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Software engineer cum farmer grows chemical free products for restoring health of people and soil
“With years of scientific farming practices the soil has been ruined badly and well being of human beings is falling apart. Everyone is sick and in the name of development we have more number of hospitals and medicine stores established at every nook and corner of villages, towns and cities! It is not correct and needs to be changed! Therefore in spite of being in full time job at Cognizant Technologies, Bengaluru, I decided to make a small beginning by turning into weekend farmer and retrieve my ancestral 40 acre farm at my village Kawalga, Gulbarga district, Karnataka,” says Mr. Mahesh Kavalaga. Every Friday night he travels to his village, does farming for two days and returns back to Bangaloreon Sunday night!
Mr. Mahesh Kavalaga
He started reviving his farm from past one year and has received encouraging results. He grows 30 different varieties of crops across the farm with a favourable jumble of pulses, cereals and vegetables. “Our area is known for red gram crop so I have grown it along with wheat and tuar (pigeon pea) as commercial crop,” he shares.
“My aim is to make my farm 100% self-independent so that nothing is purchased from the market. Unfortunately majority of Indian farms are solely dependent on the market for growing food be it seeds, fertilizer or water therefore the expenses increase day by day and farmers gets plunge in debts with mounting interest amounts. Finally the end results are fatal,” he highlights. The farm of Mr. Mahesh is dry land hence to begin with he developed a big pond in the farm to restore the rain water. The pond size is 60*60*40.
He insists on bringing back the old farming practices when it was completely cow based agriculture. “Initially I didn’t had sufficient cows to feed the soil with farming inputs therefore I bought most of the inputs from Bangalore located ‘Desi Cows for Better India’. However, now I have enough desi cows to take care of farming input requirements for the entire farm. One good thing, in our village we only have desi cows namely khillari, deoni and jawari,” he adds.
Initially Mr. Mahesh bought seeds from Mr. Prakash Singh Raghuvanshi, indigenous seed supplier from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. “I had some seeds stored with my father and other family member rest I bought wheat, Bengal gram, red gram seeds from Mr. Raghuvanshi. He is a very noble person who wants farmers to grow best variety of seeds and prosper. With every purchase he gave heirloom vegetable seeds for free. These seeds need to be grown, multiplied and shared with other farmers. I am doing it in a small way but soon will scale it up,” states Mr. Mahesh.
Intercropping is the assured way to make profits in farming. Ideal combination of monocot and dicote must be grown by the farmers to increase the revenues by many folds. Mr. Mahesh shares few combinations as, “Bajra and red gram will be grown as intercrops. Bajra shall be harvested in 90 days and all the waste shall be mulched back in the soil to give nutrients to the red gram. It shall also control the weeds to a large extent. Similarly, in rabi season we will grow jowar and Bengal gram. Monocot and dicote crops support one another and are good for the soil too.”
In order to make agriculture lucrative farmers must be independent in every way with their farm inputs and selling. “It is a wrong practice to sell the farm produce in APMC market or local mandi! I ensured to be different therefore processed wheat, tuar dal and red gram in the farm premises and selling it all directly to the end user in different cities of Karnataka. The prices are premium but as promised quality is delivered customer base is multiplying rapidly. Word of mouth publicity is working best for me,” he informs.
When asked about managing two time intensive professions in parallel Mr. Mahesh gives the credit to the immense support he receives from family members, friends, teammates, colleagues and also the customers. “Besides I got lot of guidance and help from agricultural officers and staff from government agricultural departments and universities,” he adds.
In time to come Mr. Mahesh want to expand his farming operations to more crops and bringing in more elements of agriculture to make it more profitable. “Lastly my ultimate goal is to make certain that all the farmers resume natural farming practices as soon as possible. I want my district Gulbarga to be absolutely chemical free and self sustainable by 2025,” he signs off.
Contact details:
Mr. Mahesh Kavalaga
Farm: Kawalga Village, Gulbarga Taluk and District, Karnataka
Correspondence: No. 121, 6th Main, 2nd Cross, Mico Layout, BTM 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 560076, Karnataka
Phone: +91 97392 91508 (9-10 pm only)
Email: mahesh.kavalaga@gmail.com
“With years of scientific farming practices the soil has been ruined badly and well being of human beings is falling apart. Everyone is sick and in the name of development we have more number of hospitals and medicine stores established at every nook and corner of villages, towns and cities! It is not correct and needs to be changed! Therefore in spite of being in full time job at Cognizant Technologies, Bengaluru, I decided to make a small beginning by turning into weekend farmer and retrieve my ancestral 40 acre farm at my village Kawalga, Gulbarga district, Karnataka,” says Mr. Mahesh Kavalaga. Every Friday night he travels to his village, does farming for two days and returns back to Bangaloreon Sunday night!
Mr. Mahesh Kavalaga
He started reviving his farm from past one year and has received encouraging results. He grows 30 different varieties of crops across the farm with a favourable jumble of pulses, cereals and vegetables. “Our area is known for red gram crop so I have grown it along with wheat and tuar (pigeon pea) as commercial crop,” he shares.
“My aim is to make my farm 100% self-independent so that nothing is purchased from the market. Unfortunately majority of Indian farms are solely dependent on the market for growing food be it seeds, fertilizer or water therefore the expenses increase day by day and farmers gets plunge in debts with mounting interest amounts. Finally the end results are fatal,” he highlights. The farm of Mr. Mahesh is dry land hence to begin with he developed a big pond in the farm to restore the rain water. The pond size is 60*60*40.
He insists on bringing back the old farming practices when it was completely cow based agriculture. “Initially I didn’t had sufficient cows to feed the soil with farming inputs therefore I bought most of the inputs from Bangalore located ‘Desi Cows for Better India’. However, now I have enough desi cows to take care of farming input requirements for the entire farm. One good thing, in our village we only have desi cows namely khillari, deoni and jawari,” he adds.
Initially Mr. Mahesh bought seeds from Mr. Prakash Singh Raghuvanshi, indigenous seed supplier from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. “I had some seeds stored with my father and other family member rest I bought wheat, Bengal gram, red gram seeds from Mr. Raghuvanshi. He is a very noble person who wants farmers to grow best variety of seeds and prosper. With every purchase he gave heirloom vegetable seeds for free. These seeds need to be grown, multiplied and shared with other farmers. I am doing it in a small way but soon will scale it up,” states Mr. Mahesh.
Intercropping is the assured way to make profits in farming. Ideal combination of monocot and dicote must be grown by the farmers to increase the revenues by many folds. Mr. Mahesh shares few combinations as, “Bajra and red gram will be grown as intercrops. Bajra shall be harvested in 90 days and all the waste shall be mulched back in the soil to give nutrients to the red gram. It shall also control the weeds to a large extent. Similarly, in rabi season we will grow jowar and Bengal gram. Monocot and dicote crops support one another and are good for the soil too.”
In order to make agriculture lucrative farmers must be independent in every way with their farm inputs and selling. “It is a wrong practice to sell the farm produce in APMC market or local mandi! I ensured to be different therefore processed wheat, tuar dal and red gram in the farm premises and selling it all directly to the end user in different cities of Karnataka. The prices are premium but as promised quality is delivered customer base is multiplying rapidly. Word of mouth publicity is working best for me,” he informs.
When asked about managing two time intensive professions in parallel Mr. Mahesh gives the credit to the immense support he receives from family members, friends, teammates, colleagues and also the customers. “Besides I got lot of guidance and help from agricultural officers and staff from government agricultural departments and universities,” he adds.
In time to come Mr. Mahesh want to expand his farming operations to more crops and bringing in more elements of agriculture to make it more profitable. “Lastly my ultimate goal is to make certain that all the farmers resume natural farming practices as soon as possible. I want my district Gulbarga to be absolutely chemical free and self sustainable by 2025,” he signs off.
Contact details:
Mr. Mahesh Kavalaga
Farm: Kawalga Village, Gulbarga Taluk and District, Karnataka
Correspondence: No. 121, 6th Main, 2nd Cross, Mico Layout, BTM 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 560076, Karnataka
Phone: +91 97392 91508 (9-10 pm only)
Email: mahesh.kavalaga@gmail.com