In the ever-growing crowd of engineers, one mechanical engineer chose to go back to the roots, quite literally. Despite a degree from the prestigious BITS Pilani, Sidhartha Namburi followed his passion and turned to farming. He not only farms, but also educates other farmers and helps them reach the public directly instead of depending on traders.
“Getting into agriculture happened suddenly for me, I was given an assignment and asked to choose one topic which shows an impact on society. After researching many ideas, I decided to get into a political internship to learn more about politics. I heard about JD Lakshminarayana who was visiting fields and interacting with farmers, I thought I would get to learn something from him and joined the team for a year,” says Sidhartha who also participated in college elections in BITS Pilani.
After various interactions with farmers, politicians and members of the bureaucracy, he understood how vast agriculture really is.
“It gave me more clarity about the system and how we can change it. It’s because of low income that farmers leave agriculture and turn to other professions. I wanted to educate and make farmers know the value and demand of agriculture and what our country is losing by letting them go,” says the 24-year-old.
He farms six varieties of paddy, varieties of black rice — Kala Batti (high in anti-oxidants) Karpura Kamani (scented black rice for sweets), red jasmine — red Basmati rice, Narayana Kamini — rice for increasing muscle strength, Ratna Chauli and Siri Sannam which is desi rice for daily consumption.
“India has more than 2,000 varieties of paddy which many don’t know about. A person can stay healthy without taking any medicine by having different kinds of rice according to the season and health issues, if any, that they have,” says the young farmer.
Sidhartha farms in Kolanupaka village in Telangana’s Yadadri Bhuvanagiri. He supplies his vegetables and fruits to Hyderabad and Chennai, and also plans to start a website and work on rural innovation and politics.
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