Bhubaneswar: Kamalakanta Singh, a resident of Badamahisigotha village in Bant block of Bhadrak district, left his job in Gujarat and turned into a farmer to feed his family of nine.
In December 2014, during the Agri fair at Baleshwar, Kamalakanta got his name registered with the Reliance Foundation to get informative and useful advisories related to farming.
With the help of Reliance Foundation’s expert advice and virtual advisories, Kamalakanta is able to produce a good yield and reap good benefit from it.
According to Kamalakanta, most of the farmers in his village follow traditional methods of farming, but he believes in making use of the scientific and innovative methods of farming.
Before registering himself with Reliance Foundation, Kamalakanta used to cultivate paddy in 6 acres of land and vegetables in two acres of land.
He used to cultivate horticultural crop for one whole year on 2 acres of land, which is situated near a river.
But, when Kamalakanta approached Reliance Foundation for assistance, the agricultural expert advised him to cultivate a variety of vegetables including pointed gourds.
Pointed gourd is a commercial crop and one can earn a good profit by cultivating it.
Acting upon the expert advice, Kamalakanta collected a nursery of pointed gourd and cultivated it in 0.6 acre of land.
From nursery preparation, plantation, fertilizer management, pest and disease management, fruit growth to marketing, the Reliance Foundation expert helped Kamalakanta with all the minute details.
Now, Kamalakanta cultivates 40 to 50 quintal of pointed gourd in 0.6 acres of land. This year, he earned more than Rs. 2 lakh by selling pointed gourd only.
Besides pointed gourd, Kamalakanta grows Ola, kankana, green chilli, brinjal and papaya also, which adds to his income.
Earlier, he used to take the vegetables to the local market on his bicycle, but now he has purchased a motorbike with the profit he made.
Reliance Foundation helped Kamalakanta during the COVID-19 crisis by providing valuable information via multi-location audio conferences.
The Foundation informed him about the schemes related to PMGKY and he got Rs. 1000 and five kg of rice against his ration card.
However, he was not aware of Jan Dhanyojana and labour card benefits. Reliance Foundation experts informed him about the benefits of Jan-DhanYojana.
Now, he has a Jan-DhanYojana account and he gets Rs. 500 in his account. He will also be getting Rs 1500 from the state government as he is a registered labourer.
Kamalakanta helps his co-farmers also by sharing the technical advice, which he gets from Reliance Foundation, with them.
