This Engineer-MBA Returned From US With A Will To Transform A Barren Land Into An Organic Farming Facility

It seems nothing is impossible for this passionate youngster whose family didn¡¯t quite support him initially for his interest in organic farming. This is the story of Aditya Gaddh, who is a qualified mechanical engineer and a post graduate in business management from a distinguished institution in the USA.

Interestingly, Gaddh doesn¡¯t possess any formal academic qualification in the area farming. However, the farming wonders he is performing on a barren land located in his small hometown, distt. Yamunanagar of Haryana, has eventually altered his family¡¯s viewpoint.

After acquiring his engineering degree from Vellore in Tamil Nadu, Gaddh started attending to his family business that is primarily into manufacturing industrial equipment. But, somehow, he developed a great passion for organic farming. He says he couldn¡¯t tell his family of this interest for the fear of rejection. However, he wanted to learn more about business management, which he knew would help him anyway.

It is then he decided to pursue his MBA from New York.

29-year-old Gaddh, who is well travelled since his early days, would have easily fetched a handsome career opportunity of his interest in the USA, but he returned to execute his own noble plans, and farming was well on his mind. He says he had seen Americans farming successfully during the heavy snowfall season.

¡°The technique they use is called ¡®Mulching Farming¡¯. It moved me. Mulching helps the soil retain its moisture in extreme weather conditions. I decided to use it proactively when I return to India. Although many Indian farmers may already be using it, but it needs to be revolutionised,¡± said Gaddh in an interview.

The land Gaddh is experimenting his organic farming on had a metal business running on it for years that produced high amounts of toxic waste. As a result, the land consumed heaps of industrial trash and turned terribly barren and infertile.

But Gaddh had no other choice. He rather started seeing opportunities in the very challenges that the land offered.

¡°Anybody could farm on a fertile land. But I have gradually made a great part of this barren land produce vegetation and that too organically. I believe that¡¯s my real win and motivation. It took me days and months to stand and work for hours in the extreme weather conditions on this land and think about ways I can make it green again. For many months, I had to prove myself, and now I see my family and friends motivating me¡± added Gaddh.

Gaddh doesn¡¯t yet hold a commercial vision for his organic farming experiments. All that he is doing has greatly to do with inspiring uninformed farmers around him for implementing the techniques that have proven a great success on his desolate land. He strongly says, organic is what is needed today ¨C he would not like to see the upcoming generation consuming the uncontrolled amount of unnatural fertilizers sprinkled on our crops and vegetation.

While there is still a great part of land that he envisions to make fertile organically, he is moving at a slow and steady pace.

¡°Before experimenting on a big scale, I usually research and buy garden-farming equipment online that could help me make natural fertilisers. Once they prove a success, I try to make my own equipment out of recycled wood and fibres. Also I am petting hens at my farm merely because I can utilise their waste and egg shells as a natural compost to be used for plants,¡± says Gaddh.

For his upcoming implementations, Gaddh is looking at Aquaponics. This is the technique of farming that reportedly uses merely one-tenth of water of soil-based gardening. With Aquaponics one can raise fish and plants together in an integrated system that is both efficient and scalable. As a part of this method, the fish waste is turned into vermicompost that acts as food for plants.

Many farmers from the surrounding areas have visited and enquired Gaddh about his organic farming techniques.

This is what keeps inspiring him to be more creative with each passing day. During his college days in the USA, Gaddh often enquired from his several class mates about farming techniques used in their respective countries. He was always charting out notes on how he could implement the most doable ones when he returns to India. He says, his friends mocked him many a times for his contrasted career interests with regards to what he was pursuing and had pursued academically.

But he never let anybody bog him down.

¡°We should learn from Cuba. Cuba is heavily into Permaculture. It is like a revolution there. Permaculture is a huge subject but it is mainly about living in harmony with nature. Respect earth¡¯s capability to produce naturally, so we can grow and consume in accordance with it. Why can¡¯t we adopt it on a larger base? I understand India has diverse demographics. But I would like to urge the government and the people of our country to adopt anything and everything that promote organic farming. This is how our farmers and citizens will be able to consume healthy food and breathe clean air.¡±

The author is a Haryana based freelance contributor.