Years ago, Aisha Beevi decided that farming would be her prime occupation. Now at 62, she has been a successful farmer for 35 years.
“Farming as a vocation has always held a mystique for me,” she says. Farming has not been a suicidal choice since it has only brought profit to her all these years, she adds.
Much before sunrise, Ms. Beevi starts her day patrolling her 10-hectare farm in the fertile tracts of Pattazhi South in Kollam district. The crops comprise paddy, banana, tapioca and a variety of vegetables. Always sporting a smile, she says that she is into farming because she is in love with that vocation.
“Only if you are in love with farming will it produce profits,” she says. Getting the right support from the government side is a bonus. Standing beside her five hectares of paddy crop, which is getting ripe for harvest, she says the right support from Krishi Bhavan will help farmers.
She prefers organic farming and wants farmers to be aware of the latest farming methods. S. Ramachandran, Agriculture Officer at the Pattazhi South Krishi Bhavan, introduced the line farming method of paddy cultivation, and the system has been well accepted as it has increased productivity, she says.
Unlike the situation in her younger days, she says, farming these days receive good promotion from the government side. “When I had been continuously earning profits from my farm, I fail to understand why some others say it brings losses,” she wonders. Ms. Beevi says mechanisation should have been introduced in Kerala farms decades ago.
“It has brought a lot of good,” she says. The delay in mechanisation had turned away many farmers from the fields, she feels. At one stage, shortage of labour affected farming a lot. Some farmers left the vocation to earn quick money. “Farming involves a lot of dedication and it is that aspect which brings about the ecstasy at harvest,” she says.
Ms. Beevi says she is a mother to her crops and is also one of the labourers at her farm. She recalls that on one occasion while working in her fields, she was bitten by a viper, leaving her in hospital for almost a month. But that has not deterred her from farming. She enters the fields with more confidence.
Ms. Beevi, who comes from a family with farming roots, is married to a family of dedicated farmers. “Therefore, farming runs deep in my veins,” she says. She wants women to take up farming as a vocation in a big way. She sums up her success as a farmer by saying that she began her farming career by taking fields on lease. “Now I am the owner of those fields,” she says.
