PANAJI
Goa’s only producer of A2 Gir cow milk, Dr Malik’s Farm has launched a new dairy product, shrikhand, on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, offering the first batch of this just-launched product to lord Ganesh. “Initially we have started with three flavours,” states Chaitanya B Malik, an engineer-turned-agriculturist and proprietor of Dr Malik’s Farm, Hasapur, Pernem.
Dr Malik’s Gir Gaushala pioneered in introducing A2 Gir cow’s milk in Goa. Apart from selling A2 milk, the farm also sells ghee and brands like ‘Asi Panchagavya’ that has a range of panchagavya products under it. Dr Malik’s Farm has introduced cow based products like soap, shampoo, tooth powder, hair oil, massage oil, dhoop sticks, phenyl gomutra ark, ghanvati etc, which have a presence in the markets of Goa, Pune, Nasik, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
“We are the first in Goa to introduce A2 milk to the State and create an awareness on the health and wellbeing aspects of the A2 variety of milk that our Indigenous breed Gir cows produce,” boasts Chaitanya who ventured into the dairy farming business seven years ago.
“On the occasion of Krishna Janmastami, we shifted to a new, bigger and better gaushala which has an open paddock for cows to move freely, and an automated water refill system. We grow green fodder for them at our farm,” shared Chaitanya.
Recalling his back-to-roots journey in his farm, Chaitanya, an IT engineer from Goa College of Engineering, states, “We have progressed slowly from agriculture to integrated agriculture and then to Desi Gir cow farm. Instead of opting for a 9 to 5 job, I preferred to toil 24 hour in our farm which repays me in bountiful today."
After his first entrepreneur venture, ‘Fruits, Roots and Shoots’ that sourced organic produce from the farmers and supplied it in the market, failed, this young engineer did not give up and decided to develop his farm on the ancestral land, and ultimately, this saw the birth of Dr Malik’s Farm in February 2016. There has been no looking back since then, for Chaitanya.
Harvesting crops, fruits, adopting crop rotation system, growing exotic vegetables like broccoli, lettuce along with ladyfingers, chili, lettuce, bottle gourd, yam, tendli, spices, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, fruits like papaya, banana, jaam, mango with exotic fruits like avocado and soursop, has allowed the business to expand and grow.
