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R.Madhavan- An Engineer turned Farmer ( Must Read)

Contrasting Careers | T Muralidharan | November 25, 2009 at 21:28

Hello guys hope you all are doing well and having good time visiting this blog. To make the blog more interesting We are coming with a new section named ContrastingCareers . In this section we would look at some impressive personalities who came out with flying colours inspite of their contrasting careers. Like this guy whom Iwriting about is an IIT Mechanical Grad who does farming as a profession and thats his passion. I got this very interesting email from one of my IIM-A Yahoo Groupswhich I would like to share it here.

This is an inspiring story. It helps you dare to think beyond the usual.It shows how single minded dedication and focused work can help one beget the dreams.

Off-beat is in. The oft beaten track, not so.

One of the most interesting themes at this year s Pan-IIT event was the session on rural transformation. IITians who have chosen an offbeat career hogged the limelightat the event. In this series, we feature some of the IITians who preferred to be different, rather than get into a corporate rat race. The star at the event was RMadhavan, an alumnus of IIT-Madras .

This is Madhavan s success story as a farmer

Passion for agriculture : I had a passion for agriculture even when I was young. I don t know how my love for agriculture started. I only know that I have always been anature lover. I used to have a garden even when I was a teenager. So, from a home garden, a kitchen garden, I gradually became a farmer! My mother used to be veryhappy with the vegetables I grew.

R.Madhavan

Studying at IIT Madras : My family was against my ambition of becoming an agriculturist. So, I had to find a livelihood for myself. I wrote IIT-JEE and got selected tostudy at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras . I enjoyed studying mechanical engineering. My intention was to transform what I study into what I love;mechanisation of farming. I felt the drudgery in farming is much more than in any other industry, and no one had looked into it.

Working for ONGC after IIT : I started my career at the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). My father refused to give me any money to start farming. So I asked theofficials to let me work at the offshore sites, on the rigs. The advantage was that I could work on rigs for 14 days and then take 14 days off. I chose to work on the rigs fornine years, uninterrupted.

Madhavan s farm : After 4 years, I saved enough money to buy six acres of land. I bought land at Chengelpet near Chennai. I chose that land because the plot had accessto road and water. Back in 1989, a man in a pair of trousers aroused curiosity among the farming community. That was not the image of a farmer! Tough beginning as afarmer.I became a full fledged farmer in 1993. It was tough in the beginning. Nobody taught me how to farm. There was no guidance from the gram sevaks or theUniversity of Agriculture . I ran from pillar to post but couldn t find a single scientist who could help me. I burnt my fingers. My first crop was paddy and I produced 2tonnes from the six acres of land, it was pathetic. When I lost all my money, my father said I was stupid. I told him, it didn t matter as I was learning. It was trial and errorfor me for three years. Until 1997, I was only experimenting by mingling various systems.

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A Visit to Israel : In 1996, I visited Israel because I had heard that they are the best in water technology. Take the case of corn: they harvest 7 tonnes per acre whereaswe produce less than a tonne. They harvest up to 200 tonnes of tomatoes, whereas here it is 6 tonnes, in similar area of land. I stayed in one of the kibbutz, which is aco-operative farm for 15 days. I understood what we do is quite primitive. It was an eye opener for me. They treat each plant as an industry. A plant producing one kiloof capsicum is an industry that has 1 kilo output. I learnt from them that we abuse water. Drip irrigation is not only for saving water but it enhances your plantproductivity. We commonly practice flood irrigation where they just pump water. As per the 2005 statistics, instead of 1 litre, we use 750 litres of water.

Guru : I met Dr Lakshmanan, a California-based NRI, who has been farming for the last 35 years on 50-60,000 acres of land. He taught me farming over the last one

decade. Whatever little I have learnt, it is thanks to him. I knew a farm would give me much better returns in terms of money as well as happiness. Working for moneyand working for happiness are different. I work and get happiness. What more do you need?

No guidance in India.I said at one platform that we have to change the curriculum of the agricultural universities. What they teach the students is not how to farm, buthow to draw loans from a bank! What they learn cannot be transformed to reality or to the villages. The problem in the villages is not mentioned in the university. Thereis a wide gap and it is getting worse.

After burning my fingers for four years, from 1997 onwards, I started making profits. Even though it took me four years, I did not lose hope. I knew this was mypath even though I didn t have any guidance from anyone. In those days, communication was slow. Today, I can get guidance from Dr Lakshmanan on Skype or GoogleTalk, or through e-mail. I send him the picture of my problem and ask his guidance. In those days, it took time to communicate. There was no Internet orconnectivity. That was why it took me four years to learn farming. Today, I would not have taken more than six months or even less to learn the trick!I started croprotation after 1997. In August, I start with paddy and it is harvested in December.

I plant vegetables in December itself and get the crops in February. After that, it is oil seeds like sesame and groundnut, which are drought-resistant, till May. DuringMay, I go on trips to learn more about the craft. I come back in June-July and start preparations on the land to get ready for August. In 1999, I bought another four acres.My target is a net income of Rs 100,000 per annum per acre. I have achieved up to Rs 50,000.I sell my produce on my own. I have a jeep and bring what I produce to myhouse and sell from there. People know that I sell at home. I don t go through any middle man. I take paddy to the mill, hull it and sell it on my own. In the future, I haveplans to have a mill too. These days, people tell me in advance that they need rice from me. I have no problem selling my produce.

Engineering helps in farming : More than any other education, engineering helps in farming because toiling in the soil is only 20 per cent of the work. About 80 per centof farming needs engineering skills.Science is a must for any farming. I have developed a number of simple, farmer-friendly tools for farming areas like seeding, weeding,etc. as we don t have any tools for small farmers. If I have 200 acres of land, I can go for food processing, etc. My next project is to lease land from the small farmers for

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agriculture. The village will prosper with food processing industries coming there. My yield will also be more with more land.

Ab dul Kalam visits the farm : Dr Abdul Kalam visited my farm when he was the President, after hearing about what I was doing. He spent around two hours on myfarm. During his visit, he said: We need not one, but one million Madhavans! .If I am able to inspire or create even one entrepreneur, I will be very happy, because thatis what Dr Kalam wished me to do.

Experimental farming : Every acre of my land has ten cents of experimental farming. I have done this for the last 15 years. This is a part of my research and development.Some of it may fail, but even if I succeed at one thing, that is enough for me.

Entrepreneurship in the village : I feel that the number of people engaged only in farming should come down. Instead of ten people, there should only be two people. Iam not saying the eight should go jobless. What we should do is, create employment in the villages based on other agro activities like value addition, processing, etc. Wecan go for mechanisation in large areas so that the cost per acre goes down. In India , the cost per every meal is very high. So, my next concern is, how do you make itcheap.In America , the unskilled working for one hour can earn three meals a day. Here, in the rural areas, even if they work for one day, they can t get one meal a day.How do you bring down the cost? By producing more food. So, my intention is to make more food.

Food insecurity in India : The United Nations says 65 per cent of the world population suffers from food deficiency, and India ranks first in the list.About 49 per cent of our children are undernourished. This means our future generation will be affected.If we are not going to give attention to this area, we are in for real trouble. Foodinsecurity is more threatening than an atom bomb!

You can contact him by emailing him at madhur80@hotmail.com