SRIKAKULAM: A former aircraft maintenance engineer from Srikakulam district has embraced his father’s dream by turning to farming after leaving a well-paying job at Kingfisher Airlines.
Reddi Sateesh, who once served as a junior engineer, now cultivates his family’s 30 acres of land using modern technology, including drones, to grow cash-yielding crops like paddy, groundnuts, and pulses.
Sateesh, the youngest of three sons born to Reddi Rambabu and Bhanumathi, returned to his village in 2010 to fulfil his father’s wish of continuing the family’s farming legacy. His elder brothers, Kiran Kumar and Krishna Rao, are now settled abroad as a software engineer and a scientist, respectively.
Sateesh took over farming from his father, who had practised it for over four decades. After assisting his father for a few years, Sateesh took over the farm in 2014, introducing mechanisation to address labour shortages. He procured agricultural machinery, including a tractor, drum seeder, harvester, and sprayer, reducing input costs by up to Rs 10,000 per acre.
With guidance from agriculture scientists Dr Chinnam Naidu, Dr K Bhagyalaxmi, and Srinivasa Rao at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Amadalavalasa, and Agricultural College, Naira, Sateesh improved his yields. He recently introduced drone technology for spraying fertilisers and pesticides, leveraging his experience in aircraft maintenance.
Sateesh told TNIE, “I find more fulfilment walking in my fields rather than flying in the sky. Agriculture is more profitable if modern techniques is adopted and natural calamities are averted. Today, youth are attracted to nature farming, which is a positive sign for the State and the nation in working towards a food shortage-free India.”