Doctor-turned-farmer on a mission to improve health in Maharashtra

Mumbai: From the operation theatre to rugged fields, Dr Prashant Rajput – a nephrologist and transplant physician – came a long way in serving the people of the state

Mumbai: From the operation theatre to rugged fields, Dr Prashant Rajput – a nephrologist and transplant physician – came a long way in serving the people of the state. He has been swiftly switching roles from a doctor to a farmer and vice-versa in the last three years.

He realised many people in his area were developing chronic kidney, liver and autoimmune diseases due to the pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides. (HT PHOTO)

The doctor, 44, took over farming three years back after his father passed away. While his father mostly grew bananas and turmeric, he now grows twenty plantations including guava, orange and mango in fruits and moong dal, tur dal, chana dal, chilli, ginger and teak among others. Dr Rajput, who owns 36 acres of land in Jalgaon, also provides training to 19000 farmers across Maharashtra on regenerative farming.

He recently won the ‘Amit Udyan Ratna award’ for the adoption of the most innovative technologies in agriculture. The doctor-turned-farmer focused on improving the health of humans.

“When I inherited farming after my father’s sudden demise three years back, we were predominantly into banana and turmeric cultivation,” said Dr Rajput.

He added that it was conventional farming with the use of chemicals, fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides. However, he realised many people in his area were developing chronic kidney, liver and autoimmune diseases.

The doctor then did an epidemiological survey of farmers in the area and found a huge number having kidney issues. “We realised it was because of the indiscriminate use of herbicides and pesticides. In 2019, we gave up chemical farming and with an agronomist – Dr KB Patil – I switched to regenerative farming,” he said.

Dr Rajput started to study soil, fruits and trees. “While studying, we found our soils were of poor quality and were too much dependent on chemical fertilisers for their fertility. I got in touch with growers from the USA and France where they were using novel techniques to regenerate their farmland,” he said.

To improve the quality of the soil, Dr Rajput adopted a unique process called liquid carbon theory where a huge amount of carbon was put into the soil by growing a living root.

“We also used cover crops like legumes and millet to increase the fertility of the soil. With all these methods, we saw the quality of the soil improve significantly. We then tested the nutrient density of turmeric and other products and it was almost double with no trace of harmful pesticides and herbicides,” he added.

It is known that many health issues like autism, parkinson, autoimmune disease, diabetes and fatty liver, have a strong link to indiscriminate use of herbicides. Dr Rajput claimed to have managed to eliminate the use of herbicide and is training other farmers to adopt the same process.

Every fifteen days, he takes the special training of the farmers. Kuldeep Patil, 49, who owns 105 acres of land in Jalgaon district and grows lemongrass and essential oil said, he switched to regenerative farming some months back after getting trained by Dr Rajput a year ago.

“We saw how the yield improved and realised our grandfathers were smarter than us who never used chemical fertilisers,” said Patil.

Agreeing with him, Atul Mahajan (46), another farmer involved in the business for twenty years, said they have switched 75% to regenerative farming. “We got in touch with Dr Rajput in 2021 and saw how chemicals have been harming us. We were impressed and motivated to follow him,” he said.