ANANTAPUR: Can you imagine a farmer, that too from the drought-ridden Anantapur district travelling in flight? Sounds incredible then read the following story.
Though a Class II drop out, Sivashankar Reddy from Parasannayanipalli village of Anantapur rural mandal not only benefited from agriculture but set an example for the rest through his profitable farming methods.
He even received the best ryot award from the Government for his innovative farming.
Though he didn’t have formal education, he is getting his sons educated in the city and prefers to spend most of his time on the fields. Earlier, Reddy who hails from ordinary farming community had to cultivate and rely on rain-fed crops alone. When he decided to go for horticulture crops, little did he know that it was going to change his fate.
He cultivated muskmelon (Suraj type Karbuja) in his 10 acre field near by NH-7. He spent Rs 35,000 per acre and took the crop to Delhi by himself in lorry and got Rs 1 lakh per acre with a net profit of Rs 65,000 per acre.
The next year he cultivated three crops. Seeing his profits, others in the town too followed the suit using drip irrigation. ``The fruit has good demand in Ramzan month and will be around Rs 12 per kilo. Each muskmelon weighs about seven kilos,’’ he disclosed.
“f one can ensure that the crop comes handy in Ramzan, they can reap good returns. One can get as much as Rs 2.5 lakh income per acre,’’ he said.
According to him, the fruit has good demand in Kolkata and Delhi which is in turn exported to the Gulf. The Yellowish fruit is good for health and is a standard prescribed diet for diabetics.
“We have laid 18 bores in our 12 acre field.
Though ground water-levels have depleted, with the help of drip irrigation we are managing to raise some or the other fruit crops,’’ said Narayanaswamy of Seerpi village in Beluguppa mandal. Apart from muskmelon, ryots here are cultivating banana, sweet lime and papaya too which have been remunerative. ``Our entire family works day in and day out and the returns have been rewarding. We have raised banana crop in our 9 acre field and got 9 lakh income,’’ he said.
Of the 30 lakh acre agriculture land in the district only 2 lakh acres have irrigation facility.
Another 3 lakh acres are being cultivated under wells. The rest is rainfed. Except for Kalyanadurgam, Kundurpi, Kambadur, Beluguppa and Anantapur rural mandals where aplenty of crop is being cultivated, it is not cultivated anywhere else in the State.
Fruits crops are being raised in about 5,000 hectares in district every year which fetch them on an average from Rs 1 to 2 lakh per acre to every farmer.
Horticulture AD Y Vidyashankar said that the crop is being cultivated in the district as the weather pattern here best suits it. ``For its part, Government also has been giving incentives for raising fruit archards,’’ he said.
azad@expressbuzz.com