Amanpreet Singh, an engineer by profession, always had a keen interest in agriculture and dairy farming, having grown up near a farm in Kota, Rajasthan. But his farming journey would take years of preparation and learning.

After completing his engineering degree in 2012, Amanpreet pursued his passion for dairy farming by enrolling in courses like Dairy Science at NDRI and Dairy Automation at Tel Aviv University.

“By the end of 2015, I returned home. With technical help from an Israeli milk company, we established a dairy farm on our (50-acre) land,” Amanpreet recalls.

In 2016, Amanpreet and his brothers founded ‘Gau Organics’. Starting with 27 cows, they began milk subscriptions and later expanded into value-added products like ghee, butter, and organic jaggery.

But Amanpreet was concerned about the challenges dairy farmers face, especially their reliance solely on milk production for income. “A cow produces milk after nine months of pregnancy. She is not a machine.”

Meanwhile, another point that came to his notice was the excess waste generated by their livestock. So alongside selling value-added products, they started selling cow dung cakes and manure on Amazon, where sales surged, especially post-lockdown.

As their herd expanded to over 300 cows, the increasing waste also sparked a new idea: using it to power their farm. To achieve this, they built two 40 kW biogas plants, turning livestock waste into a reliable source of electricity.

For this, cow dung and urine are processed in a digester, where they are converted into electricity. “We are able to generate 80 kW power through our plants,” Amanpreet says. This meets 70 percent of their electricity needs.

Thanks to their biogas plants, they save over Rs 2.5 lakh per month on electricity bills. The by-product slurry is also used as organic manure for their fields.

Their sustainability efforts don’t stop there. The farm also has a 60 kW solar power plant and facilities for rainwater harvesting.

Despite challenges, such as a shortage of skilled workers, Amanpreet takes pride in the farm’s success, which generates an annual revenue of Rs 7 crore. “We should not take food science and farmers for granted,” he asserts.

Their work was featured in Mann Ki Baat in 2023 and recognised by the Prime Minister of India. Gau Organics was also invited as a special guest at the 75th Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi, a proud moment for the company.

“I want to make an organic natural food cooperative to provide nutrition for the country.” Amanpreet’s dream has been successfully implemented across the nation.