Kitchen gardening, terrace farming, community farming, paddy cultivation and vegetable gardening in schools and other educational institutions… a lot of ground-breaking work is being done in the city and its outskirts, thanks to the key role played by Krishi Bhavans, State Horticulture Mission and Farm Information Bureau and non-governmental organisations such as Agrifriends and Biotips.
The farmers come from all walks of life, right from pensioners to teachers, techies and homemakers. For instance, Chempaka Kindergarten Annexe I at Pallimukku grows vegetables on the school’s terrace. “Our founder Daphne Gomez inspired us to start this. We have a ‘Vegetable day’ and the children get enthused and involved when they see how vegetables are actually grown. Our teachers buy the produce and the money collected is invested for farming activities,” says Monica Augustin, headmistress of the school.
Many of these farmers are now thinking of the next step to encourage more residents to romance the good earth. “I am advocating the concept of ‘one hour point’, wherein various households under a residents’ association cultivate different vegetables and on a particular day they all come together to sell the produce. In fact, I used to sell the produce in front of my home,” says V. Unnikrishnan, a former banker who walked out of his cabin to work in his home garden.
Home Greens, his one-stop venture for anything related to agriculture, will become functional soon and he is also an active member of Kitchen Gardeners’ Forum, which has 20 members, who meet on the second Saturday of every month and exchange information on agriculture-related subjects. His plot is a veritable green house of vegetables and plants with medicinal value. Nearly three cents of land around his house and every available space on the terrace have been turned into green spaces. Among the crops are tomato, lady’s finger (especially the long Anakkomban variety), brinjal, cowpea, beetroot, ivy gourd, plantain, tapioca, yams, palak, mango ginger, Surinam cherry, amaranthus… Earlier, he had successfully harvested soya bean, bok choy, and salad cucumber too.
“I am not marketing the produce, but it is a possibility worth exploring. There is no stress or strain and from dawn to dusk, I tend to my plants. Later, I am on Facebook interacting with members of various farming communities,” says Unnikrishnan.
Shafeek A. Shihab, a technical analyst with an MNC in Technopark, is one of the ‘friends’’ Unnikrishnan interacts with. Shafeek’s polyhouse on the rooftop of his house at Pettah helped him harvest 800 kg salad cucumber. Recently, the 25-year-old had a bumper harvest of cowpea and bitter gourd. “The satisfaction you get from farming is beyond words,” says Shafeek, adding: “Right now nearly 25 polyhouses are there in the district and by the end of this financial year, it would cross 40.” Now that the government has proposed to set up hi-tech poly houses with the help of Krishi Bhavans, the number might go up.
For Syamkumar K., an employee of the Kerala State Electricity Board, farming is a family affair, with his son and daughter pitching in. Since he couldn’t cultivate on his three-cent plot, he turned to his 700 sq ft terrace. His labour of love won him the Agricultural Department’s Yuvakarshaka award in 2013. “I also keep hens and the droppings are used as manure. After the award, I took 40 cents of land at Vattiyoorkavu on lease where I cultivated cauliflower, cabbage, cowpea, tomato, cucumber, carrot, brinjal and chillies,” says Syamkumar who is also an actor and dubbing artiste.
Meanwhile, some of the farming enthusiasts are giving shape to new ideas to promote farming. Joji Mathew, a web developer, has introduced the concept of ‘weekend farming’. “It is for those who love to take up farming but are tied up with many other things. We take land on lease and these people can come there on weekends and tend to the plants. We have already done it at Santhigiri Ashram, Pothencode, and I am looking for vacant plots in the city,” he says.
Meanwhile, according to Farm Information Bureau, a large number of youngsters are coming forward to do community farming, where they are ready to invest in a plot and do farming as a group.
It seems, self-sufficiency in food might not be an impossible dream to realise. Food for thought!
