Once without money for clothes, Indian farmer gets invite for Oxford address after poultry business boom

AJames leonard farmer in Maharashtra, who erstwhile could non open to purchase clothes but gradually built an empire of poultry business with an annual turnover running into crores, has been invited to share his insights as an agri-entrepreneur at the University of Oxford.Ravindra Manikrao Metkar, 57, who belongs to Mhasala Anjangaon Bari village in Amravati district, has been invited to speak at the Global Research Conference to be hosted at the University of Oxford in the UK from May 1 to 5 with "AI for Every Mind" as its theme.The conference is being organised by the Global Economic Forum (GEF) in collaboration with the university.An invitation letter sent by the organisers to Metkar says, "Considering your experience and contributions as an Indian Agri Entrepreneur, your presence and insights will be highly valuable to the discussions and collaborative exchanges during the conference."Also Read: 8 lakh Maharashtra farmers benefiting from solar agri-feeder scheme; govt to scale up capacity: CMMetkar launched his poultry farming venture from the terrace of his house in 1984, when he was still studying in junior college. He started with ₹3,000 that he received from his father, who served as a Class IV employee in the forest department. His humble poultry farm then had only 100 birds.After completing his master's degree in commerce, his mother received four acres of land from her mother at Chandurbazar in Amravati. The family then sold that land and bought one acre of land at Badnera in the district.Talking to PTI, Metkar said he took a loan of ₹5 lakh from a bank and started a poultry farm with 4,000 birds. By 2006, the business grew by leaps and bounds, as there were 20,000 birds in the farm spread over an area of 10 acres in Mhasala Anjangaon Bari village.However, he suffered a major setback that year as the bird flu hit several countries, including India, on a large scale, bringing his business to a standstill.But notwithstanding the losses, he decided to start once again. In 2008, he dived into the business with a renewed vigour by taking a loan of ₹25 lakh from a bank. His poultry farm then had 20,000 birds."There was no looking back after that as 10,000 birds started getting added to the farm annually," he said."At present, we do not have any bank loan, and there are now 1.8 lakh birds at our poultry farm spread over 50 acres of land with an annual turnover of ₹15 crore," the farmer said.He said that he was also involved in the cultivation of fruit crops such as banana, mango, orange, sweet lime, sapodilla and coconut, apart from wheat and corn."With innovative and natural farming methods that involve the use of organic fertilisers, we do farming with comparatively less input costs and earn high profits," he said.His two brothers and his older son, who has studied agriculture business management and is now pursuing an MBA, help him in his poultry business and agriculture, while his youngest son has earned a master's degree in Computer Engineering from a foreign university.Also Read: Outcast for 23 years, Beed farmer faces fresh charges of black magicMetkar said that he has now stopped increasing the number of his birds in his poultry farm and guides other farmers in allied farming activities, as he wants the members of the farming community to move forward.He has been invited by various agriculture colleges across India and abroad to share his success story and guide agriculture students and farmers.So far, he has delivered talks at Singapore University, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Jammu, Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University (MAFSU) in Nagpur, Indian Institute of Technology Bhilai, Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), among others."At one time, I did not have proper clothes and used to wear torn clothes that were stitched at home, and did not have a bicycle to go to college," Metkar said."I had never imagined that I would get a chance to go to Oxford University and share my success story!" he added.