Hi all, I have been working in the IT industry for the past 8 years and find it completely takes up my time with 10 hours of work & additional 2 hours of travel & hardly any weekends. Over the years I have been finding it stifling, lacking job satisfaction and not something that I would want to continue any more. But since I have financial responsibilities I cannot quit either. However my heart lies in the farming area. But since there is no one to guide me as to how to proceed, I am not sure of how to make this transition without stopping the income flow. I also do not have any land of my own to start with this concept. Please let me know if any one from the IL family can provide their valuable inputs for me to realize my dream...
If you dont own land you could do farming on someone elses land on contract basis. Nowadays there is plenty of money in farming too provided you have adequate knowledge. There are various government schemes and NGOs to help out. In the initial years cash flow will surely decrease but like with everything farming too needs time. You have not posted about your family . Are your wife and kids ok with the move? You will find this blog helpful. This person was working in IT and has shifted to an alternate lifestyle and farming.
Without any experience, dont enter into the path directly. If you have interest, first just start planting, some basic plants in your home. Through that you will get basic knowledge what to plant, how to plant, seasonal crops, what are the problems you will face, what type of the land you need for specific veggies, which type of plants will grow in shade and under sun. It will help you to learn farming and satisfies your passion too..
I do home planting. Because it is my interest. I get a lot of help from my friend, who has a degree in agriculture. See if you have anyone with this specification. They can guide you to get there. Another option is to lease a land. And cultivate what suits the land and the season. You can get ideas from those who work around the land. Mostly farmers do their job based on experience. So, try to learn from their experience. Dont lose your current job till you establish a reasonable growth in farming. Then only you can expect no loss in your financial flaw.
First of all let me thank you for being the first person to help me in taking my vision forward The blog that you have mentioned is indeed very useful; Arun & his family mentioned there seem to have successfully implemented an alternative lifestyle. Also like you have correctly mentioned , farming like any other profession will need time to pick up, and hence I was thinking of starting something parallely on a smaller scale wherein what we produce would be sufficient to feed our family. After which based on our results we could broaden our focus. It would be great if you could give me some leads on any NGOs & government schemes that you may be aware of. I just got married recently in Feb and my DH also works in the IT field albeit in a bank. So he too agrees with me that we do need an alternative lifestyle sooner rather than later
Thank you so much Rachaputi for your valuable inputs. Like you have mentioned, I would not want to enter this path directly but would like to make a gradual transition after testing it initially on a smaller scale for sufficing our family's needs and then move on to make it a into a larger venture. We have tried growing some vegetables like tomatoes, bhindis, bitter gourds and some flowering plants in the limited space of our balcony, but what we harvest now is just for 2-3 time use as we are not growing much. Since I am a non-pro here, I would need someone with sound experience in the farming area to guide me initially, hence I just wanted to know if you have tried the something similar from your end or are aware of anybody who can guide me
Thank you so much SGBV for your inputs. It is amazing how IL forums helps one in getting inputs/opinions from all over the world. I am currently into home planting growing couple of veggies & flowers but they are not sufficient to continuously feed my family for now which is what I would hope to achieve as my initial target. Seeking out someone with a degree in agriculture is an enlightening thought. In fact I wonder if I myself could have done the same earlier on instead of moving towards the IT field
You can email Arun about some of your doubts too. He will be glad to help you out. There are many people out there who have adopted an alternate lifestyle.
I am not a farmer but I have some experience from home gardening. Yes , we own a home so I have a piece of land to grow my vegetables. With a 4 by 4 feet of land I grew enough vegetables to feed my family. I make my own compost. I don't use much fertilizer and pesticide. my experience says from ground you will get more than from pots. But this is not farming , home gardening.
