Sameer P. from Mannar in Alappuzha ventured into paddy farming completely by chance four years ago and has made it big in the sector.
An IT professional, he started growing rice in 2019 on a 20-acre leased land at Gramam near Chengannur. After tasting success, he quit his high-paying tech job to expand paddy cultivation first to 60 acres and later to 320 acres. He recently launched his Pokkali rice brand ‘Gramam’ and is exporting ‘puttupodi’ to the United Arab Emirates.
“I have worked in the IT field for over a decade, including a stint as an IT manager in Saudi Arabia. After returning to Kerala in 2018, I launched my IT firm with a head office in Chennai before turning to rice farming,” says Mr. Sameer (36).
His tryst with paddy began after he visited a paddy polder at Gramam. “My business was going well when I visited the polder in 2019. A nearby field lying idle caught my attention. I took the land on lease and cultivated rice on an experimental basis while still being in the IT sector,” he says.
After getting a good yield, he expanded the farming to 60 acres in 2020, which was prompted in part by the outbreak of COVID-19. He soon handed over his IT business to a relative to focus wholly on agriculture. The go-getter never turned back even in the face of adversity and expanded paddy cultivation further. When farming on the 60 acres was affected by floods, Mr. Sameer shifted the activities to Pattanakkad near Cherthala. “It was then Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar who helped me to find land at Pattanakkad and shift the cultivation there. I started with 120 acres taken on lease, which has been expanded to 320 acres,” says Mr. Sameer who makes a profit of around Rs. 20,000 from an acre. He cultivates paddy twice a year with major being the June- October season.
After a couple of highly successful seasons at Pattanakkad, he, however, suffered crop loss in September this year due to floods. “Climate change is turning out to be the biggest challenge. In my case, I am eligible for a claim as crops are covered by insurance. I will also be doing a fresh round of sowing next week to make up for the losses,” he says.
Apart from Pokkali rice, he is growing Uma variety. While Pokkali rice and rice-based products have been processed and marketed under the ‘Gramam’ brand, Uma has been sold to Supplyco. Terming Sameer a model farmer, Rachel Sophia Alexander, Assistant Director of Agriculture, says that his use of large tracts of land for agriculture has helped prevent flooding in the area.
Sameer has been using drones for spraying nutrients/biopesticides, which he says saves a lot of time and increases crop yield.
