From humble beginnings to Oxford: Farmer to share success story at global conference

A farmer in Maharashtra who once could not afford to buy clothes but gradually built an empire of poultry business with an annual turnover running into crores has been invited to share his insights as an agrientrepreneur at the University of OxfordRavindra Manikrao Metkar 57 who belongs to Mhasala Anjangaon Bari village in Amravati district has been invited to speak at the Global Research Conference to be hosted at the University of Oxford in the UK from May 1 to 5 with AI for Every Mind as its themeThe conference is being organised by the Global Economic Forum GEF in collaboration with the universityAn invitation letter sent by the organisers to Metkar says Considering your experience and contributions as an Indian Agri Entrepreneur your presence and insights will be highly valuable to the discussions and collaborative exchanges during the conferenceMetkar launched his poultry farming venture from the terrace of his house in 1984 when he was still studying in junior college He started with Rs 3000 that he received from his father who served as a Class IV employee in the forest department His humble poultry farm then had only 100 birdsAfter completing his masters degree in commerce his mother received four acres of land from her mother at Chandurbazar in Amravati The family then sold that land and bought one acre of land at Badnera in the districtTalking to PTI Metkar said he took a loan of Rs 5 lakh from a bank and started a poultry farm with 4000 birds By 2006 the business grew by leaps and bounds as there were 20000 birds in the farm spread over an area of 10 acres in Mhasala Anjangaon Bari villageHowever he suffered a major setback that year as the bird flu hit several countries including India on a large scale bringing his business to a standstillBut notwithstanding the losses he decided to start once again In 2008 he dived into the business with a renewed vigour by taking a loan of Rs 25 lakh from a bank His poultry farm then had 20000 birds There was no looking back after that as 10000 birds started getting added to the farm annually he saidAt present we do not have any bank loan and there are now 18 lakh birds at our poultry farm spread over 50 acres of land with an annual turnover of Rs 15 crore the farmer saidHe said that he was also involved in the cultivation of fruit crops such as banana mango orange sweet lime sapodilla and coconut apart from wheat and corn With innovative and natural farming methods that involve the use of organic fertilisers we do farming with comparatively less input costs and earn high profits he saidHis two brothers and his older son who has studied agriculture business management and is now pursuing an MBA help him in his poultry business and agriculture while his youngest son has earned a masters degree in Computer Engineering from a foreign university Metkar said that he has now stopped increasing the number of his birds in his poultry farm and guides other farmers in allied farming activities as he wants the members of the farming community to move forwardHe has been invited by various agriculture colleges across India and abroad to share his success story and guide agriculture students and farmersSo far he has delivered talks at Singapore University ShereKashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Jammu Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University MAFSU in Nagpur Indian Institute of Technology Bhilai Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth and Indian Council of Agricultural Research ICAR among othersAt one time I did not have proper clothes and used to wear torn clothes that were stitched at home and did not have a bicycle to go to college Metkar said I had never imagined that I would get a chance to go to Oxford University and share my success story he addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever