Today’s generation is undergoing a major shift in their thinking and choices. More and more millennials are becoming conscious about healthy living. And more and more of them are favoring satisfying job descriptions to big paychecks. Following are three inspiring stories of youth who turned away from corporate life to find satisfaction and a model of healthy living in one of the most unconventional career choices of our times: natural farming!
“I come from a small village called Jevali in Maharashtra’s Jalna district. For years, my district has been dry. No wonder, parents in my village want to send their kids to cities for jobs, and farmers have switched to other professions. I, too, like others wanted to bag a degree and go to cities with tall buildings and 24x7 running taps. Getting into the construction industry was my dream and getting a degree in civil engineering was my big-ticket. I was clueless that my life was about to take an unprecedented turn.
In 2017, in my final year of diploma studies, I came across natural farming in The Art of Living’s Youth Leadership Training Program. The Art of Living was working to revive the water bodies in Latur and was also teaching natural farming to farmers and youth. I was inspired to take up natural farming. I started my farming experiments on a 4-acre land that my family had leased out. In one year, the farm yielded food worth Rs 5 lakh, a jackpot amount compared to its earlier farm yield of Rs 50,000. Nobody thought farming could give so much money. My friends in cities were also earning half this amount.
Meanwhile, I also joined The Art of Living’s river rejuvenation project which revived dry borewells. It was inspiring to see the smiles that the project was creating. I was beginning to think that perhaps, my generation will not run to the cities for the 24x7 running taps. My happiest moment during the project tenure was when our team revived a pond that had been dry for 25 years. The villagers were so overjoyed that they wanted to name the pond by Krishna, my name!”
-Krishna Narwade, Jevali, Maharashtra
“I come from a farming family in Pollachi, a small village in Kerala. Like all sons of farming families, I got a professional degree and found a high-paying job in the city. Eight years later in 2016, I realized my heart was not in this job but elsewhere. I wondered if money was the only thing that is important.
I belong to the generation who are the last link between the older generation - agriculture - and the future generation. If I quit farming, it will be a great disservice that I will be doing towards my son and his generation, they will never know the fragrance of freshly-plowed earth or the first rains. So, I packed my bags with my super-supportive wife who also quit her MNC job, returned to our village, and started farming.
I only wanted to practice natural farming. After dabbling for a while, I enrolled in Sri Sri Natural Farming. As I implemented the techniques that I learnt there, I saw an improved quality and quantity of my produce. Now after four years, my farm is finally breaking even and the farm has received two awards from the state government. Along with farming, I have also started traveling across my state, sharing my learnings with young people. The journey has been long yet extremely rewarding. Especially when I see my toddler playing with the mud of our field. Seeing him happy, I am rest assured that I did the right thing.”
-Sarvanan, Pollachi, Kerala
“Unlike the family members around me, I never saw my grandfather take any medicine during his lifetime. He did not go through any illness - neither a major one nor a minor one. After doing a lot of research myself, I realized that food in our present times is responsible for a lot of health issues. So, I urged my family to make a shift in their dietary habits. Yet, I felt something was missing. I discussed with the older generations in my village, Kini. I found out that they were completely dependent on nature. Nobody practiced chemical farming back then. While doing all this research during my engineering studies in Pune, I became fascinated with natural farming.
When I began my masters in metallurgy, I met many experts who confirmed that our older generations lived disease-free because of the naturally-grown food they ate. So, I decided to pursue natural farming. Of course, my family did not like the idea. But, I had a plan. After letting go of all job offers in big cities, I found a job as a lecturer in my village. After fulfilling my duties in college, I dabbled in natural farming, experimenting, and learning.
When I started to break-even with farming, I resigned to pursue farming full-time in 2017. During this while, I joined Sri Sri Natural Farming. The techniques I learned here helped me improve the quality of my produce and the teachers and people I met helped me increase my network of buyers. Now, I am giving back to society by giving free natural farming training.”
-Sumit Danane, Kini, Maharashtra
As told to Vanditaa Kothari
