How many crops can you grow on six acres? For this enterprising farmer from Bidar, the answer is 11.
Nidoda Vaijanath of Kamathana village also keeps cows, buffaloes and sheep and also has a mini-poultry farm.
His farm has small patches covered with fig, cashew, ginger, watermelon, lime, mosambi, drumstick, brinjal, coriander, mango and curry leaf, and he makes a good profit from each.
But integrated farming is not the only thing that makes him different. The arts graduate, who also works in the zilla panchayat office, constantly updates his knowledge by reading magazines and books, meeting fellow progressive farmers, and consulting farm scientists.
He plans his farm activities three years in advance. “It is not enough if you plan. We need to micromanage things,” Mr. Vaijanath says.
“I have a clear idea of how much to spend every year and how to increase profits,” he adds. He increases or decreases the acreage for short-term crops, depending on the rates in the market.
He stores the produce in a small godown on the farm, and waits to sell it at a high price after gathering information from multiple markets.
This year, for example, he got a yield of 180 quintals of ginger per acre and sold it for Rs. 10,000 per quintal. The two-acre crop earned him around Rs. 35 lakh.
He spends just under Rs. 1 lakh per acre on cultivation.
“Two words explain his success: personal attention,” says Praveen Jholgikar, assistant professor, College of Horticulture in Bidar. Resource persons from the college routinely visit Mr. Vaijanath’s farm to provide guidance and give solutions.
Mr. Vaijanath visits the field every morning from 6 to 9. Unlike most other farmers, he does not depend on labourers.
“He stands apart from farmers who grow crops such as sugarcane that are water-intensive and do not guarantee remunerative prices,” says Ravi Deshmukh, training coordinator, Krishi Vigyan Kendra.
