My father’s family owned some agricultural land in a villge
near Kanchipuram; after his marriage, he
settled in Chennai. He had given his
land to a guy to take care and cultivate and he would go there frequently.
I did my education in Chennai, so I never had been to my
father’s village and understand about
cultivation. My father was hard
working and in the year 1964, he purchased
a plot and built a house with a garden. He used to do lot of work in our garden. Me and my siblings used to help him in the
work. EDuring my young age, we used to
plant so many vegetables in our home garden and the taste was naturally, amazing.
After my retirement, I
didn’t want to waste my time. I started
a small Terrace garden in my house. In
my first venture, 2 years ago, I planted Snake guard and it gave me good yield
and I distributed it to all my friends and relatives. My thirst for gardening
grew, so I bought a land near Uthukottai border of Andhra Pradesh and started doing
some Organic cultivation without using any chemicals like Urea, pesticides, etc.
The support of my family is very encouraging. I should mention the support and inspiration that
came to me through my daughters-in-laws Mrs. Preethi Prasanna who is in USA and
Sonja Madhu Sridharan who lives in Germany. They motivated my spirit in this field.
Before
starting my activities in the farm, I visited so many places to understand the organic cultivation methods, read many books and
visited so many sites in Internet. Daily I started watching Podighi and Makkal
TV programs connected with Agriculture. I bought Pasumai Vikatan and improved
my knowledge on agriculture.
My first step was to test my soil in lab and upgrade
the soil quality.
I
sought the advice of Agricultural Officer, Tiruvannamalai, Mr.Rajesh, (through
TV Programme) and he readily came forward to give tips in the organic manuring
practice e.g. to plant Daincha (in Tamil
‘Thakkai poondu’); he said about 10 kg
of daincha seeds are required to cover one acre. So I bought it from the market
and sowed it in my land.
I
found from the net that, between 45 and 60 days or when the plants are about to
bear flowers, whichever earlier, daincha, capable of adopting itself to a wide
range of soil and climatic conditions such as wet, dry or salty soils, should
be cut and incorporated into the soil or it can be applied to the basins taken
around the soil. “Since daincha contains 2.3 percent of Nitrogen, 0.7 percent of
Phosphorous and 1.3 percent of Potassium, it acts as an excellent growth
stimulant,” Mr. Rajesh said.
The
advantages of green manuring, Mr. Rajesh, said that daincha adds organic matter
to the soil and accelerates the activity of micro organisms in the soil,
improves the soil structure, thereby improving the water holding capacity,
decreasing run off and erosion caused by rain, takes nutrients from lower
layers of the soil and adds to the upper layers in which it is to be
incorporated, increases the availability of certain plant nutrients like
potassium, calcium and magnesium and finally it suppresses the weed growth.
After doing all these things, I started to use my farm for agriculture purpose.
I
also ordered sufficient quantity of vermicompost from a farmer-friend Shri
K.P.S. of Koduvai.
First
for test purpose I planted vegetable Ladies finger and Kothavari in 5 cents and
it started growing well and I got good amount of vegetables. The taste was, no
doubt, amazing and I started doing more vigorously in organic cultivation.
I
wanted to try Paddy (Silk Ponni). By the
guidance of Mr. Rajesh, I am using only organic things like earthworm manure and
Panchkavya from my friend Mr.K.P.Subramaniam of Koduvai. Other natural things
like Cow dung and Goat dung etc. For Pesticide, I am using the mixture of
Chilly, Ginger and garlic paste and dissolve in the water and spray in the
plants. This, I used to spray once every week so there is not much insects.
I
Planted Brinjal also and getting good quality yield from my garden. The taste
and quality is very very good. Everyone, who buy from me give good certificate and the other veggies like,
Soraikai, Peerkai and Greens are very nice and have lovely taste. My first customer
is Mrs.Indu Chari and Mr.Sampath (my relatives) who have given a lot of support
and encouragement in taking my products
to their kitchen. They used to send me
reports often and it gives me a lot of motivation/desire to do well in the Organic
way.
