At a time when highly educated farmers with large tracts of land are finding it difficult to earn a profit, a farmer who has not passed SSLC and has about three acres is earning a steady income of nearly ₹50,000 a month. The innovative farmer has now started exploring the online market.

Yogesh T.M., 31, from Taluru in Mysuru district, used take up small jobs in Bengaluru and Mysuru, and had not given a serious thought to farming as his family had only 3.15 acres of land.

But, fed up with his work in the city, he returned to his village seven years ago to take up farming. He began growing exotic vegetables like red cabbage, yellow cherry tomato, table radish, broccoli and turnip that have high value. He sells his produce to malls in Mysuru, Bengaluru, Goa and Hyderabad besides big vegetable shops. Now, he grows nearly 25 such varieties and has started exploring the online marketplace. “We have created two clusters of farmers for growing foreign vegetable varieties organically. The intention is to ensure their availability at the doorsteps of consumers in Bengaluru and Mysuru through online markets,” he says.

The University of Agricultural Sciences-Bengaluru (UAS-B) on Friday honoured him with district-level best farmer award at Krishi Mela.

Another farmer to be honoured by the UAS-B on Friday was Siddappa. The 31-year-old hails from Taggaluru of Gundlupet taluk. He grows cotton, jowar, sugarcane and banana. But his innovation lies in maximising profit by taking up related works, including a plant nursery which fetches him about ₹15,000 a month. He has also set up a flour mill that works on his diesel-run tiller so that villagers need not depend on power supply for grinding grains.

Maximising farm income

G. N. Suma from Kalpura village of Chamarajanagar district was cynosure of all eyes at the UAS-B’s Krishi Mela on Friday not just because she received the district-level best farm woman award, but due to her innovative ways of increasing income.

She not only looks after an 8-acre farm with her husband, but also runs a plant nursery, which yields about ₹50,000 per month. While sericulture fetches another ₹10,000 a month, her dairy farming brings in ₹10,000. This innovative farmer wants her children, especially her daughter, who is pursuing BSc., to become a farmer.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by B.S. Satish Kumar / November 17th, 2018