The oil of Marigold flower has various medicinal properties. While the fragrant yellow flower is used for oil extraction, the rest of the plant goes waste after harvest. Samar Singh Bhadauria, a high-school dropout farmer from a village in Kanpur came up with an out-of-the-box thinking to extract oil from the plant’s stem as well. He plucked the marigold flowers from his field and processed the entire marigold plant for oil. Bhadauria was able to obtain 2-2.5 kg of oil from every 1 ton of marigold plant he processed. Amazed by the results, he consulted agricultural experts for verifying the extracted oil for its purity.

Inspired by this result, Bhadauria established two more processing units, each of one ton capacity. Under this process, the marigold plant is used for processing for the oil extraction, once the flowers of plants are plucked. The oil extraction technique involves shafts and input procedure for extracting oil from marigold’s stems and leaves, which are generally thrown away as waste and thus, generates extra income. The residual processed material is utilized as organic manures and mulching material for other crops.