RAJAM (SRIKAKULAM):Farming is considered an unprofitable profession. But a silent wave of innovative farming spearheaded by an architect who designed his career in modern farming, has swept across the backward district of Srikakulam over the past one year and proving that innovative methods could make agriculture one of the most profitable professions. Hemanth was one of the key members in drafting the new horticulture policy of the Andhra Pradesh government which would be released shortly.
Started by an architect-turned-farmer M Hemanth Kumar from Rajam, polyhouse farming is proving to be a profitable venture with more farmers adopting it in the district. After initial hiccups, Hemanth succeeded in making an annual turnover of about Rs 15 lakh this year by cultivating capsicum within an acre of his agriculture land at Arasada village in Vangara mandal near Rajam. Inspired by him, eight more farmers from the district have obtained permission from the Horticulture department this year and their projects are in different phases of execution.
Hemanth, an architect, is well-known among construction circles for designing numerous residential projects. He shifted to Hyderabad in the ‘90s but was compelled to return to his hometown after his father expired in 2009.
“It was then that I realised my love for agriculture. But everyone around tried to discourage me. So I decided to prove them wrong by adopting modern methods of farming and earn good profits,” said Hemanth. After researching modern agriculture methods, he commenced his work in 2012 but found it difficult to convince bankers to fund his project. “Polyhouse cultivation is popular abroad and hence, it is being promoted by the State government here. But the banks were reluctant to fund it as it requires an investment of Rs 24 lakh for cultivation in just half-an-acre,” he added.
Hemanth was compelled to mortgage his property to obtain the loan and after experimenting for about two years, succeeded during the last fiscal. He has now expanded the cultivation area to an acre. “Polyhouse enables us to cultivate crops in a protective environment and hence, climate does not have severe impact on the crop. In addition, I have opted for drip irrigation and other such modern methods which in turn helped me earn good profits,” he said. Being an architect, Hemanth studied the polyhouse construction and designed one for himself to meet his requirements.
The Horticulture department officials said that though the initial investment was high for the first year, farmers can earn huge profits as investments in the later years is lesser than for traditional farming and requires just two-three persons to manage up to two acre field. The entire infrastructure, including polyhouse, drip irrigation system and other equipment, are permanent and reusable. As against the investment of Rs 24 lakh for half-an-acre land, farmer’s contribution would be around Rs 5 lakh and the government offers a subsidy of Rs 10 lakh. The loan component can be repaid over seven years.
“Inspired by Hemanth, eight farmers have applied for polyhouse cultivation and they are in various stages of execution. We are expecting more applications once these new projects show results,” said MA Rahim, assistant director of horticulture in Srikakulam. A few of them are now planning to cultivate other horticulture crops.
Learning lessons from his experience, Hemanth prepared a step-by-step guide on polyhouse cultivation combined with modern methods for farmers aspiring to adopt modern agriculture. He said that his report helps farmers in venturing into polyhouse agriculture as they need advanced preparation what with the crop coming up for harvest earlier than in conventional farming. His reports also detail how to deal with pests.