From Rs 6-crore debt to farming success: Fazilka farmer’s sheep, agroforestry formula

Harbhinder Singh Sandhu’s farming journey is a story of repeated setbacks, mounting debt, a refusal to give up and bringing his young children into farming. The 53-year-old farmer from Khippanwali village of Fazilka has been involved in farming since childhood, as his family owned 50 acres.

He formally joined farming in 1994 after completing his BSc in Agriculture from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana. His family’s kinnow orchards were destroyed by waterlogging. Sandhu then experimented with sugarcane, cotton and dairy on the family farm, but faced setbacks and fell into heavy debt.

“The family’s kinnow orchards were the first casualty of waterlogging, so I started growing sugarcane. Production was not an issue, but delayed payments from sugar mills left us short of working capital and eventually burdened our family with Rs 5-6 crore debt,” Sandhu said.

He then shifted to Bt cotton, as Fazilka was one of the state’s main cotton-growing belts. “The initial years were very good and I recovered much of my losses, but a severe whitefly attack in 2015, followed by other diseases, forced me to abandon commercial cotton,” he said.

Sandhu next started a dairy venture with nearly 100 Neeli-Ravi buffaloes. Though it was doing well, the Covid outbreak disrupted milk sales while feed and labour costs continued to rise. The animals were eventually sold in parts, recovering some of the investment.

“Instead of asking whether I should continue farming, I began asking what kind of farming could survive,” he said. Sandhu then focused on agroforestry on five to six acres in 2018 and gradually expanded it to around 30 acres over the next six years, adding about five acres annually.

“Besides, I began exploring commercial sheep farming around 2021, as we had been keeping sheep and goats as pet animals in small numbers for a long time. I found that managing sheep was much easier than goats.” He visited the Central Institute for Research on Goats (CIRG), Makhdoom, Mathura, in 2021 and purchased eight semi-adult sheep for around Rs 70,000.

By expanding the flock and reinvesting earnings, ARU Farms now has about 600 breeding animals and 400 seasonal grazing sheep, totalling nearly 1,000. Today, the 53-year-old has built one of the region’s largest sheep farms, ARU Sheep Farm, named after his three children, whom he considers his greatest achievement.

He developed a model combining agroforestry with sheep breeding and rearing. Abhijeet Kaur Sandhu (25), an LLB graduate and practising lawyer; Roopam Sandhu (23), an MSc dietician and freelancer; and 18-year-old Udaypratap Singh Sandhu, a 10+1 medical student, are pursuing their professions while remaining deeply involved in the sheep farm.

“We grew up watching our father among his animals, so farming never felt like a job — it became our passion. From a young age, all three of us accompanied and helped him. Even today, we wake up at 5 am and spend the first two hours on the farm before turning to our studies and professions,” Roopam, who also works as a freelance dietician, said.

“Education does not take you away from farming; it helps you understand the business better,” she said. Her brother Udaypratap highlighted that the siblings have learnt everything hands-on, from vaccination to animals to breeding and management.

“Despite having every opportunity to choose conventional careers, we are helping take the farm across India and dream of developing high-protein sheep-milk products such as cheese,” Roopam added. Their story is significant at a time when many educated youngsters in Punjab are seeking careers away from agriculture and in foreign nations.

“For us, farming isn’t a 9-to-5 job. It is a passion our father planted in us. Now we cannot think beyond it. It generates a highly respectable income for us while sitting at our place — we don’t have to go looking for a market; the market comes to us,” Roopam further said.