The new breed of Indian entrepreneurs: farmers

Thirty-five-year-old Gaurav Sahai traded the soft purr of a Honda Accord in America for the rugged beat of a power tiller in Ladra village, Mohali district. After years at HP's US offices, he now works seven acres of land that isn't even his — a friend lent him the tract, and another lent him a stall at Chandigarh's Sector 8 market, where he sells vegetables three hours a week. Last month he moved about 1,200 kg. His only regret, he jokes, is that he remains a landless labourer. Everything he earns goes back into the land, and he is now looking at herbs and spices as demand picks up.

Across the country in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, another 35-year-old made the same leap in a different crop. Raja Adhikary walked away from his family's trading business to run a 100-acre tea plantation, selling green leaf to McLeod Russel. Tea prices have climbed from Rs 95-100 a kg to Rs 125 in two years, and the economics are pulling young entrepreneurs into plantations across the region.

They are part of a wider turn. Rising commodity prices — vegetables, tea, cotton, food crops — are drawing first-generation agriculturists who treat farming as a business rather than a fallback: researching methods, planning crops, chasing new markets. KPMG's Narayanan Ramaswamy sees the opening in cash crops like vanilla, coffee, strawberry, and tea, and in better practices to lift productivity and quality.

The old story was the village boy escaping to the city. The new one, occasionally, runs the other way.

Based on reporting by The Economic Times.