How a Farmer’s Son Became an IAS Officer: Dr Ravi Kanth Medithi Talks About His Journey to the Top

Speaking at today’s KJ Choupal session at the Krishi Jagran Headquarters in New Delhi, Dr Ravi Kanth Medithi shared his struggles as a farmer’s son who grew up working in the paddy fields of a tiny hamlet in the Krishna-Godavari Delta region, known as Rice Bowl of India.

“I grew up in open fields of paddy. As the son of a farmer, I have seen a lot of exploitation of the farming community. The middlemen take a huge portion of the profit that farmers earn. Then comes the pest such as rats that damage the rice when it’s put in storage, further reducing the price of the rice. I am sure Krishi Jagran covers these burning farmer issues and will continue doing so.”

His journey was one of the tough hurdles and struggles that he had to navigate through to reach where he is now. An ex-IAS officer, Dr Medithi is a man of modest and humble nature whose one motto in life is ‘To live light and give light’.  

Now he has traveled to 64 cities in 37 countries, held the position of Indian Administrative Service in the 1986 batch of Kerala Cadre, and has been the ex-chairman and managing director of Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited, or HUDCO. For his exemplary work at HUDCO, Dr Medithi was honored with the Newslink Legend CMD Award.

However, he had not forgotten his agricultural roots and has stayed connected to the agriculture sector by working at the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, APEDA.

Welcoming Dr Medithi, M C Dominic, Editor in Chief of Krishi Jagran said, “Dr Medithi has always been a pillar of support for me and Krishi Jagran from back in the days when Krishi Jagran had just started. His love of agriculture and the farming community has always inspired us and will keep on inspiring us in the coming years.”

Dr Medithi's journey is a source of inspiration not only for the farming community but also for the rest of the world.