Linking farm sector with NREGS will tackle daily labour shortage

• David, an educated farmer advocates youth to take up integrated farming
• Five PG degrees to his credit, horticulture farmer cultivating figs and guavas in 12 acres of land

Kotanka (Anantapur): Krapa Jabez David, a horticulture farmer, is cultivating figs and guavas in 12 acres of land. Figs are in great demand as it is good for diabetic patients.

The young farmer with five postgraduate degrees and two more in the offing instead of pursuing a career in social work, teaching or in tourism development have found a new love for agriculture and horticulture cultivation.

He has no inhibitions working in his farm. He takes great care of the plants and works manually himself apart from his personal observation of the plants’ health.

As an educated farmer, he is advocating educated youth to enter agriculture or it’s allied fields including horticulture and dairy and poultry to make it an integrated farming.

Talking to The Hans India, David said that the central and state governments must integrate MGNREGS with farming to tackle the problem of agriculture labourers shortage, as a result of which many are quitting agriculture and it’s allied works.

The linking of NREGS with agriculture, he opined would give a new impetus to agriculture revolution and make the sector profitable and self-sustaining.

With thousands of IT graduates roaming on the roads, the only way to stop the exodus of all taking up the B Tech courses is by taking steps to make agriculture a profitable proposition and woo young graduates to specialise on agriculture courses.

“Being a postgraduate, I feel proud to lead my life independently and I would not feel shy to work in my land. Anantapur climate is suitable for many fruit crops.

There are so many opportunities and innovations in agricultural sector. Very soon, I am planning to start strawberries plantation under hydroponics farming,” David says.

In this system, within 20 cents of the land we can grow one-acre equivalent strawberry crop and can even save time, land and capital investments, he adds.

The farmer says that his guava trees are flowering, very soon and will be ready for harvesting. Presently, fruit merchants are coming and purchasing in wholesale rate like 10 kilos for Rs 300.

And figs have excellent market in all towns and villages too. Anantapur is in between two metro cities Hyderabad and Bengaluru, huge opportunity for fruit exports.

The young educated farmer is also pitching for establishment of ‘Farmers Resource Centres’ where the farmer can get all the advice and also get single window services for applying for multiple government benefits and incentives.