Shri Ratan Lal Daga, Member (Non-Official)
Shri Ratanlal Daga is currently a member (non-official) in the Agricultural Costs and Prices Commission, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. He was born on October 1, 1951 in a farmer family of Mathaniyan village. He received his primary education in Mathaniyan and Jodhpur and in the year 1973, he obtained B.Sc. (Agri) degree from Sukhadia Agricultural University, Udaipur. After completing his agriculture graduation, Shri Daga worked with his father for about two years in fields and in 1976, he started his independent agriculture business with 25 acres of land. At present he has an agricultural farm of 60 acres where initially regional crops like chilli, onion, garlic and wheat were produced. He always made efforts and research for the production of new crops and prepared breeder and foundation seeds of Moong, Sesame, Raida for National Seed Corporation and State Seed Corporation. He is producing seeds of vegetables like cauliflower, brinjal, carrot, coriander, guar, chanwala, gourd, bottle gourd, bitter gourd etc. for private seed companies. Since 2003, he has been providing water to his farm using drip irrigation system and experiments related to storage are also being conducted. From the year 2004, he stopped using chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides etc. and moved towards organic farming. His major achievements are on-farm production of compost, vermicompost, matka compost, milk-curd green manure, minerals (gypsum, rock phosphate ash) and pest control etc. Production is being done successfully by including crop rotation, intercropping, trap crops and bacteria in the farm plan. Presently, various agricultural products (food grains - wheat, millet, maize, Pulses-moong, gwar, chawla, gram, Oilseeds-sesame, raya, yellow mustard, Spices-chilli coriander, cumin, fenugreek, fennel, kalonji, carom, and garlic, Fruits - Pomegranate, Amla, Bael, Lemon, Papaya, Pumkin, Fig, Plum, Seasonal Vegetables and other - Chamoline Tea, Chia, Moringa, Hazara Flowers, Creepers- Gunda, Kerunda, Sangri, Ker, Sonamukhi, Neem, Kumbut etc.) are being available at the farm itself after processing, grading and packing.
Shri Ratanlal Daga believes that “Every family should have maximum access to Organic food materials”, in line of his progressive thinking, most of the agricultural commodities are being produced in his farms.
Shri Ratanlal Daga has made significant contributions and garnered notable achievements in the realm of agriculture and agricultural policy. His contributions include serving as a nominated member of the Central Spices Board in 1990 and later as a member of the State Seed Sub Committee from 1996 to 1998, appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India. In 1994, he visited Israel alongwith Agricultural Experts of Rajasthan Government. He also served as a member of the Managing Board of Agricultural University, Bikaner, from 2006 to 2008, and subsequently contributed to the Spices Board Jodhpur in 2015-2016, the Central Pulses Board in 2016, and the Managing Board of Krishi Vishwavidyalaya Jodhpur from 2015 to 2019. His involvement extended to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research Society from 2017 to 2020, and he was honored as a farmer representative nominated member of the management board of Niyama in 2019.
Shri Daga's achievements highlight his dedication and impact in agriculture. He was recognized by NABARD in 1997-98 and 1998-99 for his exemplary leadership of the best volunteer farmer club in Rajasthan. In 2014, he received the prestigious Crystal National Agri Award, followed by recognition from the Agriculture Department of Rajasthan Government in 2016 for his outstanding work in agricultural processing and marketing at the Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet. His commitment to organic farming earned him the National Level "Dharti Mitra 2018" Second Prize by Organic India and the 1st Haldhar Organic Farmer Award by ICAR in 2020, underscoring his leadership and innovation in sustainable agriculture practices.
