Making high yields from a barren land

Judicious use of water, manure proves lucky for this farmer in Mulbagal

Despite warnings from many farmers against spending money on a barren land, Vasanthkumar decided to take it as a challenge and grow papaya in the land.

Today, the result of his determination and hard work is there for all to see. “Organic manure, the right amount of pesticides and water has resulted in this bumper yield,” says a visibly delighted Vasanthkumar.

Vasanthkumar has a six-acre land and decided to grow papaya on two acres. He first tilled these two acres of land and added a tonne each of poultry manure and organic manure for every acre. For adding the green manure, he grew beans and let the crop wither into the land. He later dug four pits at the distance of two metres each and filled them with organic manure, compost and red soil. and planted saplings of the high breed, red lady variety of papaya. He used to drip irrigation.

In around eight months, his efforts began to bear fruit and he harvested 25 tonnes of papaya. After deducting the initial investment, Vasanthkumar has made a profit of Rs 6 per kg of papaya.

Vasanthkumar says that he can harvest about three tonnes of papaya every week for the next three years.

Incidentally, choosing to grow the rare red lady variety of papaya has also proved profitable for Vasanthkumar. “The demand for the fruit has increased and traders from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi come directly to the farm to buy the papaya,” Vasanthkumar adds.

Vasanthkumar has now proven that judicial use of water, manure and following scientific ways of farming can turn even a barren land into a high-yielding land.