User:Dthomsen8/sandbox/JK-INDIA


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Nellikuzhi Kuriakose Kurian better known as James Kurian, is an ecologist, an agriculturist, and an award winning agricultural entrepreneur from Kerala, India. Mr N.K Kurian is the person who derived the concept of the Agricultural theme park. He is the Managing Director of MangoMeadows Agricultural Pleasure Land Pvt Ltd, the first Agricultural theme park in the world.

Early life, education and family
Kurian was born in Kaipuzha, Kottayam on 2 May 1971. He was the son of A T Kurian and Mariamma Kuriakose. He took his primary education from Govt. LPS Kallara, Kottayam, high school education from St.Thomas H S, Kallara and matriculated from St. George H S Kaipuzha. He completed his Pre-degree from Vidhya College, Kottayam and his Diploma in Civil Engineering from S.N Polytechnic College, Kottiyam.

Career
NKurian started his career as a site supervisor in various construction projects in Mumbai. At the age of 26 yrs, he left India for a job. He worked as a Site Engineer at Al Rukhiya & Al Mohsin Co. Saudi Arabia, as Production Manager in Thani Benson Co Dubai, as Project Manager at Robust contracting LLC, Dubai, as General Manager at Robust aluminium LLC, Dubai and as Managing Director at Bethlehem Aluminium & Glass LLC Dubai. After 13 years, he returned to India.

Conceived the concept of agricultural theme park
As a farmer, Mr Kurian had to go through difficult situations where the traders and the market discriminated his efforts and his farm produce was undervalued and he had to suffer huge losses in farming. He learnt that he was not alone, the majority of farmers in India is not getting a decent living out of their farm income as the traders and intermediaries take all the profit and the farmers are left with no or minimum benefits. This made him think about a solution to fetch a reasonable price for the commodities produced by the farmers. He understood that equipping the farmers to sell their produce directly to the end users by avoiding the intermediaries and facilitating them to have value added products is the only option to ensure better rewards to the farmers. He also felt the necessity of farmers raising some supplementary income other than through sales of farm produces or it's value addition but from other means or activities on the farm land.

What is an agricultural theme park
According to Kurian, agricultural theme parks are parks that are made within an agricultural area or adjacent to an agricultural area mainly with an objective to give supplementary income to the farmer and to provide value addition for farm products. The main idea behind the agricultural theme park is to bring the buyer directly to the agricultural farm and to sell farm products directly to the buyer in a value added way without any intermediaries.

Awards and recognitions
Kurian has received several awards in the field of agriculture and more than ten awards from schools, colleges and local government institutions.
 * Best Farmer Award from ATMA (2011-2012)
 * Best Agriculturist of Kottayam District, Kerala (2012-2013)
 * Best Innovative Agricultural Entrepreneur, Kerala (2012-2014)