Belthangady: At a juncture of time when, shrinking land holding and other factors are making people drift away from agriculture, here in Suriya village of Belthangady taluk, lives a former teacher, who bid adieu to his profession just to take up farming.
As a farmer, he does not only think of his yield, but here he continues to don the cap of a teacher by solving questions, queries and problems of fellow farmers.
Meet Prabhakar Mayya, a teacher by instinct and by passion. Mayya has shown to the world that farming too can be a profitable venture if it is done with proper planning.
While everyone billed his land off as infertile, Mayya put his heart, soul and brain into the land and today he has left everyone surprised as he is reaping huge profits year after year from the very same infertile land.
Life was going on swiftly for Mayya. After his BA and B.Ed education, he was recruited as a teacher in a local school, but his love for agriculture kept swaying him and answering the calling, he left his secured job to take up farming. His family had a holding of five acres of land, but since two acre were considered to be barren, the family only took up farming in fertile three acres.
It was about 18 years ago that Mayya stepped on the barren land and as if it was Midas touch, the barren land is today a spot worth seeing.
Living in a joint family of ten members, all the hands toil in the five acre land. Growing a variety of crops, this family reaps paddy, coconut, areca, coffee, cocoa, plantains, pepper, nutmeg along with vegetables, mangoes, beetle leaves among others. The Mayya household is considered as a well to do family, thanks to their farmland that feeds them.
Simultaneously, Mayya also rears cattle, sheep, goats and other domestic animals that could supplement the income of the family.
With no chemical fertilisers on his racks, from the beginning, Mayya had made organic farming a way of life. Hence all the manure that is collected from cowshed goes into making manure for the farm land. Vermi compost and various other organic manure units are in place to feed the farmland.
As the ‘Mayya-model’ of farming became popular, people started thronging the farmland and till date as many as 325 delegations of farmers have visited his land. He has also delivered talks in more than 350 places on how simple techniques could make big difference in farming.
With the success came a string of awards and recognition from time to time.
Speaking to newskarnataka.com, this farmer with a difference says that it is time farmers of the region changed their perspective and mindset.
“In this region, for farmers cultivating areca is like some unwritten rule. Farmers have to think beyond areca and take steps to sustain a living by growing more and more crops in limited land holding. It is not an impossible task,” says Mayya.
True, farming is not just about hardwork, it is also about strategy and planning like any other undertaking.
