KARIMNAGAR: A 43-year-old farmer who recently switched to cultivating vegetables instead of paddy, in line with the regulated farming being implemented by the State government, has begun bearing fruit. A typical paddy farmer, who used conventional methods, Vangala Ravinder Reddy says he used to struggle a lot to make both ends meet.
"Previously, I used to cultivate paddy in my one-and-a-half acres of land every season. Even if we work round-the-clock, at the end of the season, we would be left with just Rs 30,000 after all expenses, which was not enough to move forward," he told Express.
Ravinder stated that after he started cultivating vegetables, as suggested by government officials, his family became self-sufficient and is earning nothing less than Rs 1.50 lakh now. Along with his wife Mamatha and three others, Ravinder has built a beautiful vegetable garden in his plot at Gundlapalli village from where around four tonnes of vegetables have been sold till now.
"I decided to switch to cultivating vegetables due to the uncertainty over marketing and selling paddy. Though I was scared at first, this decision proved to be a blessing later as we started earning four times what we used to get earlier," Ravinder opined.
Though Ravinder cultivates all kinds of vegetables, his major crops are bitter gourd and ridge gourd. Meanwhile, he is preparing another one-and-a-half acres plot to cultivate tomatoes. Ravinder does not use any chemicals and all his crops are cultivated with organic fertilisers, including cow dung.
When asked if he still faces any hurdles in selling his produce, Ravinder says there are none. District Agriculture Officer V Sridhar also lauded Ravinder’s efforts. Sridhar says the new agriculture policy is meant to enhance the financial well-being of ryots.