Horticulture Dept. distributes seed balls to promote organic farming

To promote kitchen gardens and organic farming, the Horticulture Department has begun providing inexpensive seed balls to recreational gardeners across the Nilgiris.

The initiative, first started in 2019, has succeeded in getting thousands of people involved in farming and growing vegetables in small plots of land in their homes, said Assistant Director of Horticulture, Nilgiris district, M. Radhakrishnan. In 2019, the department distributed 15,000 seed balls, and it has set a similar target this year, with all the seed balls being dispatched across the district.

Mr. Radhakrishnan said that the seed balls contained perennial beans, which are easy to grow in kitchen gardens.

“The main goal of this initiative is to encourage people to grow some of their own vegetables organically. When these vegetables are grown in their own houses, people will see the benefits of eating organic vegetables and the demand for such produce will also increase,” he said.

The department said that there was a great demand for the seed balls from residents, as each ball costs only ₹2. “Many people have small plots of land in which they can cultivate vegetable patches for use in their own homes. These seed balls, as they have all the essential nutrients and manure already packed around them, will grow successfully even in small patches of land,” said an official from the horticulture department.

After their resounding success in distributing hybrid banana plants, developed at the tissue culture laboratory in Udhagamandalam, the department also plans to grow and distribute over five lakh saplings this year. Officials said that there was a great demand for the saplings from farmers from surrounding districts.