Farm worker who once earned Rs 5 a day now speaks at Oxford University artificial intelligence conference

NAGPUR: Ravindra Metkar used to work in a dispensary and earn Rs 150 per month. That was 1984, when he was still a teenager. The 57-year-old farmer from Masla village in Amravati district of Maharashtra will travel to Oxford University in the UK next month to attend an international conference on artificial intelligence to share the story of how he built a Rs 15-crore agricultural business on one acre of land, determined not to pay for the fertilizers he makes.Metkar has been invited to speak on sustainable agriculture, cost optimization, climate adaptation practices and poultry entrepreneurship at a global research conference themed “AI For Every Mind”, scheduled to be held from May 1 to 5 at Saïd College, Oxford.“My father was a Class IV state government employee. Life was tough,” he said.After earning a master’s degree in commerce from Amravati University, Metkar’s first break came in 1994 when a relative gave his family four acres of land. They sold it and purchased an acre of land in Bhandara district. “I realized early on that farmers cannot control market prices, but they can reduce input costs and increase yields. That’s when I started producing my own fertilizers,” he said.Metka turned this principle into a model. Today, he cultivates nearly 50 acres of land in his hometown, growing mango, mozambique, amla, banana, areca nut and cereals. He also runs a poultry farm where locally produced feed replaces commercial products and farm waste is recycled as fertilizer.“I have mentored more than 5 million farmers across the country and shared my techniques with them,” he said. “They are inspired by my agribusiness. If I can achieve a turnover of Rs 15 crore, so can they.”