The face of farming in Madhya Pradesh's Burhanpur district is changing fast. Where farmers once stuck to a single traditional crop, the younger generation is now embracing mixed farming and earning lakhs of rupees from it. One striking example is Kishore Deshmukh, a farmer from Shahpur village, about 8 kilometres from the district headquarters, whose hard work and sharp thinking are now the talk of the entire area.
Deshmukh owns 40 acres of farmland, where he grows several crops at the same time. Bananas, cotton, sugarcane, maize, gram, soybean and tuvar, along with a wide range of vegetables, fill his fields. It is this variety that lets him earn between ₹6 and 7 lakh every year.
Quitting a Job to Take Up the Plough
Deshmukh completed his M.Com and landed a job at a private company soon after. But before long he left that job and threw himself fully into farming. Today he works his 40 acres very differently from the traditional approach, planting around 12 different crops on the same land. The mix boosts production and pushes his earnings into lakhs.
The Crops He Counts On
Deshmukh says that besides bananas, cotton, sugarcane, maize, gram, tuvar and soybean, he grows many kinds of vegetables, including okra, bottle gourd, ridge gourd, tomato, bitter gourd, chilli, spinach, fenugreek and coriander. According to him, these crops bring good returns at low cost. He has been farming for around 30 years.
Creating Jobs for Others Too
Deshmukh's success is not limited to his own income. He also provides work to 10 to 15 people in his area. Farming, however, is never entirely predictable. Some years the earnings climb even higher, but when strong winds, storms and rain cause damage, the annual average settles back at around ₹6 to 7 lakh.
