BENGALURU: Scores of cab drivers and delivery boys work in the metropolis nursing myriad dreams, even as they own proud lands back home waiting to be tilled. Now with the lockdown, many of these youngsters, who had come to big cities like Bengaluru from the rural pockets, are left jobless, while they also lack the knowhow to work on farms back home. Enter a techie-turned-farmer-cum-entrepreneur who has come to their rescue.
Running his own software firm in sunny California, Madhu Chandan S C nursed an innate desire to return home, and ‘work in his land’. This led the 44-year-old former techie to found ‘Organic Mandya’, through which he is imparting his learning from the field to the youth of his region, who also wish to return to the field.
“Most of these people are from Ramanagara, Mandya, Tumakuru, and Chamarajanagara, where their fathers and grandfathers practised farming. These youngsters, with newfound dreams, came to Bengaluru and ended up as cab drivers and delivery boys, among other occupations,” he says. It was on his many visits to Bengaluru that Madhu noticed workers from his hometown Mandya, who predominantly belonged to agricultural families. It’s often stated, ‘Indian agriculture is a gamble with the monsoon’.
This wasn’t something which was unbeknown to Madhu, who through Organic Mandya, not just started farming at his village Sonaganahalli near KM Doddi, Mandya, but began marketing chemical-free produce. He also started convincing other farmers to take up this method of cultivation. The lockdown, meanwhile, alerted Madhu that something had to be done to help the delivery boys and cab drivers who had lost their income in the city, while their lands in the villages could be utilised as ‘better’ means of livelihood.
“That’s when I got this idea of calling them back to their village. Even if they have half or one acre of land, I can teach them to adopt a method where they grow multiple crops and earn much better than what they are earning now. Initially, I thought I will teach just 100 people, but I have received more than 5,000 applications. Hence, I have decided to begin training at my farm in Mandya, and then visit other villages in batches,” says Madhu.
Madhu’s organic farming model uses tried and tested processes. Cow dung, gomutra (cow urine), jaggery and dicot powder are used instead of chemical fertilisers and urea. As for the cultivation, firstly, a piece of land is divided into strips of 3 feet by 100 feet; one acre translates into 95 strips. Around 24 vegetable, fruit and green varieties – including tomato, cabbage, capsicum, carrot, papaya, mosambi, and pomegranate – can be grown in each strip. Every day, one strip must be picked to plant the seeds, then another and so on. After 60 days, the first strip will begin to bear yield. It is a continuous process, and since Madhu is growing multiple varieties, even if the price of one produce comes down, it can be compensated with another. “One can earn up to Rs 1 lakh from an acre each month,” he claims.
Karnataka and organic farming
Today, there are more than 50,000 farmers in Karnataka practising organic farming. Successive state governments in the recent past have given some fillip to it. When Siddaramaiah was the CM and Krishna Byregowda the Agriculture Minister in 2018, the International Millet and Organic Trade Fair was held in Bengaluru, the largest gathering on organic farming in India. The present B S Yediyurappa government has targeted to get 5 lakh farmers to adopt organic techniques.
Contact details
The training will start after lockdown. It will be for three to four weeks (only on Sundays). To register visit
www.organicmandya.com or Call 08039513948