K. Rajagopal was elated when his daughter R. Jayavarshini told him she was keen on pursuing farming — an avocation that ran in the family — despite having completed an engineering course. The father-daughter duo underwent training at a poly greenhouse plantation in Hosur and began cultivating crops at Rajappan Chavadi near Needamangalam.
But their hopes came crashing down as Cyclone Gaja struck. “She did not want to take up any other job, and I started the plantation in her name. The yield was very good and encouraging. But Cyclone Gaja turned everything upside down as our greenhouse plantations were completely destroyed,” said Mr. Rajagopal, whose plantation was, notably, inaugurated by the District Collector.
He had set up three units, covering 25 cents each. Each unit had cost over ₹9 lakh for the greenhouse and an additional ₹2 lakh for the installation of a drip irrigation system. The government subsidy is limited to one acre, which means the unit would get only ₹4.5 lakh as against the ₹9 lakh spent on building it.
“I had a structure capable of withstanding wind speeds of up to 120 km per hour. The destruction [caused by Gaja] shows that the wind speed [during the cyclone] was much higher,” said S. Jeethaman Krishna, who took up agriculture after completing an MBA from the University of Wales.
“We are a family of agriculturists, and I opted for horticulture in Tiruvarur — the rice bowl. I established the plantation in 2013,” said Mr. Krishna, who cultivated cucumber, tomato and coriander as an intercrop. He said a unit could produce 20 tonnes of vegetables and bring revenue of ₹15 lakh per annum.
When asked whether he would be able to use his plantation again, Mr. Krishna said he would have to start from scratch, as the wind had shaken the foundation of the structure. The absence of an insurance scheme was a major problem, he added.