JOIN USFarm, rather than firm, brings CEO peace
Meet Aspire Communications honcho Dr Mahesh Rao, who grows crops, including paddy, tomatoes, pulses, ragi, mangoes and coconut, in his 3.5-acre farm at Halladakallahalli, about 18 km from the city.
Having lived in the US for 19 years, Rao, who worked with Intel, gave in to his yearning to return to India in 2000 to work at Intel’s Bangalore branch. Rao, who spent his childhood in Mysore, said: “I didn’t like living in Bangalore. I wanted to get away from all the humdrum. So, I started an IT services company here.”
With the steady growth of his IT firm, Rao started searching for land so that he could return to nature and try his hand at organic farming.
“It wasn’t really about making money, but it was just a way of relaxing and also to get good quality food at home,” Rao said about his interest in organic farming. He has plans to construct a house on his farm, so he can use it as a weekend getaway.
Unlike many other businessmen, he does not crib about lack of mobile connectivity at his farm. He is philosophical about it and says it allows him to spend more time peacefully away from the grind of corporate world. “You don’t have to be stuck with something, you have to be enjoying what you are doing,” he says.
Even though the farm is yet to become a profitable proposition for him, Rao is enjoying his stint at the farm. There is one thing that he has found to be more valuable than money. And that is peace of mind. “You can’t put a price on it”, he says with a smile.
For him, the pricing of his agriculture produce has been an eye-opener. Last season, he grew nearly 200 pallets of tomatoes. But he got only Rs three a kg while the rate in retail stores was hovering at around Rs 20 a kg. “I went to the APMC yard and they said that the rate was just Rs three per kg. The sad part is that it won’t even pay for the transport,” he bemoaned. His farm also produced nearly 5,000 mangoes and coconuts last year, apart from ragi, greens and paddy.
However, the emus in his farm are a profitable value addition. He said each emu egg can be sold for Rs 1,500 and the meat is sold at nearly Rs 250 to 300 a kg.