“In West Bengal, Mandals are known to be cultivators. So despite earning my trade as an electrician at ITI, I turned to the 30-acre family farm to work hard and build a business.

I’ve always tried to push the boundaries – try new techniques and technologies. I had spent my life growing rice the old-school way, but when I adopted the System of Rice Intensification I saw immediate results and motivated others to follow. I planted 6 bighas of fruit and timber to diversify and started exploring exotic fruits and vegetables too. Then one day I decided to optimize the two talent ponds on my land and kickstart aquaculture – that’s when business really took off! I’d never really grown fish before but once I started, I had a definitive goal in mind – to take a scientific approach to raise fish and achieve the state average of 10quintals of produce per bigha. But no one had ever achieved that and the local average was just 3-4 quintals so I’d set myself quite a task. I learned everything there was to know about fish and aquaculture and everyone was surprised, not the least myself, when I hauled in 24 quintals of production from my 3 bigha ponds! I was honored by the Government Agriculture Department and today my pond is a demonstration pond where I teach others how to achieve similar results. I didn’t quite make the state average, but there is the next year to do that!” - Himangshu Mandal, Sudna, Farakka, West Bengal.