Vijayapura: Strolling in the farm under the scorching heat and watering capsicum and watermelon plantations, Shabbir Jagirdar does not appear like any typical farmer. For the reason; he is a software professional and works for a Pune-based software company.
Yet, this techie has chosen farming as his passion along with his profession while working from home for the company.
Having cultivated capsicum, tomatoes and watermelon, Shabbir, though he started farming as a hobby, has taken it up as his passion and involved himself fully.
Shabbir vehemently believes that farming should be done scientifically and professionally to earn profit and to convert the farming into a lucrative business.
With the clear objective of dispelling the notion that educated people are not fit for farming, he said that while traditional farmers, despite spending entire days at the farm, and still do not earn enough profit, the educated people can spend only a few hours in the farm and still can earn more profit.
“Since I am working from home, I carry my laptop to the farm here. I spend around 3-4 hours at the farm, later I do my software job”, Shabbir said.
Admitting that farming is easier said than done, he however asserts that with a strong commitment and zeal, it is surely possible to earn with farming.
“In the beginning I did face some hurdles on cultivation, watering, controlling pests and so on but as I started getting more involved into it, I began learning from the mistakes”, he said.
Having cultivated watermelon and capsicum which is expected to give higher returns, he however experienced some loss in tomatoes after market crashed.
“I would have earned profit even if I had sold tomatoes for Rs. 4/kg, but since the market has crashed, I have experienced loss”, he said.
Since he has adopted a multi-cropping system which he advises other farmers also should do, he said that if one crop causes loss, another crop helps in recovering the loss.
He is intensely hoping to recover the loss in watermelon as the demand will increase in the summers and from the capsicum which will come for harvesting in a few days.
