Thirty-year-old Sarathbabu Pintyala, a successful IT professional, had a promising career in a software firm in Hyderabad.
But, he decided to quit the job in order to pursue his passion for nature-friendly farming by shunning the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
“I did a couple of stints in software firms in Hyderabad for seven years after completing my post-graduation in management from Osmania University. That gave me confidence to embark on my new venture,” says the GenX farmer who grows a variety of crops on which he uses only bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides in the remote village of Bobbepalli in Prakasam district.
He effectively leverages Information and Communications Technology (ICT) right from the selection of crops to the marketing stage, at a time when the average farmer is struggling to stay afloat due to low remuneration that fails to match pace with the ever-increasing costs of cultivation.
The techie-turned-farmer uses ICT right from selecting the crops to bagging online orders for his organic produce, and has also networked his field with micro-irrigation systems as Prakasam district is notorious for being drought-prone.
Generally, farmers identify a crop that has fetched a good price in the previous year and then go for a large-scale sowing of that crop. However, they end up making losses in the event of a market crash.
Not wanting to put all his eggs in one basket, Mr. Sarathbabu has is growing at least 10 varieties of crops simultaneously in his 10-acre plot with each crop cultivated in about 50 cents of land to minimise the risk associated with mono-cropping.
“I take yields all through the year to reduce the risk as the prices of crops fluctuate depending upon demand and supply at a particular point of time,” Mr. Sarathbabu told The Hindu .
