Story of Omkar Kulkarni: The modern farmer

• 111
• 0

Currently, we are living in an era where rapid urbanization has led to a decline in village population as the majority of youngsters are leaving villages in search of new livelihood in cities, Despite the decline in interest in agriculture as a career, there are still young farmers working all over the world for agriculture. This trend might increase if young farmers are at the policy-making level and are given a chance to offer their opinion and experiences.  Farming offers the young generation a chance to make a difference by growing enough food to feed the world population.

If young people are offered education in agriculture and are engaged with innovations then the agriculture industry can attract youth again. According to the census, in 2011 every day 2000 farmers are giving up farming every day. The youngsters of farmers community are hardly interested in farming due to low returns and other difficulties associated with it and are shifting to other fields of employment and many engineering students are going out of the country looking for better opportunities in other countries leading to what is known as brain drain, but our hero today is opposite to this trend this is the story of Mr. Omkar Kulkarni.

The success story of farming:

Omkar Kulkarni son of Uday Kulkarni, from Hadagali village of Mudhol taluk, Bagalkote District was an engineering student, having done B.E in Civil engineering from Huballi, he was in search of job opportunities. Due to the recent pandemic crisis and lockdown and recession in employment, he couldn’t land any job opportunities. He returned to his village and approached his parents and asked them to give permission to do agriculture in their field for which they happily agreed. He wanted to do Banana plantation and did the same in the 7 ½ acres out of 12 acres.

Many people are apprehensive about his decision and laugh at him but only Mr. Ramesh Jeergal encouraged him and Mr. Ravi helped and taught him about various techniques and medicine to be used. His father was very happy with his son’s decision as he never wanted his son to work outside for a few thousand rupees. Mr. Omkar Kulkarni who would have landed in a job with a monthly salary of Rs 15,000 per month is very happy with his decision as he is now looking at a profit of up to 30 lakhs from his plantation. 3 companies one from Bijapur, Sangli, and Hyderabad have approached him for his banana yields. Executives from companies approached him with opportunities to test the quality of bananas, they would test the banana with a pat on the fruit and if the fruit had a hole in it then it is supposedly of export quality, and they are offering him Rs 11.50 per kg which will yield nearly 30 lakh for his plantation.

He is happy that he has made a good decision as he feels if he had opted for sugarcane he would have had 10.5 lakhs profit, but now he is looking at 30 lakhs after an investment of 7 lakhs i.e 1 lakh per acre, which are very profitable returns indeed. Mr. Omkar has decided to continue with his farming adventure and would like to try his hand at other plantations as well, which is a good sign and a very good example to any more youngsters who will look up to him for inspiration.

If you enjoyed reading this article and wish to support us by making a contribution or a small donation click on Razor Pay IIB Donation