically work on it. In the field of mango orchard management, my endeavour is to increase the production and quality of fruits through good management of harvest and post-harvest techniques with optimum expenses. In the field of landscape and especially for the winter flower season, there is a good opportunity to create a Miracle Garden of Dubai-like concept in our country. Though our winter flower show at Nayara Energy is marvelous now a days, my professional goal is to reach to the stage where it will be compared with Miracle Garden.

Some of his major achievements are as a horticulturist: a huge production of 375 Ton harvest from Mango Orchards in 2021. It is 3 to 4 times the average production.

1. Renovated the prominent garden areas with eye catching landscape to give good look to the Refinery.

2. Started high level industry standard “Nayara Flower Show” in township.

3. “Shram daan” plantation concept introduced to enable employees and associates to plant trees in their premises.

4. Designed and developed a whole new “100 Variety Fruit Orchard” in Refinery area to add a marvelous feather in company’s good and green activities.

5. Introduced entire new system of Mango Harvest and Sale procedure to enable minimum damage and maximum sale.

6. Introduced and developed sprinkler irrigation system for many landscape areas

7. Introduced a robust follow up and measurement system to enable agency work continuously and comfortably.

8. Guided and motivated entire team through regular sessions and meetings to get maximum outputs

9. “Grow Your Own Vegetables” – plantation of vegetables by kids and family introduced in township.