What would you tell if someone asks you a profession which can get you both money and fame? People would often tell you to be a doctor or an engineer or set up a business but there are only a handful of people who would say farming.
These days, many farmers are giving up on their profession and encouraging their children to opt for some other work. They believe that there is no future in farming and one has to struggle a lot to make ends meet. However, with changing times, many young people have come forward to opt agriculture as a profession and have also scripted many success stories.
Many farmers in India, who have adopted modern farming techniques, are dealing in crores. We introduce you to a farmer who gave up on school education after STD 7 but today, he earns around Rs 50 lakh annually. Meet 41-year-old farmer Khetaji Solanki.
Hailing from a small village named Chandaji Goliya in Banskadha district of Gujarat, Khetaji had to drop out of school because of financial constraints. He comes from a family of farmers and believes in modern farming techniques, which is also the sole reason for his success.
In the same piece of land where his father worked for years using traditional farming, struggling to make ends meet, Khetaji earns Rs 21 lakh in 70 days just by growing muskmelons.
“I was a pampered child and I never payed attention towards studies. From the beginning, I saw my father in this profession but I was never interested. I did a couple of businesses but couldn’t succeed. That’s when I decided to adopt modern farming techniques,” tells Khetaji in an interview with KenFolios.
He took help from the internet and mobile applications to research on farming according to seasons. He tells that everything about farming is available on the internet, which can be of great help to the farmers. “It doesn’t matter how educated you are. You just need to understand the basic of mobile technology.”
Different crops in three seasons
Khetaji works in his five acres of land and asks other farmers to use the other seven acres of land. He grows potato, red and black tomatoes, and muskmelon in three seasons respectively. From his land, he produces 120 tonnes of potatoes, 180 tonnes of tomatoes, and 140 tonnes of muskmelon on one season.
“Many farmers in Gujarat who grew potatoes did not know that they can grow muskmelon in the same soil,” he tells.
On his seven bigha of land, he decided to grow muskmelons using modern techniques. He used good quality seeds, drop technique, and solar water pump. Within three months, the crops were ready and 140 tonnes of muskmelons were produced. On his investment of Rs 1.20 lakh, Khetaji earned Rs 21 lakh. After his success, many local farmers adopted his technique.
Using solar energy
Khetaji used solar pumps on his farm to avoid the problem of shortage of electricity. Even though solar pump installment costs Rs 10 lakh, he had to invest only Rs 40,000 from his pocket as the rest of the money was provided by the government subsidy.
He says, “The government is giving a lot of facilities to the farmers and giving subsidies for modern farming. Moreover, if a farmer wants to buy any equipment, he can take subsidies from the government. I think that all the farmers should adopt modern farming techniques.”
Khetaji was awarded by the Gujarat government for his farming techniques. Very soon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will discuss about Khetaji on his radio show Mann Ki Baat. The government is also planning to send him to Israel so that he can learn modern farming techniques and train other farmers in India.
Khetaji has proved that you do not need to be educated from prestigious universities to do good in life. One needs to be use his mind efficiently and be hard working to attain success.
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