I am working for a MNC in Bangalore. I have an asset worth rupees 1 crore in Bangalore. Planning to sell and return back home in Kerala/Tamilnadu border(On the way to Trivandrum from Kanyakumari). The main reason is doing something different from corporate world and reduce little stress but willing to work. This is the only asset I have and back home I have a small house to live. I am not withdrawing my PF.I still keep for my rainy days. My existing cash savings can lost for an year to run my family.
Now I have two choices from the sale proceedings (1 crore).
I can invest in bonds, Deposits and get annualised return of 12% to 16%. It is not totally risk free there is a small amount of risk. Much better than stock market risks.
I can buy agriculture land in Tamilnadu (I prefer Tamilnadu because I can visit home at least once in a month).
I spoke to my relatives who has 10 Acres of coconut trees and he said he earns profit of approx. rupees 4 lakhs in a year (After expenses)from coconut farm and advised me not to depend on Agriculture farm to make living.
My Questions
What you suggest? What will you do if you are in my situation? Please advise.
If I have to buy farm land, where I should buy in Tamilnadu? What type of land I should look? What will be the estimated cost?
How do I distribute my money in farming? what % I should invest in land, what % for infra structure development and running farm etc.
What corps I should grow? Animal farm? Organic farm? Integrated farm? flowers? Fruits? Greenhouse/Poly house farmig?
What return I should estimate per year?
Any Export opportunities? How to find?
Please share your experience and thoughts. It will help not only me and many forum members who are planning to invest Significant portion of their assets.
Thank you Mr. Padmanabhan ganesan for your feedback and inputs.
At present I need at least rupees 30=5,000 per month for my family expenses(Food, travel, tuition, medical, parent support etc). But it will increase once my kids join university in an year. In worst case assume my monthly needs will be 1 Lakhs from 2017.
My place is very expensive. Since it is near Trivandrum, the capital of kerala, I can not afford given my 1 crore commitment. Possibily I may get only 2 acres if I commit 60 lakhs. I prefer big land. I saw one active community member Mr. rmathewsin mentioning agriculture land price in the range of rupees 3-4 lakhs per acre for profitable business. So I prefer say 20 Acres land at the cost of 60 Lakhs. Can I get? any suggestion from members?
I am looking this as business and compare with low risk Bond investment. Suppose if I invest in bond 1 crore, I can easily get 1 lakhs per month. I am conservative in return but there are some instruments gave upto 20%per year return. So let us assume I get 1 lakhs per month without any physical efforts if I place in bonds. In farming I wisht to have good return. Let me give an year for no or low return. After an year I should start getting 1 Lakhs per month during second year and 1.5-2 lakhs from third year onwards.
Here is the summary of returns I wish
2016- Start project,(Land purchase complete in 2015) - low return.
2017 - 1 Lakhs per month
2018 - 1.5 Lakhs to 2 Lakhs per month.
Is it viable? or high risky? or I am totally wrong.
Thanks you once again.
Note: fellow forum friends please feel free to share your inputs. Thank you in advance.
Lot of variables will impact the outcome/return on investment and there is no set or assured pattern of.return either.
Hence I would suggest a measured approach.
You need to first ensure financial stability for your monthly commitments. You cant find peace anywhere if you cant find it at home.
My suggestion would be to invest part in regular income generating sources like bonds etc to ensure the return covers as much as possible per say your commitments. You farming activity can supplement this income to meet your financial needs.
I go further to even recommend you to consider leasing a land instead of buying one, this way you can mitigate your risks. Once you get a hang on things, see money then consider buying a land.
If you invest 1 crore in bonds, you will get 12 lakhs per year at the lower end of returns. So, if your requirement/expenses is 1 lakh per month, then you can forget about buying land.
Alternatively, if you are okay with keeping your expenses reduced, then you may look at couple of acres to start with or go for leased land to understand the working of farming.
Dear Mr.Saravanan and Mr.Padmanabhan, Thank you for your inputs and patiently reading my feedback.
Mr. Padmanabhan, I really salute you and I have great appreciation for your efforts in maintaining your blog. Well thought and with comprehensive information and hyper link to Tamilnadu Agri university. I am really proud of you for doing great contribution to the community.
Here are my thoughts.
If Agriculture is sure loose loose business or less profitable than fixed deposit many people may not venture into business. I may be wrong. Because I can put the capital in fixed deposit and relax. why sweat and struggle with labour shortage, woke up at 4 (Diary farming) and zero holidays.
I read pasumai vikatan regularly, they project good return. Any community feed back on the practicality of getting such return?
So If I take my capital, and buy a 20 Acres land as an investment, for 50 Lakhs, in some remote part of Tamil Nadu (Assume decent water and good soil) and remaining 30 Lakhs for farm infra structure, and 20 Lakhs I keep for next 4 years as expenses for my family kids education etc etc. Assume I live simple life(Out of 20 lakhs 5 lakhs in savings for daily expenses, remaining 15 in bonds for yearly renewal and take out every year 5 lakhs)
I will have some gain in land price (Hopefully).
For 30 Lakhs investment
Goat farming (How many Goats, need your help. )
Pig Farming (I suppose not much demand in Tamilnadu but there is a demand in kerala, How many to starts with?)
Fruits(Papaya or pomegranate or Stevia all in Organic way)
Some flowers (Jasmine or other flowers)
Reserve some land and cultivate grass, vegetables and grains to Feed Goat, and Pig
A pumpset (Solar based for water supply)in case if no free electricity.
Buy a tractor farm equipments.
is 30 Lakhs too little for the above?
All may not be implement in one stretch but over a period of 18 months.
This will start producing return from 9 months onwards(assume I start papaya first). I read somewhere in farmnest Papaya can give good return. can fetch easily 3 or 4 lakhs per acre.
So at the end of 2 year, what can we estimate as return?
My suggestion would be to not look at these numbers (returns/acre). Lots of these returns (ex:- 4 lacs/acre for papaya) can be achieved only thru hardwork and good luck. For ex:- off season the rates will be less.
Instead I would suggest you start with one activity at a time. See how you can manage family (children’s education etc.) along with farm activities like planting, maintaining, labour, marketing etc…Once you know that you have the confidence to expand, go ahead and do so.
I bet you will make lots of mistakes initially and learn from it and those learnings can be implemented in your next project.
I myself was in software field for many years before I switched to farming in 2013. Had coconut and arecanut when I bought the land (but in neglected condition). First year plan was to rejuvenate those trees. Last year I planted banana. Made some mistakes and learning from it. This season I will be able to take care of those mistakes when I expand further. We are harvesting bananas now and this week the rates are low (Rs. 10/Kg for Robusta). So my initial DREAM calculation doesn’t hold good. :-). (In Dec it was Rs. 20).
If you are planning for any kind of Animal farming, pl. make sure you are there 24/7. If not DON’T do it. It is difficult and non profitable unlike other agri/horti crops.
And finally, before you plunge into agriculture, pl. make sure you invest X amount of money with which you can run the family. Don’t depend on agriculture income till you establish yourself. That is what I did to be on safer side.
On papaya, just remember it is a delicate crop that can be wiped out across the acres when virus strikes. I have heard and seen acres of papaya go down to nothing in a matter of days.
Factor in the risks into your planning when you deem something very profitable.
Hi
Some points I would like to make.
If you are planning to strike it rich from farming, then why venture into it in the first place when you are already minting money on current avatar?
Venturing into farming for making money is wrong attitude for someone who is already capable of making money doing something else. Like your job will give you money without any risk.
Farmers who do hardcore farming are mostly not very educated and incapable of working white collar jobs which guarantee salaries. So they use their instinct and hard work to make money from land and believe me, some of them have very strong instincts when it comes to marketing and weather predictions.
I feel it is not right for salaried people to think they can make more money in agriculture and enter this field with sole purpose to make money, you may or may not.
So do it for the feeling, for the lifestyle, for the results, certainly not for money. Do it to make you richer not in terms of money but in terms of pleasure, experience and health.
Dont take any step which will make farming your sole source of income.
Remember that buying land is only a part of the cost. Fencing it,planting trees, irrigation, buliding a shelter/ house for self and caretaker, electrical connection etc will be a significant amount. In my case it was much more than the cost of the land.
Regards,
Yaj.
