Farm labourer who once earned Rs 5 a day to now speak at Oxford university conference on AI

NAGPUR: Ravindra Metkar once earned Rs 150 a month working in a pharmacy. That was in 1984, when he was still a teenager. The 57-year-old farmer from Masla village in Maharashtra's Amravati district will be travelling to an international conference on AI at Oxford University in the UK next month to share the story of how he built a Rs 15-crore agricultural enterprise from an acre of land, powered by a resolve not to pay for the fertiliser he could make himself.

Metkar has been invited to speak on sustainable farming, cost optimisation, climate-resilient practices and poultry entrepreneurship at the Global Research Conference centred on the theme "AI For Every Mind", scheduled from May 1 to 5 at Said College, Oxford.

"My father was a Grade 4 state govt employee. Life was tough," he said.

After doing his master's in commerce at Amravati University, Metkar's first break came in 1994 when relatives gave his family four acres of land. They sold it and bought an acre in Bhandara district. "I realised early on that a farmer cannot control market prices, but can reduce input costs and improve yield. That's when I started making my own fertilisers," he said.

Metkar turned that principle into a model. Today, he farms nearly 50 acres in his native village, growing mangoes, mosambi, amla, bananas, betel nut and grains. He also runs a poultry farm where locally produced feed has replaced commercial products and farm waste cycles back as fertiliser.

"I have guided over 50 lakh farmers across the country and shared my techniques with them," he said. "They feel inspired by my agricultural enterprise. If I can achieve a turnover of Rs 15 crore, so can they."
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