Rural and home garden profitablity - use technology smartly

Rural and home garden can be a profitable business if technology is used.

The article below  (The Hindu) clearly illustrates how even smaller jobs in rural areas can be turned into profitable business using technology. Technology such as Internet and mobile phones can be used to obtain information on sowing times, harvest times, weather, market prices new agricultural technological products garden products. If one has smart phone such as iPhone or android phone one can easily down load apps and use them for free and get information.

Many home gardeners in the west grow small amounts of exotic and regular crops and sell them to their local produce shops to make money. If one has a bit of land such as the home back yard it is not hard to grow some cherry tomatoes, chokos (chokote or Seemebadane kayi) etc and sell it locally either online or to their produce shop people. It is a matter of bit of an effort pride in oneself and entrepreneurship.

The following links will provide these information to either a home gardener or rural agriculturist.

http://www.gardenate.com/ (planting information on many vegetables in Australia, NZ, South Africa and the US)

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/ (weather information in Australia very reliable in a user friendly manner)

http://in.weather.com/search?searchText=IN&searchSourceType=2&sourcePageId=1&localeCode=en_IN&searchType=3&locationId=ASIA ( weahter in various cities of India includes smaller cities)

http://www.weatherusa.net/  (weather in the US)

To download Android apps for free go to https://play.google.com/store?hl=en

Login to get this plucky coconut plucker

Press Trust of India The Hindu, Thiruvananthapuram, April 4:

Shortage of trained nut pluckers is a grim farm sector problem in Kerala but for 37-year-old Selvin Chacko, coconut plucking is a hi-tech profession involving car, mobile phone and even a dedicated Web site.

While many youngsters look down upon coconut plucking as a non-glamorous vocation, Selvin from Changanassery opted for it with “pride and pleasure.” Keeping in tune with the changing times, he is using modern facilities such as mobile phone and Internet to get connected to customers.

Travelling in the car helps him save time as he can rush from one coconut garden to the next.

Selvin says he climbs 40 to 45 trees a day, earning not less than Rs 30,000 a month. His phone number and profile are available on a Web site launched in the name of 'Changathikoottam', a gathering of trained coconut pluckers.

A failed business man, Selvin said coconut plucking has helped him to rebuild his life.

“I have tried my luck in a number of enterprises but could not succeed. Finally, I started looking for a job which could give me a steady income. After some search, I found coconut plucking a gainful career as there is a huge demand for coconut harvesters in Kerala,” Selvin said.

After his schooling, Selvin became a bus conductor and even bought two buses eventually. But the bus business failed soon and he was pushed into a debt trap.

Father of three kids, he later joined a week long coconut climbing training programme conducted by the Krishi Vingnan Kendra in Kumarakom near Kottayam.

He gets an average of 100 calls a day from various parts of the district. Apart from wages, he also charges petrol price for the assignments outside the district.

“Though I mastered the nuances of tree climbing and nut plucking, I had to face stiff opposition from my family and traditional coconut pluckers in the initial days,” he said.

“My family and community members complained that I humiliated them by entering in the profession while conventional nut pluckers blamed me for charging lower wages.”

Of late, he has also turned a trainer, having helped a dozen youth learn the job.