Siddipet: Switching to alternative crops make this couple debt-free

Siddipet: A farmer couple from Gajwel constituency, which is being represented by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, is showing a way in gaining profits by cultivating alternative crops. Tupakul Nagaraju (35), and his wife Rani (32), residents of Thunki Khalsa in Wargal Mandal, were in deep financial trouble as they had drilled 15 unsuccessful borewells […]

Siddipet: A farmer couple from Gajwel constituency, which is being represented by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, is showing a way in gaining profits by cultivating alternative crops. Tupakul Nagaraju (35), and his wife Rani (32), residents of Thunki Khalsa in Wargal Mandal, were in deep financial trouble as they had drilled 15 unsuccessful borewells in their land over a period of three years for irrigation water.

Even after that, they could not find enough water to cultivate paddy in their two-and-a-half-acre agriculture field when they looked for alternatives that would bring them out of the debt trap.

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After visiting the farmers, who were cultivating vegetables in the Shamirpet area, Nagaraju told Telangana Today that he had decided to cultivate vegetable crops by erecting pandals with sticks since he was not in a position to install rock pandals then.

Within a year and after three crops of vegetable cultivation, Nagaraju said that he had cleared his debts of five lakh. After borrowing some amount, he had erected rock pandals by spending Rs 5 lakh in one and a half acre land. However, Nagaraju said that he had got just Rs one lakh subsidy from the Horticulture department, but the couple managed to clear the remaining four lakh debt after a couple of crops.

Speaking to Telangana Today, Rani said that they were in serious financial trouble three years ago, but now they are happy to say that they are financially surplus now.

Stating that they had also got some name for their vegetables in Vantimamidi Market, Nagaraju, who had also bought an auto to transport them to the market every day, said the vendors would buy his vegetables within an hour because of its quality.

Supporting the government’s call for the cultivation of alternative crops other than paddy, Nagaraju urged the Chief Minister to offer 100 percent subsidised pandals to farmers besides building sufficient storage points so that the farmers will automatically switch to horticulture cultivation. He also appealed to the Chief Minister to restrict the middlemen’s intervention in the market to help the farmers gain maximum profits.

Following in the footsteps of Nagaraju, who is the first man to cultivate pandal cultivation in his village, his younger also got into vegetable cultivation and tasted similar success. Nagaraju, who always changes crops to keep his soil fertile, said that a farmer can earn Rs 5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh per annum on an acre of vegetable cultivation if he manages to cultivate three crops a year.

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