Chennai: R. Visvanathan, design engineer in Ford India, Chennai, has a part-time job. This 29-year-old B.E. mechanical engineering graduate from IIT Madras, goes to villages just beyond Chennai’s suburbs during the weekends to interact with farmers and learn agriculture. Visvanathan is currently involved in “designing” a coconut-climbing machine.
“I learnt that finding labourers for farming has become a problem. I am using my expertise in developing machines to modernise farming. I have many projects in my pocket,” says Visvanthan with pride. He recently visited farmland in Muttukadu and tested the soil and would soon plough the land with his modernised tiller. His friend R.Thirumalai, an MBA graduate, went to Krishnagiri for a baseline study in onion cultivation. He bought 500 kg of onion and sold them to various hotels and retail stores and in roadside markets in Chennai on a trial basis.
“Middlemen play a key role in exploiting farmers and traders. While we bought onions for Rs 10 per kg from the farmers, many customers in Chennai are ready the pay Rs 18 for our onions,” he said. Explaining his project, he said, “We will develop a business model which will give more respect for agriculture and the farmer will enjoy his profits,” says Thirumalai.
Gone are the days when engineering students lined up for campus interviews to get a job in IT companies. Scores of graduates like Visvanathan and Thirumalai are now taking up agriculture for their livelihood and “soul satisfaction”. To help out such young entrepreneurs, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has come out with the “e-agriculture” project, under which it has uploaded two lakh pages of “basics of agriculture” on its website. “We see a trend of many young men moving towards agriculture. Similar to business houses, we are planning an initiative called ‘corporate farm house’ project, by which graduates will be employed and farmers would be connected directly with the consumers,” says P. Murugesa Bhoopathy, vice-chancellor of the university.