Engineer from Dhar leaves ₹5.5 lakh job to pursue farming:Grows ‘Safed Musli’ on 25 acres land; earns ₹1 crore per year

Rahul Lakshman Parihar, a 35-year-old from Jazamkhedi village in Manawar, Dhar district, left a secure engineering job with an annual package of ₹5.5 lakh to follow his passion for medicinal farming. Today, by cultivating white musli on 25 acres of ancestral land, he earns close to ₹1 crore a year and provides employment to 20 people. Rahul’s journey is particularly noteworthy because his father had attempted musli farming 23 years ago but stopped due to low prices and challenges in cultivation. Learning Musli cultivation abroad After completing his M.Tech in 2015, Rahul worked in a private telecom company across Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Chhattisgarh, including postings in Naxal-affected areas. Despite a stable career, he was drawn to medicinal farming. In 2020, he decided to return to his village and focus on farming. The Parihar family owns 25 acres, earlier used for cotton and corn. Rahul had received early exposure to musli cultivation when his father sent him to Malaysia in 2007 through a Hyderabad-based company. There, he learned the intricacies of planting and care for this high-value crop, which is typically grown in select regions of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and southern Rajasthan. Father’s early experiment and revival of Musli farming Rahul’s father, Lakshman Parihar, first brought white musli seeds from Buldhana, Maharashtra, and planted them on 10 bighas of land in 2002. Due to low returns and working alone, he discontinued the cultivation. He advised Rahul to explore musli instead of cotton, and the son revived the crop with modern techniques. Today, Rahul not only cultivates musli for personal sale but also supplies seeds to other farmers, fulfilling orders through social media and delivering to markets such as Maharashtra, where recently 30 quintals of seeds were dispatched. Production, investment and profit White musli cultivation requires loamy soil with sufficient moisture and a humid climate, though heavy rainfall is manageable with proper drainage. The crop matures in approximately three months. From one bigha, farmers can harvest 800–1000 kg of wet roots or 100–150 kg of dry musli. Rahul invests roughly ₹20 lakh for 25 bighas, producing about 350 quintals of wet musli and 70–75 quintals of dry roots. The roots are carefully extracted in October–November to avoid damaging the skin. In Neemuch, the largest medicinal market in the state, dry musli is priced around ₹1.7 lakh per quintal, while wet musli fetches ₹30,000–40,000 per quintal. Proper storage of roots ensures availability for next year’s sowing. Expansion plans and market demand Encouraged by the success of the current crop, Rahul plans to expand cultivation to 75 bighas through leased land in the village. He aims to extract, clean, dry, and sell the crop next season, with projected revenue of around ₹1 crore. For selling seeds, the process takes about 10 months, whereas regular cultivation is completed in four months. Currently, India has a demand for 35,000 tons of musli annually, but production meets only 5,000 tons, highlighting the crop’s high market potential. Family background Rahul comes from a highly educated family. His younger brother Vishal Parihar works as an engineer in MPRDC, while the family also includes two doctors and four civil engineers. His father was formerly a member of the All India Musli Association, which helped Rahul gain early insights into medicinal farming. Today, Rahul’s success has not only revived a family legacy but also transformed white musli cultivation into a lucrative, scalable business in Dhar district. ​