Agriculture as dream

Farm Questions
1

Agriculture as dream…

Me in US working in software last 17 years, its not what I like to do but have to do.

I have about 25 acre’s land in Telangana state, 5 acre’s in hyderabad outskirts and 20 acres in mahabubnagar 120 km fro hyderabad.
Water availabilty Good.
Now I want to quit IT and do agriculture expectations 36 Lakhs per year

Plan

  1. Grow vegitables in 5 acres land in hyderabad
  2. Grow fruits and grains in 20 acres in village

Initial trial period 2 to 3 years

Am I dreaming or its possibility?

Money in hand to spend 15 lakhs…

Can you all guru’s suggest me which crop’s can give me the results what I am looking for.

Thanks,
New Future Farmer

2

Friend,

Dreams can be turned into reality for sure.

For now … Mine with similar dream is far from reality.

Every one is different, and every ones approach may be different , my experience so far suggests to have an alternative income source before persuading this dream.

3

See my comments inline.

Regards
Padmanabhan Ganesan
agricultureforeverybody.blogspot.com

4

Dear Sri Newfarmer,

Vegetables Farming: Up to my knowledge, we can not compete with regular normal local farmers. Their over heads are very low and any price can bring them little or more profit. Where as our over heads on cropping is more. Hence i advise not to venture in vegetable crops like brinjal, determinate tomatoes ( open ),green capsicum,beetroot,cabbage,califlower etc… …Prices are very much fluctuating and not trust worthy.

If you want to grow vegetables, i suggest you the following,like Pendal vegetables like, Ridge gourd, bitter gourd, snake gourd, bottle gourd,etc… … The prices of these also will be stable in comparision.

Even you can try exotic vegetables also in green/shade net houses. As your land is near to Hyderabad, you can have good marketing and can get good prices as you can supply fresh vegetables to market ( like farm fresh ).

Land in Mahaboobnagar area: If no limitations for investment, you can grow any of the horticulture crops . It is a semi arid zone and you can grow, so many variety of fruits, flowers, Hybridisation of seeds, new green houses.

A newtons law. For every action, there is equal and opposite reaction. You can achieve your earning targets positively in horticulture… Risks are more in horticulture/Agriculture. Dedicated services are expected, and/or must, from farmer. But never forget that any thing can happen in the land and to the crops due to weather, unfourseen events etc.

wish you all the best, g.p.rao, farmer

5

Great move, it’s definitely dream for many including me :slight_smile:.

All i would suggest is

*Start small
*Take it slow
*And keep your expectations low[/ul]
moving back to India after 17 years is already a huge change and then you add switching career. I am sure you would have thought it through.

6

All are valid points suggested by fellow members.

I want to ask you one question, how good are you in fighting issues?. if you are a born fighter, take a blind plunge because in my case I am fighting issues which pop up every week.( I am becoming a good fighter)

I endorse Sri Padmanabha ganesan sir’s suggestions, + Kindly check water and labour availability then you can decide on crops.

7

Dear Farmer Friends,

Horticulture and agriculture are same like any other industry. Risks will be there in any one, more or less.

I advise farmers to go to other farmers fields, study their systems, good and bads, come to conclusion wisely and try to do the best. Even we want to do new invention or new thought implimentation, we should do it in a small scale. Need not be in agri/horti, but in any industry.

No doubt we should not spend money unnecessarily, heavily in general, but we have to spend more money to do certain crops like, Gerbera, Anthurium, Orchids etc. Construction of green house, Providing foggers,automation etc ,will cost us more, naturally.

Some who wants to be traditional farmers, they can do sustainable agriculture. But some who wants make money ,have to do risk ( provided they have the capacity, zeal and hard working nature ) , may not only get benefits and also show the results to the fellow farmers and farming community.

Recently, one and half year back, near pune, one farmer took around 95 tonnes of Ginger in a one acre green house. It is published in several papers and i went and saw it also and i think so many friends of us might have heard or saw.

Now a days we are seing so many pomegranate farms are uprooted in Karnataka, Ap, Maharashtra due to xanthomonas, BBD , and we know that so many farmers are growing exportable quality Pomegranate in the same lands from past decade or more. Disease is existing and we have to take necessary steps to go out of clutches of the disease,

It is not a thumb rule that all Horticulture crops give good yield only after 5 years. it is a old saying I think. Now so many techniques have come and farmers getting good considerable yields in the 1st and 2nd years. In our childwood days, during 1960’s, mango plants are 27 per acre, sapota and Jack fruits were not even 18 nos per acre, 54 plants of Guava per acre, where as now 1,333 nos mango plants per acre (by jain in Udumulpet,TN , 2,000 plants of guava per acre ( in jalagaon area,Maharashtra etc )

So many high density,ultra high density plantations have come in Maharashtra,Karnataka, AP, Tamilnadu,Gujarath etc in Mango, Guava, Sapota, Pomegranate grape etc. Not only me, so many of our farmer friends also might have inspected those gardens. Most of them are doing good.

Still, as a old farmer ,I advise our farmer friends to do according to their Risk bearing capacities, interest, and they have to put their required efforts.

With good wishes to all of us, g.p.rao, farmer

8

Thank You all for valuable suggestions…

Me in a situation where my regular expenses are covered from other sources of income.

My dad already doing farming from last 10 years just as a hobby practicing ZBNF methods with very minimal expenses…

So now I want to join him and increase the farming to all our lands… my dad says if i screw up or if crop goes bad due to weather or any reason then there is always next chance as long as i follow ZBNF.

9

Hi newfarmer_309,

Very valid inputs from the veterns.

On your concern on failing of crops due to bad weather etc. There is a new agri insurance launched called “PRADHAN MANTRI FASAL BIMA YOJANA” some of its objectives are

     - To provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crop as a result of natural calamities, pests & diseases.
     - To stabilise the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming.
     - To encourage farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices.
     - To ensure flow of credit to the agriculture sector.

you can get more information following the url agricoop.nic.in/imagedefault/wha … ch_eng.pdf

You can take some risk and venture in. All the best!!

Regards,
agri_lover

10

Dear newfarmer_309,

If you have the back-up plan to cover the regular expenses, then listen to your ‘inner calling’ and go ahead. Also, joining your father and doing the farming together would be the best thing to happen, in my view. You’d be close to your parents & nature.

However, ensure your wife & kids also understand/like/agree to your thoughts/plans for a better peace later. And do not have fixed expectations on the returns as they might vary as per variety of reasons.

Cheers,
Raj.

11

Positives from your inputs

  1. Land Bank
  2. Alternate source
  3. Dad has experience of Agriculture
  4. Water Source
  5. Running capital of 15 lakhs (might give you an year of running approx)

Validate these points for yourself

  1. Will you be doing it yourself on the field or you will get it done (like project management)
  2. Is this your idea or seen a working model from someone, or just a business model you are thinking of
  3. Do you have a good source of labor with avg 10-12 K / month for each couple (at least 3 couples + 2 backup)
  4. Do you have staying power (money) for 2-3 years in Horticulture - minimum 10L / year
  5. What is your motivation (or past examples of your life) when you are hit with road blocks (one is going to face quite a few here) refer “Born Fighter above”
  6. What is your backup plan if nothing is generated for 2-3 years
  7. Have you studied about the different crops and their $earned / $payed ratio

Good Luck and Welcome abode

12

Everyone has given excellent suggestions.

If you are a risk taker I would say do it. I have taken the plunge in 2012. Every day I learn something new.

Since you have your family already in farming you can focus on marketing. I had zero family support in terms of farming knowledge.

All the best.

Regards,
Satish

13

Hi Sir KhushiZone,
Please find answers below.

14

Hello sir,
Will you appreciate an assistant at hyderabad to reach you goat wrt to short term farming with results?

15

New farmer, I think you have all the right ingredients to plunge and handle the day to day challenges

Here are few of my experiences

  1. Getting the labor to work (especially when you are not there) is an art in itself, I know few here we discuss this topic multiple times in a week. Sometimes you doing it yourself in the farm motivates them to do but not always true
  2. There will be few challenges from the surrounding/local especially if you are from outside, so getting them into confidence also might help or going against them can be avoided to start with.
  3. Get more realestic with your thought process and have a self buy in, like any business model, the key stakeholders should be fully convinced
  4. Get the soil / water test done so that you know which kind of crops can be taken up in your farm, and then study the profitability, risks and water requirements/ availability.

Good Luck
Shashidhar

16

Recently I have purchased a 2 acre land in Hyderabad and planning for Organic farming mainly vegetables. I do not have any family member in farming but am learning from adjacent farmers and taking baby steps. The only challenge that I see is marketing the organic products after production.

17

Dear Sri Yajuvender,

First come to a conclusion , whether you want to go for a certified organic farming or a just organic farming, for your satisfaction.

If you want to have a certification from a reputed Organic certifying company, pl contact IMO, SKAL, ECOCERT, etc, let your land be inspected by them and they will give a acceptance for organic farming, as per certain norms. Ist year they give a letter saying " land is under organic process", . in the 2nd year they may give certification or they may give a letter for under organic process. After 2 years, they issue a Organic certificate, provided they are satisfied.

Then they will add your farm address and products details grown in your farm, and it will be circulated in the required market concerns.

Periodical inspections will be there and they charge you accordingly. Some time they come along with you, individually and they test the products also if they feel required.

With certification your products gets a premium price and accepted by all exporters.

With best wishes, g.p.rao, farmer

18

First of all thank you Rao sir for your response. Actually I too am not sure whether I should be going for organic certification or just grow organic. can you experts suggest please?

Also if I follow Palekar’s ZBNF model, will it make my farm organic or Do I need to do something more to make my farm organic.

19

Dear Sri Yajuvender,

Organic certification farming is little expensive. We have to pay their fee, once in a month we have to take them to our land for inspection, and follow their instructions and do implementations.

Organic vegetables, which you produce with their certification will have good value and have good demand too.

Before doing, discuss with them, come to an idea, how much expenses etc. Like Sahaja Samruddha, Bengaluru, find out in Hyderabad if any such organisations are there for group organic certification, which will be very cheap.

Growing with certification or just growing , is to be decided by you.

ZBNF and Organic farming are different. Organic farming is very expensive ,but we get high and quality yields and can sell with premium prices.

Now ,there is good market for Organic certified vegetables.

With best wishes, g.p.rao, farmer.