Despite shortage of water and labour force, progressive farmers at Nallamanarkottai village in Vadmadurai union have been making handsome profit as they treat agriculture as industry.
They not only adopt the latest technologies but also use imported seeds to get better yield on small area. They also appoint technical hands to man their farms, where they raise cucumber, tomato and other vegetables.
Vertical farming method under weather-controlled atmosphere has helped them to harvest large quantity of cucumber. They harvest 35 tonnes of cucumber and earn an income of Rs.10 lakh in 140 days. “At least, two acres are needed to raise 2,500 plants on open field whereas in poly house, we grow the same number of plants on half acre by adopting vertical farming method. With the implementation of the latest technologies, we have registered four-fold increase in yield while reducing cultivable land size to half,” says S. Ramesh, a progressive farmer at Nallamanarkottai.
“The poly greenhouse has fogging, drip irrigation, automatic fertigation facilities. We can control temperature in poly house irrespective of outside temperature. Besides, the farm has small technical work force, including a consultant,” he added.
Mr. Ramesh imports seeds from The Netherlands and each seed costs Rs.6. Total investment in the poly house is around Rs.40 lakh and the subsidy part is Rs.8.3 lakh.
Cucumber creepers grow up to four metres till the roof of the poly greenhouse in his farm. With long shelf life and rich in water content, this import variety of cucumber is very attractive in Kerala. Procurement price of cucumber hovers between Rs.15 and Rs.30, he says. Poly greenhouse is ideal for raising tomato and jasmine as they are very sensitive to climate, says Subbu Raja, a horticulturist in Batlagundu.
The farmers appeal to horticulture officials to produce seeds of imported varieties locally and distribute to them to scale down production costs. The Centre for Excellence, an Indo-Israel joint venture, at Reddiyarchatram, can take up this task, they suggest.
Another progressive farmer from Batlagundu opines that pomegranates when they grow in poly houses will give better yield. The farmers need subsidy for setting up fogging devices in poly houses, he says and adds dissemination of advanced technologies is need of the hour to protect small and tiny farmers and to tap huge potential in the district.
They treat agriculture as industry and adopt latest technologies
