Meet Rajaram Tripathi, who left govt job to start farming, now all set to buy helicopter worth Rs 7 crore

The largest producer of black pepper and white musli (white tubers) in Bastar, Rajaram Tripathi, is getting ready to purchase a helicopter to provide care to his crops. Rajaram, a four-time recipient of the Best Farmer Award, farms strovia, black pepper, and white musli in the Bastar districts of Kondagaon and Jagdalpur.

According to Aaj Tak, Tripathi would now spend Rs 7 crore on a new helicopter. He also struck an agreement with the Holland-based Robinson Company. The R-44 model's four-seater helicopter is used for farming. Rajaram Tripathi is the CEO of Maa Danteshwari Herbal Group, which has an annual revenue of Rs 25 crores and engages in collective farming on 1,000 acres with 400 tribal households, Aaj Tak reported. This organisation exports black pepper to the United States and Europe.

Who is Rajaram Tripathi?

Also well-known for his white musli and organic cultivation is Kondagaon resident Rajaram Tripathi. Along with using natural greenhouse technology, he also used an Australian method to cultivate peppers. Rajaram has received recognition from the National Horticulture Board on the part of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Indian Council of Agriculture and Food three times as the nation's best farmer as well as the top exporter.

Rajaram Tripathi will be considered Bastar's first farmer to own a helicopter.

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What is Rajaram Tripathi's purpose for wanting a helicopter?

Rajaram Tripathi claims that he observed helicopters being used to spray medications and fertilisers when he was in England and Germany. He wants to utilise this flywheel in the nearby rural communities where the group has a thousand acres. He is having a specially designed aircraft created for this purpose so that the equipment may also be placed. 

Insects of many kinds can affect crops during harvest, according to Tripathi. Spraying medication with the hands also causes the medication to scatter widely, contributing to spreading pests. It is possible to add enough medication by spraying it from the aircraft.

The adjacent farmers will also benefit from the helicopter's use in addition to their own fields. Rajaram Tripathi said the Aviation Academy in Ujjain would train him to fly a helicopter with his son and younger brother.

Left the government banking job and began farming

Over 70 years ago, Rajaram Tripathi's grandfather Shambhunath Tripathi, originally from the Pratapgarh region of Uttar Pradesh, began farming at Kaknar in the Darbha valley of Chhattisgarh (then Madhya Pradesh). But Jagdish Prasad, his father, was a teacher.

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After graduating from Jagdalpur College, Rajaram Tripathi pursued a career in banking as a Probationary Officer (PO) at State Bank of India. Rajaram began farming in 1998 after quitting his profession to address some of the issues that farmers encounter.

Rajaram was always considering methods to increase the profitability of farming. After careful consideration, he found that the agriculture industry's weakest link, marketing, needed urgent improvement, The Better India reported. By the year's end of 1999, Rajaram made the decision to plant white musli, a plant whose roots have therapeutic uses and which was in high demand on the global market.