Kondagaon: Bastar farmer Dr. Rajaram Tripathi is going to buy a helicopter. He has booked a four-seater helicopter from a Dutch company for Rs 7 crore. For this, they have signed a contract with the Netherlands company, according to which the company will prepare the helicopter in four years and maintain it for the next seven years.
Rajaram Tripathi, a resident of Kondagaon, is known for white musli, black pepper and organic farming. He has also developed natural greenhouse technology using Australian teak to cultivate black pepper. In this, an income of crores of rupees can be made per acre for 40 years at a cost of one to one and a half lakh rupees.
He calls this technology a gamechanger for Indian agriculture. He earns an annual income of crores of rupees from black pepper cultivation alone. He has been awarded three times by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Indian Agriculture and Food Council as the country’s best farmer and once by the National Horticulture Board as the best exporter.
He said that the image of the farmer in the country is shown as poor and miserable. Such an image cannot inspire the youth for farming. New generation youth can get job in IT company, but they do not try to make farming as an enterprise.
To change this thinking, he is buying helicopters, so that a positive attitude towards farming can be brought within the young generation. For this, he is going to take helicopter flying training from Ujjain-based Aviation Academy.
Will be used for spraying fertilizers and medicines
Rajaram Tripathi said that during his stay in Europe, England and Germany, he had seen the use of helicopters in agriculture. In those countries, the use of helicopters for spraying medicines and fertilizers proves helpful in agriculture. Along with his 1000 acres of farming, he wants to use this helicopter in the surrounding agricultural districts. For this, they are getting customized helicopters made, so that the machine can also be installed.
Started farming after leaving bank job.
Rajaram Tripathi’s grandfather Shambhunath Tripathi from Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh had started farming in Kaknar of Darbha valley about 70 years ago. Father Jagdish Prasad was a teacher. Rajaram studied at Jagdalpur College and moved to Kondagaon after becoming a probationary officer in the State Bank of India. After starting vegetable farming from five acres in 1996, cultivated Musli and Ashwagandha, in which he left the bank job after getting initial profit.
In 2002, when the prices of white musli fell, the situation of bankruptcy came, but did not give up. Understood that for success in agriculture one has to do mixed farming. In 2016, he got unprecedented success in experimenting with cultivation of black pepper with Australian teak. After this success, he formed Maa Danteshwari Herbal Group and along with 400 tribal families, they do collective farming in one thousand acres, due to which these families also earn a lot of income. The farmers of the group grow the best variety of black pepper, which is being exported to Europe, America, England.
Courtesy Bastar Ki Aawaz….