Is it possible to earn one lakh or ten lakh / acre / year from farming?

Farm Questions
41

Hi Brijesh,

Thanks for detailed reply. Well as regards to the land cost, I did a mistake of going in for low cost one thinking I can add more acreage under my belt. But the crux has been travelling time. Unless you think of settling there, travelling from established set up, ie my Home has been a problem.

Its some 135 km from Bangalore and takes 3.5 hrs by road. Now I think had I bought lands with an hour reach from my home, things would have been different. Yes it would have costed me the double, but would have saved some on building a house and transportation cost.

Added to this the psychological comfort, that you can reach the place on any exigencies. My new farm house had, AC sheets as roof. Due to a storm I mean some whirl wind, a few have got blown off. Now I realize how good it would have been if it would have been nearer.

I think for we guys, some 2l / acre would be fine with a distance of around 60 to 70 km from your home. But bad luck if you are in big cities. Till 150km from Bangalore, the starting land prices are in above Rs 3 to 5 l/acre.

Regards

Murali

42

Hello friends, I am a newbie and have been sitting on the fence for long. Anyway excellent analysis by Brijesh. I fully agree with you. Moreover, experienced and educated farmers cultivate the crops so as to harvest a bit ahead (or perhaps slightly beyond) the cropping season so as to command high price in the market. I know of a farmer who made a profit of 1 lakh per acre in water melons and another farmer who made a loss on the same variety and the difference in planting was just 15 days. Timing and marketing is the key. But nature can play spoil sport to even this success formula (strong gales, early showers etc.) Another factor is quantity. If you are marketing directly to city traders/super markets, staggered method of sowing/planting is required so as to get a steady supply of fruits/vegetables through out the season (gap of 10 days every 1/4 acre)
Swamy, can you share the dates of harvesting of papaya and tomato, surely you may have beaten the market by your excellent timings.
Cheers!
-JP

43

Dear JP,
Harvested Papaya daily to sell on my own in the nearest market.
Tomato harvest is more or less once in week.
Sold Papaya in large quantity (truck) in 15 day intervals.

44

I hope I am in right section. If not moderator may move me.

I have been reading your forum for some time, but I am not farmer, but interesting in farming. I wanted to ask this question to your farming members. Is it possible to get 10 lakhs per acre per year from farming. This is why I ask.

My uncle and cousins sold about 50 acres to a farmer from Kerala, who is using it to grow rubber. He is very very hardworker. He works everyday, except sunday from 6 am to 5 pm. Later on we found he doesnt have land in Kerala, but is from a village near Kumta in Karnataka where he migrated from Kerala about 15 years ago. He has 10 acres there on which he grows rubber, pepper, cardamon, turmeric, chicken, goats, etc. He says he gets gross income of 1 crore from 10 acres. We asked him moore detail and from his malayalam, our marathi and some kannada and english in between, this is calculation.

Income from rubber - 10 acres - 15.00 lakhs
Sale of pepper, cardamon, turmeric, etc - 10 lakhs
Sale of 150 goats @ 4,000 - 6.00 lakhs
sale of 150 goats @ 8,000 in Id festival - 12.00 lakhs
sale of eggs @ 3,000 eggs/day for 300 days @ 2.5/egg - 22.5 lakhs
sale of chicken - 100 kgs/week @ 60/kg - 3 lakhs
sale of vegatables from polyhouse - 1/2 acre - 5 lakhs
Sale of flowers (rose, jasmine, aster, etc) from polyhouse - 7.5 lakhs
Sale of fish from 1/2 acre pond - 100 kgs/week @ 100/kg - 5.00 lakhs
The total so far is 86 lakhs. But he says some years he gets more than 1 crore. Sometimes, also his income reduce to 50-60 lakhs. He doesnt keep proper accounts, but in bank he says he has 3 crore deposit. He has one Inova car and one Mahendra Bolero.

He says he doesnt weed, but keeps goats in movable paddocks between rubber trees. Same thing also for chicken. So he doesnt spend for feed too much and gets benfit of waste dropping for rubber, peper and other plants. He doesnt use fertiliser or pesticides. He has 8 cows and he uses their dung as fertiliser. Also there is no smell of cow, chicken and goat shit. In his polyhouse he grows out of season vegetables and flowers. He has two sons, one is engineer in Mumbai and other is studying in Coimbatore - both not interest in agricultre. He has 11 labours, 1 from Kerala and rest from Bijapur, UP and Chatisgarh.

If he does same thing in 50 acres, he will earn 5 crore per year. Is this possible?

I asked some agriculture professors in Chiplun. They said it is possible. Can your members who are actual farmers please say if possible also?

45

This is amazing :slight_smile: Can I have his phone number?

Regards,
Siddramesh Nara 09742201385

46

Hiā€¦
I do not want to sound sarcastic, but look @ the rates mentioned for eggā€™s and chickenā€¦
It definitely means this dude has access to the consumers or very little middlemen due to which he can sell this @ such high ratesā€¦

47

This is an interesting thread. At the risk of sounding pessimistic, I would like to be a realist for our readers.

On a regular basis we see postings or ads claiming extraordinary returns in agriculture. I can state, quite confidently, that 98% are very far away from average results. These postings are similar to the weight loss ads on TV which claims to shed 30 kgs in 30 daysā€¦with tiny, grey print at the bottom stating ā€˜Not average resultsā€™.

Agriculture has always been and will always remain a labour of love and sweat. Returns can be handsome in most agri practices if carefully monitored with immaculate care and loads of luck. Operative word being ā€˜luckā€™ which will always play a significant part in your overall returns.

Newbies and folks considering agri should take ALL such postings (Hydroponics, Medicinal Plants, Organic cultivation, Emu, etc) with a large fistful of salt. We should also remember, if there are people aggressively marketing amazing agri services or products, you should ask yourself why are they not utilizing that to amass great wealth themselves. Answer is simple, agri is hard work and it is always easier to preach than to practice.

With that said, I think there are fortunes to be made for those who plan, are patient and persevere. At the end of a 5-10 years timeframe you should come up on top, hopefully by a lot. There are very few quick bucks in agriculture but at the end of the road you will have a legacy!

48

@ nkjohri - I see what you mean about ads from consultants, people peddling certain products etc. Thereā€™s every reason to be skeptical in such cases. But the member who recounted the experience here is not trying to sell anything so I donā€™t think the cynicism is valid in this case.

If you give it some thought, 8-10 Lakh / acre is quite possible due to the special approach and circumstances of this farmer. Thereā€™s hardly any element of luck involved. A few observations ā€“

*Integrated farming - The farmer has taken an integrated approach to farming as opposed to monoculture. Heā€™s getting agroforestry produce along with spices, livestock, poultry, non-seasonal vegetables, flowers and aquaculture. For example, the idea of movable paddocks between plantations containing chicken - I just came across this yesterday described as chicken tractor (see picture and description). Itā€™s so simple - you save on chicken feed and no need to plow or fertilise the land. Similar or better results can be obtained when pigs are used for tilling. This is integrated farming at its best. Most of the examples we have seen on this site of extremely high returns involve integrated farming. Iā€™m yet to see monoculture producing record profits of this sort.

*Unique climate - Kerala falls in the western ghat region which is notable for its tropical rainforest ecology. It is the only rainforest in the world where agriculture is so prevalent. As such itā€™s always going to produce higher agriculture returns compared to other climates. I donā€™t think such returns are possible in Tamil Nadu or Gujarat even with the same approach unless additional factors contribute.

*Innovation doesnā€™t have to be high tech - When illiterate farmers achieve such high returns, itā€™s a lesson for those who believe all improvements must come only from high technology or ā€œmodern scientificā€ way of agriculture. Any practice that is traditional is old-fashioned and primitive for them. They believe science has all the answers. This humble farmer and others like him prove them wrong. Just a thought.
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49

This is very very wonder full sharing. I wonder in what technique some one can do goat or chicken farming in Rubber plantation. if it is fully grown plantation, how the farmer can dare to let goats/chiks to wander in his plantation. roots of rubber trees are their on top of the soils and such tiny roots and very important for lactation. am a traditional/conventional rubber planter since long and we do any integrated farming in rubber till its growing stage of 3 years. remain all life of rubber tree garden kept as it is becuase due the shades nothing can be grow in between./

and also need to know how he can manage all these integrated farming activities with a just 10 aceres. all 10 acer have rubber planation and in between cardomen, fish ponding, flower every thing managed??? really he must be a agri Guru, we all need to learn from him. am also from Kerala request plsadvise his location addresā€¦

though kerala have benefits of western gats, disadvantages too due to heavy rain which is not at all beneficial for farming. and have very heavy water shortage too due to slop land.sā€¦

open for debateā€¦

rgds
mathew

50

He doesnā€™t let them wander but keeps them in an enclosure. See the photograph below of a similar ā€œchicken tractorā€ that I linked in the previous post.

This way you can protect any adjoining crops. Once the chicken / goats have worked on an area, the enclosure is moved further.

Yes but his vegetables and flowers are in a polyhouse thus protected from the rain. Rubber and spice plantations are in the open that get the benefit.

51

Dear trhanks for sharing .

  1. Chicks ? is it possible to produce 100kg chicks from such small shed arrangement in rubber plantation ??? for 100chiks I think there must be chicker farm of aprx 800-1000 chicks. is it possible sheds in rubber plantion ? distance between rubbers must be taken note for reference,

  2. what about goat farm. that is also in rubber plantation also seen that you have stated he moves chicks/goats after work out. what type of work out ?? how it is possible to move permenent structures of farms within rubber planations?

  3. what abt cardemon, coffie. which is not all cultivable integrated in rubber plantion.

  4. Pigs used for titling 10 acer??? how safe and controlable

  5. seen remain in polyhouse thus. in rubber plantation sun light penetration is very less. then how it possible poly house

really intresting and subject for research. if you do not mind, pls provide that farmer contact details.

rgds
mathew

52

The photograph is just for purpose of illustration of this technique. I have no idea how the farmer employs it, how large is his paddock with how many chicken etc. BTW, he didnā€™t mention coffee plantation or pigs on the farm.

I agree - would be nice to have contact details and someone visit his farm to corroborate all this.

Whereā€™s Swamy when you need him?!!

53

Dear Berber,
Can you tell us whre his farm is located and his contact details so we could have a look at the farm and know more how the above said is possible

54

Another integrated organic farmer shares his experience:

Source: Diversified farming systems (PDF) by L. Narayana Reddy.

ā€œShri Narayana Reddy is a legendary organic farmer and is one of the most sought after resource persons on ecological agricultureā€ according to Agricultures Network.org. He has written a number of articles that are listed here.

55

yes. it is possible to make 8-10 lakhs if create infrastructure and have resources and man power

56

Hi?
Forgot to inform my farm income from only one product which is planted as 2nd inter crop along with another under main crop.
Land measurement for the crop for this income generation is about 1 cent.

Pudhina is planted about 6 months back in which frequent harvests are continues once in 15 days.
40 liters of water along with cattle manure about 1kg was provided to grow about 8 inches height pudhina.
Total cost except land is about Rs.20/- @ 50 paise for liter, Rs.5/- for 1 kg manure and land income approximate for this 15 days is about Rs.10/- Total cost is Rs.40 for production of 75 handful bunches of pudhina which was sold @ Rs.4 for bunch generated Rs.300/- One month income is Rs.600/- per 1 cent land. One-acre income generation is about 7, 20,000/- only from inter crop of pudhina. Other income generation crops are Sesabania as green fodder for milk production and main crop of Mango is bonus at present as it is aged about 34 months old and yet to start income generation, but growing with zero efforts and maintenance.

Expenditure for acre is Rs.84,000/- year and profit is 6,36,000/- from 2nd inter crops apart from 1st main and primary crops of Sesabania and Mango.

In addition to this there are other inter crops (No mono crop dependency system) like timber, fruit crops are also under growing stage from which growth rate can be assessed at Rs.5,00,000/- productivity in a year. Combining altogether generating Rs.10, 00,000/- income is not a big problem in permanent drought prone is of my Kolar District.

Please note that we are facing power, rain, water, labour shortages to generate this income. We also not availed any bank loan or subsidy as we donā€™t want to depend any others than our expertise and physical powers graced by our mother earth.

57

Dear Swamy,
Your post is intersting. Wanted to know where is your farm situated ans if its ok i can come down and learn from it as i have 4acres of land with bore and fence which i want to use for cultivation.

58

A good example to emulate

59

Mr. Murali,

With so many educated members in this website, I thought it is normal for educated farmers to earn 1 lac plus an acre every year.
Just want to give a few ideas which I am sure most members would know. Most of these ideas come from one of my relatives.

  1. You must have sufficient quantity of land. In my opinion, sufficient quantity means atleast 5-10 acres of land or even more, so that even if earnings fall to quarter lac/acre/pa, then income would still be sufficient to maintain middle class life. I have read of one farmer, who generate 22 lacs from 2.1 acres of land. But in this method, the problem is that success is mostly owner-dependant. If the owner is sick or incapacitated, he will face problem. So you must have sufficient quantity of land to buffer you and to make the farm systems-dependant.

  2. You must make land non-rain dependant in a sustainable way. This means all land must have access to water 24 hrs for every day of the year, no matter whether it rains or not. So you must build some ponds, borewells, do rain water collection, dig channels, soak pits and other things. Water and sunshine are the two most important things for success. Fertilisers, pesticides, etc come later.

  3. You must grow crops or do activities that have large demand and which gives maximum proportion of retail price to farmers. Example is milk, where 70% of retail price goes to farmer. In above example of farmer earning 22 lacs from 2.1 acres, it says he earns some money from dog breeding. If everybody do dog-breeding like growing rice, then dogs price will fall and market will collapse as dog-market is not big.

  4. Coconut and cashew and mango orchards are normally promoted by banks and nabard, but average income from these is never more than 30-40,000 per acre/pa. Today coconut farm gate price is Rs 3/-, while in city it is sold for Rs 25/-. If better method like ultra high method for mango is done, maybe more income, but my relative doesnt have information on this.

  5. Plantation crops normally earn over 1 lac per acre per annum. Rubber - net income from 7th year onwards should be 10,000 rs per acre per month, if rubber price stay like now at more than 150 rs/kilo.

  6. Coffee earns more than 1.5 lac per acre per year from 4th year onwards. Kaveri variety yields about 1 ton and more parchment coffee per acre and now price coffee is Rs 160/kg. So can earn 1.5 lac income per acre per year. Many Bangalore people talk of planters. Planters made money on coffee.

  7. Tea - same case as coffee. maybe some what more. Yield in south india is less than yield in north india. Also quality of darjeeling teas are better and therefore better priced.

  8. Areca nut, cocao, vanilla - can earn about 50-75,000 per acre per year. So you have to combine with pepper or something else to get 1 lac per acre pa.

  9. Cardamom - third most costly spice in world after saffron/vanilla. Best quality grows only in cardamom hills of kerala. But other places also grown in are karnataka, maharshtra, goa. If using njallani variety, income can go to 2-4 lac per acre per year. So land in Kerala cardamon hills is very costly.

  10. All above crops are dependant on certain geography and climatic features. But most of the above crops are not subject to middlemen and are sold through largely fair auctions. Hence farmer gets majority of quoted price. In rubber, farmer gets almost 95% of quoted price.

  11. Spices - unlike above, can be grown with varying yields and cultivars at different places. Nutmeg, pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, clove, etc will grow in many places. One must check out which cultivar is best suited for a particular climate. An integrated spice production farm will also yield more than 1 lac rs per acre/pa.

  12. Palm oil - new entrant in India. Malaysia, indonesia, etc dominate the commodity. But many parts of south india now being found suitable for this. Currently earnings are less than 1 lac per acre, but with more research yields could improve and so also incomes.

  13. Improving yields - for example take rice - rice yield in india averages about 1.25 tons an acre. Yield is double this in China and triple in Australia. So currently, indian farmers gross about 15,000 rs/acre for rice, but can be improved to almost 45,000 rs/acre.

  14. Poultry - you can sustainably stock about 500-1000 hens on an acre even if free range method is practised. This can earn you more than 1 lac/acre/year on gross basis. Costs depend on your methods and inputs and therfore net income can sometimes be less than 1 lac/acre/year.

Have tried to write only about crops than give large proportion of price to farmer.Except for above crops mentioned, most crop prices are controlled by middlemen. Fruits, vegetables, etc can also give more than 1 lac per acre per year (as swamy shows), but realisation is mostly disconnected from retail price. Some years you will do well, but some years will be disastrous. Fr example - pomegrante was getting farmers in western maharashtra 5-6 lacs per acre per acre after the 6th year. Some farmers with large acreage made crores. But then one disease came along and pomegranate yield has crashed along with price.

Tired from writing so much . If there are any other ideas, please let me know.

Thank you, sir.

NB. I am a farming enthusiast. I have land of about 7.5 acres, but being cultivated by my relatives. I get about 6-10 bags rice every year, some coconuts, some groundnuts sacks plus some 10-15,000 rupees per annum. Sometimes more, most times less. But my relative who gave me above information is actual farmer who has done courses in agriculture university

1 Like
60

Also, forgot to add - sugarcane.

Current minimum support price in sugarcane is about 1800 per tonne.