Kuldeep Singh, a 50-year-old farmer from Koharka village in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district, pivoted to farming after his transport enterprise suffered heavy losses through the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2021, he remodeled his profession by launching Ekam Kisan Hut Personal Restricted, a enterprise targeted on producing cold-pressed meals merchandise. At this time, Singh’s enterprise not solely secures honest costs for farmers but in addition promotes crop diversification and self-sufficiency.
Singh’s firm processes wheat, maize, gram flour (besan), mustard and coconut oils, and spices like turmeric utilizing cold-press strategies. In contrast to the extra widespread hot-press strategies, chilly urgent preserves the dietary worth of the produce, providing shoppers more healthy options.
“Chilly-press strategies retain fibre and vitamins, not like hot-press processes, which prioritise amount over high quality,” Singh defined. As an example, cold-pressed wheat flour takes longer to grind—producing 30 kilograms per hour in comparison with 100 kilograms per hour in standard mills—however the result’s far superior in style and vitamin. Equally, his cold-pressed mustard oil yields solely 20 litres per 100 kilograms of mustard seeds, in comparison with 35 litres by means of scorching urgent, however provides unparalleled high quality.
Singh started his enterprise with three companions in December 2021, investing ₹8 lakh in equipment, together with a flour mill, oil extraction unit, and spice-grinding tools. By buying crops from farmers on the Minimal Help Worth (MSP)—even when market charges drop—Ekam ensures honest costs. The corporate additionally shares 13% of its earnings with farmers, making a collaborative mannequin that has attracted round 90 members and almost 200 farmers.
“Our purpose is to construct a system the place one farmer’s crop fulfils one other’s wants,” Singh mentioned. “This ensures honest costs, reduces dependency, and fosters sustainable practices.” He added that farmers usually promote their produce uncooked at mandis, incurring losses, whereas corporates revenue by processing and packaging the identical crops for retail sale. “By processing and advertising their very own crops, farmers can reverse this pattern and earn considerably extra,” Singh mentioned.
Ekam encourages farmers to diversify their crops, dedicating parts of land historically used for wheat and paddy to develop pulses, spices, natural gadgets, and oilseeds. Singh emphasised that diversification not solely boosts earnings but in addition helps handle Punjab’s urgent water disaster.
Regardless of the potential of such fashions, Singh famous challenges in convincing farmers to collaborate. “Once we current our mannequin, some focus extra on what we’d achieve as an alternative of realising their very own advantages,” he mentioned. Nonetheless, Singh stays optimistic, recalling how comparable concepts had been mentioned through the 2021 farmers’ protests in opposition to the controversial farm legal guidelines.
Ekam Kisan Hut’s merchandise have carved out a distinct segment available in the market. Chilly-pressed wheat flour is priced at ₹35-40 per kilogram, barely larger than hot-pressed flour at ₹26-27, however the superior high quality justifies the associated fee. Equally, Ekam’s mustard oil, priced at ₹250 per litre, and coconut extra-virgin oil, bought at ₹400-500 per litre, outperform hot-pressed counterparts in each high quality and dietary worth.
“As soon as prospects style our cold-pressed merchandise, they by no means return to common ones,” Singh mentioned, including that their charges are aggressive inside the cold-pressed section and infrequently decrease than comparable premium merchandise.
Agriculture Improvement Officer Reenu Virdi, who lately visited Ekam Kisan Hut, lauded Singh’s initiative. “Such fashions ought to be adopted statewide to supply nutritious meals to shoppers and enhance farmers’ earnings,” she mentioned.
Summing up his mission, Singh remarked, “Farmers won’t ever get a good value for his or her crops until they enter wholesome processing and advertising of their merchandise. Ventures like Ekam Kisan Hut present that tough work, unity, and belief amongst farmers can create a brand new period of farming in Punjab.”
