VIZIANAGARAM: The year 2020 has been challenging both personally and professionally for everyone accounting to the pandemic. But despite all woes, some entrepreneurs made their way to come up with different kind of innovations.
Following the silver line in time of distress, this software engineer of Rajam turned his terrace into a productive farming place yielding dragon fruits, besides his software job under work from home basis.
Through his continuous efforts and dedication, he has now become an inspiration to other software engineers.
Sudharsanam Adhikari (40) of Dolapeta in Rajam town has been working as a software engineer in Bangalore. He was bound to come to his hometown due to Covid-19 lockdown and has been doing his job under work from home basis. It was after his duty hours that he came out with the idea of cultivating dragon fruits.
Speaking to TNIE, Sudharsanam Adhikari said, “I was gifted with the passion of gardening by my parents. We have been gardening in my home since my childhood. As per my mother’s advice, I decided to cultivate dragon fruits on the terrace of my house through organic farming method as it consumes less water and good demand in the market. I prepared his six cents terrace space into a farmland and planted as many as 100 dragon fruit, brought from village Kagithapalli, in 2021 summer.’’
“After eight months, I produced nearly 150 kg dragon fruits as my first crop. I invested approximately Rs 1.5 lakh in my first crop, but received Rs 50,000 as returns. With all positivity, I have now extended the cultivation in half-acre farmland this year and expecting the second crop in next couple of months,” he added.
Speaking to TNIE, he added that dragon fruit has huge demand in open market. “The fruit is a lucrative crop for the farmers. But the cultivation also requires intensive care. If everything goes well, the crop might give me good return for the next 20 years,” the entrepreneur software engineer said.