Pramod Gautam Biography 
Pramod Gautam is an Indian agriculturist from Nagpur, Maharashtra. He was an automobile engineer who switched to farming in 2006 and after implementing a radically different method of cultivation, he earns up to a crore of Indian rupees per month. Though he tried a lot he couldn’t stick on to his automobile engineering job and decided to give farming a try. It has been more than a decade since he started a mill which gives benefits to farmers of his neighbourhood as well.
He was born and brought up in Nagpur, Maharashtra. He belonged to an agricultural family which owned ancestral farm in their rural village – Wadhona. Since young he spent a considerable amount of time in the family’s ancestral village. But he never imagined that he would turn a farmer in future. He obtained a degree in automobile engineering from Yashwantrao Chavan College in Nagpur. He also got a good salaried job. But slowly he started to get frustrated and decided to start his own business that deal with spare parts of vehicles. In 2006 he decided to abandon the idea and give farming an earnest shot on his 26-acre ancestral land.
In farming too, he faced some early setbacks. Initially he planted white groundnuts and turmeric all over the land but it resulted in losses. As labours tend to migrate to big cities in search of jobs, he found it difficult to get labours. The losses made Pramod realise his traditional method of farming was wrong, and he decided to choose another crop which needs less labour. In 2007-2008 he switched to horticulture. He planted different kinds of fruits like oranges, guavas, lemons, mosambis, raw bananas and toor dal.
He marketed the fruits in the Kalmana market of Nagpur. Later Pramod decided to start his own mill when he found that farmers sold their pulses to mills for very low prices and mill owners process them and sell in double prices. He took a loan to accumulate 25 lakhs needed to start a mill. He processes lentils directly in the mill and gives them to farmers so that they get better return. He also sold the processed and unpolished pulses with the brand name of ‘Vandana’ which returned him high profits. Now about 2500 farmers from 35 neighbouring villages come to Pramod’s mill and get their dal processed.
Published: March 01, 2019
Updated: March 01, 2019
