FIELD MARSHALL
GANSU MAHTO 41 ORGANIC FARMER, SADMA, JHARKHAND
Once known as a land where haathis (elephants) and saathis (Maoists) roamed freely, Sadma village in the Ormanjhi block of Ranchi district is now known for the millionaire Gansu Mahto, the most successful farmer of Jharkhand. Mahto had completed intermediate in 1996, but had to discontinue studies because his parents did not have the money. The family had land, but it was mostly barren. Mahto did odd jobs to fill his days. Then, in 1999, he heard about organic farming from someone visiting the village.
With some money that he and his father had scrimped and saved, Mahto and his father visited villages in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to meet organic farmers and ask them what the process entailed.
Though Mahto began farming in 1999, he tasted real success only in 2002. The crop of capsicum, brinjal and tomatoes he sowed fetched him Rs 1.2 lakh. Encouraged, Mahto started cultivating vegetables on nine acres of land using plastic mulching (a process that involves applying a layer of organic or inorganic material to the soil surface to conserve moisture, improve fertility and reduce weed growth), drip irrigation technologies, or localised watering of crops, and soluble, self-made fertiliser.
Mahto now grows a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including tomato, sweet corn, musk melon, cucumber, chilli and capsicum. With his locally made organic fertilisers, Mahto produces three times the vegetables that traditional methods yield. The profits have followed but naturally.
In 2015, Mahto purchased another five acres. With an annual income of over Rs 25 lakh now, his family leads a good, upper middle class life. But that doesn’t mean they have moved to a big town like Ranchi. Mahto stays rooted in his village. “We have 22-hour electricity and DTH at home. The atmosphere is pollution-free. And, to top it all, my vegetables are here. I truly belong here.”
For Mahto, apart from his millions, the recognition by the state government as a master trainer in organic farming is no less precious. “I have trained more than a thousand aspiring farmers. Many of them are like what I was once upon a time,” he says. Sow the seeds of hard work, and a harvest of success is sure to follow. Mahto has shown how.
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“I was once a migrant labourer, doing odd jobs in Bengaluru to eke a living. I now earn Rs 1.5 lakh a year by following what Gansu taught us” Ravi Oraon, farmer