The shetty farm model

Engineer Couple Try Out Rainfed Farming

"This is our place, " says 60 year old N Ravindranath Shetty, as he welcomes one to his home with a grin. The palace he refers to is a 240 square feet single room house made of clay bricks, roofed with coconut thatch and tarpaulin. An incredulous stare elicits an explanation: since we moved here, my wife and i spend all our time outdoors. This is all we need by way of a house."
Ravindranath and Saraswati worked as engineers with the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. When they bought a 0.5 hectare agricultural plot in Marasarahalli village in Tumkur district of Karnataka to settle down after retirement, their friends in Bengaluru expected them to build a modern farmhouse; there are several in the area.     

No AC, Fridge

But the Shettys are content without such a farmhouse. In the past five years, they have rejuvenated the agricultural plot the natural way. " We belong to farmers' families . As children we grew crops the organic way without knowing it. Later, as we moved out of farming and attained so-called social status, I noticed, in parallel development , that beautiful process was coming apart," said Ravindranath. Investment and income targets began to dominate agriculture. The intense interaction with nature that is the soul of farming practice disappeared.

So after retirement, the Shettys decided to return to land but  minus city trappings. Ravindranath retired first and proceeded to build the house using materials available locally- stone, hollow caly bricks , wood and thatch. His wife helped as and when work permitted. The couple planted indigenous trees, including 400 fruit bearing ones.  

"To prevent soil erosion we dug a trench all around the plot. As we had decided against digging a well, installing borewell or taking piped water connection, we dug a small pond for irrigation, " said Saraswati. The only extra labour the Shettys used was when they hired an excavator to dig the trench and for building their house. Initially they had to buy farmyard manure , but within two years the couple were growing varieties of legumes and working the plant waste back into the soil. The Shettys grow pulses, ragi, groundnuts , vegetables and other crops to meet their needs.

Only rainwater

Living entirely on rainwater was more of a challenge. To minimize use of water for irrigation, the Shettys dug shallow trenches at regular intervals to trap rainwater. They also pressed plant waste into the trenches and the base of the trees.They constructed an underground storage tank with 15,000 litre capacity.

Shocked by couple's lifestyle : "If not us, then who ? If not now when ?