Bengaluru: Producing organic jaggery can be lucrative. Manoj, hailing from Uttar Pradesh, is a prime example. He earns Rs 6 lakh every year by selling jaggery.     

He had a dream of becoming an IAS officer. At the same time, he was firm in his opinion that if not selected, he would then join social service. 

As reported by Dainik Bhakar, in 2006, he joined Arvind Kejriwal's team as an RTI (Right to Information) activist. During this, he filed more than 700 RTIs. Many cases were also filed against him.

After this, Manoj joined the Anna movement. He played an active role on many forums. Later, when the Aam Aadmi Party was formed, they too joined it. He held a number of positions in the party, but as time passed, in 2016, he got bored of politics. They now started planning to do something new.
Manoj's father is a retired principal. One brother is a lecturer in Delhi and the other brother is posted as principal in a school in Baraut, Baghpat. Farming ran in his blood, but nobody paid attention. Manoj too was not interested in farming.

Manoj says, “When I left politics, a friend connected me to a WhatsApp group of farmers. There were different types of content and videos in it. It also had videos related to farming. Seeing all of this, my interest in agriculture started coming. Four years ago, with the help of father and brothers, I started sugarcane farming. Since I was new to this field, I had no farming experience. Therefore, after the production of the crop, I had to visit the sugar mills, went for a long time and did not make any significant profit”.

It wasn’t easy for him initially. But he persevered, saw videos on YouTube and learnt the tricks of the trade. In this way, he has become a role model for everyone.