GOURPALI (SAMBALPUR):Setting an example for youths who are distancing themselves from agriculture in search of greener pastures, 30-year-old Bismaya Kumar Nath Sharma has proved that farming can be a lucrative career option.
Failing to land a job despite completing graduation and ITI, Bismaya of Gourpali village under Jamankira block in the district, decided to join his father Laxminarayan Nath Sharma (55) in integrated farming in 2014. Today, he is reaping rich dividends from it. Apart from paddy cultivation, the father and son duo grows vegetable as well as fruits with help of two deep bore wells and are also into pisciculture.
Prior to joining of Bismaya, Laxminarayan was cultivating paddy in only over five acres of land till 1999. He started vegetable farming in 2000 and cultivated pointed gourd (potal) in over half an acre of land and even managed to earn a profit of `20,000 in the first year. Subsequently, he ventured into cultivation of pumpkin, tomato as well as brinjal and expanded vegetable farming to over one and a half acres of land. Currently, the father-son duo earns a profit of about `50,000 per annum from vegetables only.
Later, on being informed that pisciculture offers good returns, Laxminarayan dug up a tank in one acre of land with subsidised loan amounting to `90,000 from the Fisheries department. He spent `1.27 lakh to start pisciculture and released fish spawns of Rohu, Common Carp and Catla into the tank.Now, the father and son harvest around eight quintal of fish annually and earn a profit of about `50,000 per annum.
After making up his mind to join his father, Bismaya decided to devote his entire time to farming activities and began banana cultivation in over one acre of land with support from National Horticulture Mission.
Bismaya said they spent about `1.20 lakh to start banana cultivation with help of drip irrigation. In the first year of harvesting, they managed to recover the total expenditure. The saplings were provided free of cost by the Horticulture department along with subsidy on drip irrigation, he said.
In the second year, the father-son duo earned a profit of `1 lakh after incurring an expenditure of `20,000. They have already earned a profit of more than `50,000 during the current year and the financial gain will cross `1 lakh, he said.Altogether, they earned a profit of about `2.5 lakh per annum, including profit of `50,000 from paddy cultivated over 10 acres as sharecroppers besides their own 3.5 acres of land.
Buoyed by the profit from banana, Bismaya has planned to expand its cultivation to one and a half acres of more land from the next kharif season besides potal in over another half an acre.
Bismaya said they face no problem in selling their produce as traders come to the village to procure it. “I am happy after taking up farming as a profession and this decision of mine has proved to be a success,” he added.