This school dropout UP farmer earns `2 cr a year

With contract farming, innovation and technology, the Barabanki man grows high yielding banana, potato-non-traditional crops

As more and more villagers are migrating towards cities for better livelihood abandoning their farms, the Daulatpur village in Barabanki looks like a huge green farm like those in western countries.

The village, which is about 40 km from the state capital Lucknow, is cultivating high yielding cash crops of bananas, chipsona potato (used to make wafers), tomatoes and mentha, all non-traditional crops.

While farming community in India struggles with crop losses, dwindling farm returns and rising debts, for Daulatpur farmer Ramsaran Verma agriculture is a profitable business.

School dropout Verma earns Rs 2 crore annually by growing high-quality bananas, tomatoes, potatoes and mentha on 212 acres of agriculture land including 200 acres on contract from 15 fellow villagers.

“Growing cash crops, best seeds and tissue culture and technology can turnaround the farming,” says Verma who was the first to cultivate bananas in the area in 1990s quitting traditional paddy, wheat and mustard crops which offered poor returns after learning the skills from the farmers of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Verma, who started experimenting with his own 12 acres land in 1990s, tells proudly, “I could grow 250 quintals of banana per acre initially. This was the time when villagers were shifting to cities leaving their traditional profession. I borrowed their land. After few years of hard work, I managed to grow 400 quintals of bananas per acre.”

After learning about his success, people started returning to the village and sought their land back, Verma tells with a smile.

“Then I shifted base 50 km away to Daulatpur and started cooperative farming by training more and more farmers gradually,” says Verma who now grows up to 500 quintals per acre and provides employment to nearly hundreds of labourers.

Verma says, “It takes about Rs 1 lakh for preparation of the land, seeds, fertilizers, irrigation, crop protection, bamboo and labour charge to cultivate banana on one acre of land. The yield is around 400 quintals which fetches Rs five lakhs with Rs four lakh as net profit.”

Tomatoes fetch profit of Rs 4-5 lakh per acre, potatoes Rs 1 lakh an acre and mentha about Rs 50,000. Verma advises farmers must grow multiple crops to avoid losses due to crop failure.