Drought is no threat to him

Farming novelty

Visit the farm of T Sampath Kumar, a 50-year-old farmer, who is growing a variety of crops on an area of six acres and 30 guntas.

The entire farm survives on drip irrigation and organic farming system, with yields of banana, tomato, sunflower, tur, ragi and mulberry for more than four years. Kumar has also started growing local varieties of mango, drumsticks and sweet potato.

He had initially taken to growing groundnut in the same area. When he visited Hosur to get banana saplings to plant, sellers and other farmers had said growing banana using organic farming was not a smart choice. There was also the fear of the plants not yielding fruit. Kumar, however, sowed seeds of the G9 variety. The first crop gave 30 tons of bananas. The third crop had yielded much more.

High grass is grown all around the crop, on the edge of the farm, standing guard for the banana plants, preventing growth of weeds in-between. The grass, when cut, can also be used to feed cattle- added advantage.

“Grass grown using chemicals have hard stalks. Organic farming, however, softens the stalks, and cattle can easily graze on them,” explains Kumar. He therefore does not need cattle feed for the four local breed cows and one buffalo that he rears.

About 1.5 acres of Kumar’s land is a virtual jungle. He has grown teak, silver oak, tamarind, Indian beech, black plum and other varieties of trees. He has also grown bamboo on his farm.

On two acres, Kumar has grown the V1 variety of mulberry and rears cocoons. On
1-1/4 acres is sunflower weighing more than 20 tons. Customers come from Bagalkot and Raichur. Tur is grown on one acre and 16 guntas. The garden in front of his house has two areca trees, cardamom plants, neem trees, and pomegranate plants.

The entire success of Kumar is attributed to intelligent use of the water from the two tubewells in his farm by implementing drip irrigation.

Kumar also used organic fertilizers, instead of chemical manure. He also uses a minimum of 20 tonnes of dung and 10 tonnes of compost. Sowing for paddy and ragi is through drum seeders.

“Fertility and the quality of the soil have only improved due to these techniques. Earthworms and nutrients in the soil grow healthy. Rain water is not wasted,” Kumar explained and added that moisture in the soil is preserved with a blanket made from waste sticks and branches.

Supplementing his success on the field is the biogas plant he has set up and connected to the kitchen. People who wish to contact Sampath Kumar can call him on mobile number 9449161154.