Ravi Nishad, a 31-year-old IT professional from Bhuli, has expanded his organic farming initiative drastically in four years with a team of over 60 people growing a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Ravi, son of a retired BCCl employee, while talking to The Telegraph Online on Saturday said, “After the death of my mother, I started a plantation drive as part of an environmental conservation measure and also constituted a social organisation Samarpan Seva Samiti with some like minded youths to carry out the massive plantation.”

“I soon realised that no movement can sustain in isolation unless it is linked to the socio economic betterment of the beneficiaries so we started organic farming using natural materials like cow dung as manure, vinegar residue, agricultural waste and jaggery solution to grow the fruits,” said Nishad, a B Sc (IT) degree holder from NIT Noida.

The core team members include his close friend, Ranjit Kumar, 30, and a young scientist Amit Mishra, 24, who is the core strategist for the organisation called RPA Farming which carries out organic farming at different places of the district including on 2 acres of land at Bhuli and on around 20 acres near Shakti Chowk of Tetulmari.

“Though, we are primarily cultivating papaya and marigold as part of our main activity at Bhuli, only preparatory activity is going on at Telulmari Shakti Chowk on the recently procured land,” said Nishad and added that cultivation of apple, litchi and cheeku has also been carried at Bhuli on an experimental basis.

“We have taken the land on lease for cultivation but at same time turning the barren land into fertile one,” said Nishad.

Around 60 men and women from the adjoining localities are engaged in their project, plucking fruits, vegetables, cultivating crops and selling them in the market.

“Around 100 kg of marigold is plucked every day from every acre of our farming project which in turn is supplied to the local florists,” said Nishad.

He said the land has around 2000 papaya trees from which around 50 tonnes of papaya is grown, each weighing 2 to 2 ½ kg each.

When asked about marketing strategy he said, “Once our product is ready we upload the information on social media platforms from where buyers come to us.”

“We want to send a message to the youth that farming offers enough scope for earning and they can use their education to carry out organised and systematic farming,” said Nishad.