Walking around in a lush green field, dressed in sweatpants, a T-shirt and sneakers, Abhishek Dhamma from Delhi’s Palla village, hardly fits the typical image of a farmer.
“People assume that lack of jobs or pressure from my family forced me into farming,” Abhishek tells The Better India. “My own family stared in disbelief when I told them about my decision.”
This is because until he completed his degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering in 2014, Abhishek detested the idea of joining his family’s farming business. For him, working in the fields meant hours of strenuous activity and inevitable loss, which, to an extent, was his family’s reality.
Abhishek had made his stance on agriculture clear to his family from the very beginning and was never pressured to take forward his father’s business. He had full control over his professional life, and his future plans were set.
So, what made the young man drop his strong beliefs, and become an urban kisan?
It all started in 2014 after his graduation.
“I am a fitness freak and have played cricket and volleyball all my life. Before I started looking for jobs, I took a break and starting gymming. That’s when I learnt about the significance of nutrition and the importance of a proper diet for a healthy body.”
Abhishek’s curiosity for developing a healthy diet culminated in in-depth research.
“Of course I knew about using pesticides to grow plants, but it was only after some research I got to know about the terrible health implications of doing so,” he adds.
Even though Abhishek was aware, he did not attempt to change the non-organic farming process in his family’s 25-acre field due to lack of expertise and experience.
He weighed his options and started a tiny vegetable garden around a temple on the banks of the river Yamuna. His grandfather had built this temple, and the land around it was highly fertile but uncultivated.
I looked at several YouTube videos and began growing traditional veggies like tomatoes, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, reddish and some exotic ones like broccoli and red lettuce. The six-foot boundary wall kept the pests and insects away. I used a small amount of organic fertiliser and crop residues to provide nutrition to the veggies.
A year later, Abhishek saw a drastic change in terms of the colour, taste and quality of the veggies when he compared them with the ones available in the market.
The success gave him the confidence to experiment in the 25-acre property. “Unknowingly, the tiny garden became my first step towards becoming an ‘agripreneur’ (agriculture+entrepreneur).”
Being a health-conscious person, Abhishek cultivated the stevia plant, also known as meethi tulsi, as the extract from its leaves is a sugar substitute. Unfortunately, Abhishek did not get any buyers, and his project tanked in 2016.
Amidst the mocking from neighbouring farmers and warnings from family to choose a better career path, Abhishek continued his research on organic farming.
To earn more money, my father would spend hours in the field growing huge quantities of paddy and wheat without understanding the market dynamics. I managed my farms as per the requirements of markets. I would grow only those plants that yielded high produce and money.
He took his family land on lease to conduct all kinds of experiments. While he stuck to the veggies he grew in his garden, he changed the watering method and even came up with his own organic fertilisers.