Silvester D’Souza

Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Oct 7: Anyone who is ready to work hard in his land becomes a successful farmer at the earliest. Shankar Naik Honkallu is a farmer who has become successful by raising different vegetables in the short term.

Shankar Naik from Belve Honkallu, Kallpataru in Hebri taluk is basically a hardworking man. He belongs to a family of traditional farmers. Shankar Naik, who too used to follow traditional methods of farming, has now adopted modern methods of cultivation and has been getting good income. Shankar, who was maintaining his family by raising vegetables and other horticultural activities near his home, got inspired to achieve more after becoming a member of the Pragathibandhu self-help group under Dharmasthala Rural Development Project. He started getting information and guidance at his doorsteps. Shankar utilized the opportunities which came his way and started to grow all-weather vegetables.

Shankar grows ridge gourd, snake gourd, brinjal, coccinia, Chinese potato, long beans and other vegetables. This time he leased a 20 cents land from a land owner and raised vegetables. In summer, he prepared the land and raised ridge gourd and snake gourd. Both these vegetables are now ready for harvesting. He also has raised Chinese potato nearby. For raising Chinese potato, land should be properly tilled. He tilled the land with tiller, prepared lines and planted the Chinese potato. He then again heaped earth on the seeds so planted. Within 120 days, the crop is ready to be harvested.

He has built a structure for the ridge gourd and snake gourd vines to grow by using nets. Once the harvesting is over, he keeps the nets away for use next year. Because of excessive rain this time, the vegetables he has grown have rotten a little but he expects to harvest about 70 kg snake gourds and 50 kg ridge gourd