Today we bring you the story of a businessman whose success story will not only motivate you but surprise you as well. He turned away from his corporate career of 10 years decided to pursue dairy farming. The fact that he quit his high-paying IT job and moved to the strenuous field of farming is a very unusual choice.
It was a well-thought-out decision and Santhosh D Singh also got his family’s approval before he jumped into this completely different field. He and made his decision right by putting in all his efforts. It is commendable how he transformed his liking for staying close to nature to a full-time occupation.
After completing his post-graduation from Bengaluru, Santhosh entered the IT sector where he was sent all around the globe for work. He worked with companies like Dell and America Online and learned that there are several better ways to earn money than sitting on a chair for long hours. “I would escape from the city and go off to farmlands and resorts on the weekend. After some time I realized that I can make it my lifestyle rather than just a weekend activity,” says Santhosh.
It was a very courageous move to bid adieu to an established career in IT for something exactly opposite of it. He accepts that shifting from IT life to farming life had its own share of challenges but he was self-motivated to begin a novel innings.
Santhosh believes in having a fair understanding of a field before getting into it. He was aware that it was a totally new arena for him so he enrolled himself into a course on dairy farming with National Dairy Research Institute. This gave him hands-on experience with cattle and he learnt the nuances of dairy farming. He began with only three cows on a three acre land. He took care of everything from cleaning sheds, milking cows to bathing them. He got better with time and decided to expand operations. He met NABARD in this connection and got Bank of Mysore to invest in his ideas. With freshly-introduced sum of Rs 20 lakh he scaled his operations, expanded his farm and got 100 cows. With 1,500 litres of milk every day Amrutha Dairy Farms was projecting to have an annual turnover of over Rs 1 crore.
Right when the produce was going up and things looked promising a great ordeal struck. Karnataka was affected with severe drought and obtaining green fodder for the cattle became a tough task. Several dairy farms shut their operations over the next 18 months as prices of fresh fodder went up by four times. Santhosh refused to succumb to the conditions and poured all his savings to make sure that the cattle remained healthy and his dairy operations ran smoothly.
Braving the tough times, Santhosh is now a successful entrepreneur who clocks turnover in multi-crores. Amrutha Dairy Farms is one of the successful agro-start-ups in India but only few know the extraordinary story behind its making.
Coming from a middle-class family, Santhosh dared to leave his cushy corporate job and followed his heart. He built a successful dairy start-up from scratch and proved to the youth that it is possible to stay connected to the roots and make good money.
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