Aradi: While many educated youths these days are reluctant to take up farming as a means of livelihood, Ranjan Biswal of Dhamnagar area in Bhadrak has scripted success in vegetable farming and become self-sufficient.
An Odia saying goes: Who have farming have a lot to be happy about. Believing in this saying, Ranjan successfully made use of it in his life after dropping out at Plus-II.
He did not want to pursue higher studies and rather wanted to cultivate his farmland. After five years of hard work in farming, he managed to strengthen his economic backbone and earned a name for himself as a tenacious farmer.
The 34-year-old belongs to a joint family with parents and four brothers at Palasahi panahayat under Dhamnagar block.
He was married five years ago and has two children – a son and a daughter. Ranjan is the pivot of his family and an inspiration for many.
He grows vegetables on two acres thrice a year. All kinds of vegetables such as lady’s finger, tomatoes, pumpkins, arum, potatoes, brinjal, cauliflowers, cabbages, beans, chilli, parwal (pointed guards), long beans (jhudanga), cucumber, spinach, bitter guard are available on his land.
With income from the vegetable farming, he has built a building even as he has been spending on higher education for the children of his elder brother.
His vegetables have a high demand in the area. Locals and traders throng his farmland to take fresh vegetables. So, he needn’t go out for the market.
Ranjan says: Farming has formed a thread of bondage with scores of local people.
Ranjan’s success in farming has been an inspiration for those uneducated youths unwilling to take up farming in the age of widespread unemployment.
“By dint of hard labour, determination and confidence, anyone can achieve anything that can earn identity for him in society,” he observed.
Some locals said, without any support from the government, becoming self-sufficient like Ranjan is certainly an inspiration for others.