At the age of 16, Maharashtra’s Ravindra Metkar was forced to begin poultry farming amid financial constraints.
Now, at 55, he found himself standing before young IAS trainees at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie, sharing his inspiring success story.
Earlier, Ravindra worked at a chemist’s store that would earn him Rs 5 per day. Alongside his job, he ventured into poultry farming after seeing his neighbour’s success, who owned a 400-hen poultry farm.
In 1984, after getting a 15-day training from the government department, he set up a poultry farm with 100 hens on a mud slab in his house.
Having no prior experience, he had to sell eggs and broilers at a low cost compared to the market. Gradually, Ravindra was able to expand his small business from having 100 to 400 hens within 10 years.
“With profits, I kept on increasing the birds at my farm. Today, I have 1.8 lakh hens,” says Ravindra, who now earns up to Rs 60,000 per day through this business.
He also advanced his farm with improved technologies like indoor vertical farming, greenhouse farming, automatic watering, and remote sensing irrigation systems.
Recently, he was invited to LBSNAA to lecture young IAS trainees. Ravindra shares that it was crucial for him to put forward the farmers’ expectations to these future officers.
“It was a proud moment for my family and me. I had the opportunity to interact with future IAS officers who will serve as mukhiyas (district magistrates) and the citizens in those districts will become like their families,” he adds.
“IAS officers should be aware of their real-life challenges and understand what farmers expect from them when they are posted in the districts. I got an opportunity to help the trainees understand this,” he says with pride.