Kerala - Palakkad   

More farmers go organic way

Palakkad: Organic farming, started in some parts of Attappady and Nelliampathy high ranges nearly a decade back, is getting popular in the district.

Some enterprising farmers of Attappady have been cultivating organic vegetables and fruits for markets in Coimbatore for nearly a decade now. There are shops in Coimbatore city that sell only organic vegetables and fruits, mainly produced in Attappady. The farmers are given 50 per cent more price than the market price of vegetables produced using chemical fertilizers.

Some farmers of Chittur are also cultivating organic medicinal rice ‘Jnavara’ for Ayurvedic use. A farmer, Narayanan Unni, has converted his 15 acres of paddy field for producing medicinal rice. The farmers experimented with organic farming methods which the State discarded for the last many decades following the Green Revolution that popularised the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for increasing productivity to meet the high demand for food crops.

But the recent realisation of the ill-effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that poisoned the environment and the food crops has forced a rethinking on going back to organic farming which is eco-friendly and free from health hazards. The world-wide demand for organic products has also encouraged the farmers to turn to organic farming.

But much before the government and agencies under it thought of promoting organic farming, the farmers of Palakkad started it and now more areas are coming under organic farming.

The State government has introduced a scheme to boost organic farming which covers Palakkad along with Wayanad, Kozhikode and Idukki districts.

In Ayiloor panchayat of Nenmara, the farmers have come forward to cultivate organic paddy. They plan to cultivate paddy in 500 acres in the next season.

The successful culmination of an experimental organic paddy cultivation project undertaken in a demonstration plot in Ayiloor panchayat has kindled hopes in the minds of the farmers of Palakkad, the rice bowl of Kerala, of fetching a better price for their produce.

Conveying this feeling, Ayiloor panchayat Agriculture Officer Sivasankaran Achary said popularisation of organic paddy cultivation was in tune with the State government’s recently announced organic policy.

The crop, grown for the first time in a four-acre plot owned by a farmer, A.J. Kaladharan, was harvested on Wednesday. Panchayat president K. Sugathan inaugurated the harvesting at a function held at Karakkatuparamba Pathiapady Padasekharam.

The project was the culmination of a joint effort made recently by the Poabs Group and the Agricultural Department to promote organic paddy cultivation in the panchayat.

At the function, the farmers of the region reached an agreement to grow organic paddy in an estimated area of 500 acres in the panchayat, Mr. Achary said.

The Poabs Group, which has been promoting organic paddy cultivation and procuring the crop from farmers in Kuttanad since 2004, came forward to procure the organic paddy grown in Nenmara also. Group director Thomas Jacob received the harvest from the panchayat president, marking the formal commencement of the procurement.

Speaking on the occasion, he offered a premium price of 25 per cent for the paddy, above the prevailing market price, until the produce obtained international organic certification which is expected within three years of growing the crop.

The certification itself would ensure the produce an enhanced price of 40 to 50 per cent above the market rate, he said.

POABS has extended technical guidance and support, including supply of organic manure, bio-fertilizers and bio-control agents for the crop under its cash and carry buy back programme.

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