A youth has successfully achieved success in integrated farming growing varieties of fruits including Rambutan. The youth took interest in agriculture under father’s guidance. This is very rare for today’s young generation with youth more likely to complete their higher education and move to another State or abroad in search of a higher job, leaving behind their agricultural wealth and continuing in their professional education. What’s more interesting is that the youth Arvind is a MBA graduate too.
Here’s a story of Arvind, who has turned to mixed fruit farming with the rambutan fruit. Here’s a story about the agricultural achievements of an MBA graduate who is continuing with his father’s farm to ensure that the agriculture inherited from his father does not stop in his generation. Aravind is the only son of Umanath Devadiga of Belvai Panchayat in Moodabidri Taluk. Around 30 years ago, his father had brought 3 to 4 varieties of the rambutan sapling from Soans Farm and planted them. Seeing the taste of the rambutan grown in the plant, father became more inclined towards the cultivation of rambutan. Later, in order to grow the same crop better, they brought in more saplings and planted them and nurtured them. Arvind said, “I was more interested in agriculture since childhood, I saw my father engaging himself in agriculture and focused on agriculture.”
This variety requires more water as compared to other crops. The more water we allocate to this plant, the better it will bear fruit. Apart from this, the plant is grown in areas where rainfall is high. The work of nurturing the rambutan plant is more and should be done with the same amount of effort.
This rambutan fruit is eaten and destroyed by rats. Growing the rambutan fruit and selling it safely to the market is an adventure. We have to work harder to nurture it more than how much we profit, he added.
Umanath Devadiga said, “If all the squirrels come and eat 4 to 5 fruits, all the fruits will fall and get spoiled. So, in order to save the fruits, we sell the fruits at the cost of selling them and bring in nets and try to save as many fruits as possible. This farming has helped me enough to make a living. He explained the hardwork he had put in agriculture. “There is a huge demand for this fruit abroad as well and it is not possible to supply so many fruits here if it has to be shipped there. This is because more wild animals eat and destroy the fruit. This makes it difficult to export the fruits,” he added.
He has not only cultivated the Rambutan fruit but also pineapple and other fruits. More and more young people should show interest in it because one day if we stop farming wherever we go for work, we will be left without food. It is for this reason that I am continuing this farming which came from my father, he said and advised all the youth to focus on agriculture.
