At 43, Rajesh Babu from Kannur traded engineering for a life in farming

Payyannur: When his passion for vegetable cultivation reached a tipping point, K V Rajesh Babu, who lives near the Youth Centre in town, decided to give up his career as a safety fire engineer and become a full-fledged farmer. At the age of 43, he quit his job, settled permanently in his hometown and transformed his entire home compound into a thriving vegetable farm.

Although Rajesh Babu had loved farming since childhood, it was never his chosen career path. His desire to inspire his family, relatives and neighbours to embrace organic vegetables motivated him to take up cultivation. After securing fourth rank in the Safety Fire Engineering exam at CUSAT, he worked for 21 years at leading companies, including L&T, Reliance Industrial Limited and Kuwait Oil Company. In 2022, he decided to leave his job. Even though he continued to receive other offers at the time, he turned them down to follow his passion for farming.

While employed as a safety fire engineer, Rajesh Babu followed a unique schedule of 28 days of work followed by an equal number of off-days. He used this time to cultivate vegetables at various locations, with his friend C K Siju assisting whenever he was away. Seven years ago, he built his house near the Youth Centre and began terrace cultivation of capsicum on the rooftop. The first year yielded good results, but the following year, an infestation of Asian palm civets became severe, forcing him to discontinue terrace farming.

After leaving his job, Rajesh Babu focused entirely on growing vegetables in his home compound. On 12 cents of land, he set up iron racks and planted crops in grow bags. At present, 450 grow bags are arranged on 20 stands, with each stand holding 25 bags. This year, his main crops include cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant and okra, along with tomatoes, beans and green chilies. The harvested vegetables are distributed among households in his neighbourhood.

Rajesh Babu tends to his farm daily from 7 PM to 10 PM, with the support of his wife, M Mamatha, an employee at the Karivellur Family Health Centre. In addition to his home garden, he runs a community service centre in the town here. He has also extended his farming to the Eranpuzha River in Ramanthali, where he cultivates green mussels and pearlspot fish.