A farmer has returned from abroad after spending a major portion of his life there to start his farm in his native place. Born in Karupatti Pattigram, close to Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, 55-year-old Ravichandran spent the last 25 years working in Malaysia in the agriculture sector. He wanted to acquire land in his village and start a farm because he was getting older. He travelled to his village a few months ago with this intention, and to start small, he leased two acres of land for farming.

He wants to grow alternative crops as paddy farming is problematic with inadequate water and he isn’t making enough money from it. Consequently, on two acres of land, he is growing brinjal after conferring with other farmers. Due to the lack of water in Kaveri and Kallana, and his land being an upland area, he is unable to use electric motor water. The farmer is hopeful that the northeast monsoon will see him through.

Ravichandran said that in Malaysia, he was working as a labourer for farmers who cultivate large-scale crops including cucumber and maize and he wanted to do the same after returning to India. But the lack of river water and an electric motor made him rely on ponds and rainfall and thus he had to go for alternative crops.

“I currently use one ma of land for eggplant cultivation. The growing of senti flowers began 50 days ago. I have been picking roughly 150 kg of flowers every two days and selling them at Tanjore Flower Market for the past few days. A kilogramme of senti flower now costs Rs 40. The khatiri takes a few more days to grow. I have spent Rs 25,000 for a 3-month-old crop and Rs 15,000 for a 6-month-old crop. Going by expenses, I am expecting a profit of Rs 45-50,000,” Ravichandran told News18 Local. He also plans to buy his land in the future to further his farming ambitions.