The seeds (inset) of the creeper tree turmeric on a huge tree in the Western Ghats. Photo: Special Arrangement
A survey conducted by KFRI could record only 33 mature plants
Tree turmeric, a rare medicinal plant, is clinging for dear life through a few mature plants in the Western Ghats.
A recent survey along the habitats of the species, known as Mara Manjal in local parlance, could record only 33 mature plants.
The survey by the Kerala Forest Research Institute, Thrissur, revealed that the plant was surviving in less than 10 habitats across the Kerala region of the ghats. Though distributed across the Indo-Malesian tropical rainforests, its habitat has shrunken to a few patches, said P. Sujanapal, a scientist at the institute.
In Kerala, they are found at Meenchalali in Sholayar, Pezha in Parambikulam, Madambra-Kozhikuthu area in Vazhachal range, Kannadivechakunnu, Paripputhode in Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Ambayathode- Palchuram area in the Kottiyur reserve forests. The survey was conducted for the National Medicinal Plant Board for restoring plants in its natural habitats.
Though the researchers could count 615 individuals, 514 were seedlings with bleak survival chances. The 33 ‘adult individuals’ had grown to achieve more than 10 cm in diameter. Among them, only two had fruits, Dr. Sujanapal said.
The climber (Coscinium fenestratum) is a valuable ingredient in a number of traditional medical systems of India, including Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha, and the medicial systems of Cambodia and Vietnam.
Berberine, a chemical extracted from the plant, is used in modern medicine and dye industry. Its wood with broad spectrum antiseptic properties is used to treat liver ailments, ulcers, and wounds.
It grows in moist shady and semi-rocky habitats under canopy, near streams. Habitat destruction and uprooting of plants had resulted in the depletion of number and size of the population. Destructive harvesting and the dioecious nature (a species with distinct male and female individuals) had also hit seed production, he said.
“Vegetative reproduction is being tried considering the issue of obtaining seeds. Ground layering and air layering are being tried in individuals of the species at the Meenchalali forest area in the Sholayar range and the Kulamavu area of the Idukki Wildlife Sanctuary.”
The national project plants to restore at least 10,000 seedlings of the species in its natural habitats with the support of the Forest Department, Dr. Sujanapal said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Cities> Cities> Kochi / by K. C. Sudhi / Kochi – July 10th, 2014
Picture used for representational purpose. (photo: DC/File)
Kollam:
Kulasekharapuram, a small panchayat on the border of Kollam district is all set to implement the United Nation’s call to observe 2014 as International Family Farming Year, raising the slogan of self-sustainability in food production.
The panchayat has two villages, Adinad and K.S. Puram and as many as 12,230 families in 23 wards. The agricultural office of the panchayat had identified the fact that extensive cultivation alone was not enough for food security. This concept was promoted in each family in the panchayat and a budget of Rs 5,80,000 was set apart for the venture.
“In 2010-11 when paddy production came down extensively, we promoted upland paddy cultivation on each and every available cent of land in this panchayat. It was from this experience that we got the motivation to take up this project,” said V.R. Binesh, Agricultural Officer, K.S. Puram.
The panchayat committee has organised meetings of prominent personalities in the village and gramasabhas in 23 wards to select a 30-member squad. The squad will be divided into groups and 150 houses will be assigned to each group. Three such groups will be assigned to a ward to distribute seeds and pamphlets.
The Oachira Farmers Extension Organisation (OFEO) will provide training as well as saplings in grow bags on demand, for Rs 60 per bag. Street plays will be staged at select junctions in the wards to spread awareness against the use of harmful pesticides while cultivating vegetables.
The excess vegetables from households will be procured by the panchayat to be sold in an organic vegetable outlet at Oachira. The ‘Mission 90 days’ project to be inaugurated on July 31, envisages a harvest by Onam.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / DC / by Sham Mohammed / July 03rd, 2014
Visitors take a look at the mangoes displayed at the Kerala Mango Festival in the city on Thursday. / Photo: K.K. Mustafah / The Hindu
Open to the public from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., the festival will conclude on June 29.
The event is anything but “mango-licious.” The heady aroma of ripe mangoes and the fruit slices offered to tickle the taste buds proved irresistible to Kochiites who visited the second edition of the Kerala Mango Festival held here on Thursday.
The four-day long event under way at the St. Michaels Church Hall in Chembumukku exhibits over 1, 500 varieties of the king of fruits. One can have the pick of mangoes in various shapes and sizes with colours ranging from red and peach to golden and green. Apart for the quintessential varieties in Kerala and other States, the event features mango varieties from various foreign countries including Brazil, Thailand, Australia and Pakistan. Also on display at the festival are some of the rare varieties of mangoes including Angurdhana, the smallest mango weighing just 2 grams and the 2-kilogram Mabali mango.
Organised by the Greenvalley public School in Kothamangalam, the event aims at providing the public with an opportunity to get a look and feel of the king of all fruits. ‘The objective is to give the public an idea about the different mango varieties and thereby help elevate its status from a mere seasonal produce,” said Pradeep Kuriakose, festival director.
The organisers also said mangoes displayed at the festival were farm fresh. They had taken care to ensure that no artificially ripened mangoes were brought to the festival venue.
Besides providing an opportunity to see the exotic varieties, the event also promises to be a fun package with events, including mango eating competition and other cultural programmes.
Open to the public from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., the festival will conclude on June 29.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Staff Reporter / Kochi – June 27th, 2014
The Ernakulam District Panchayat is set to establish the first super specialty veterinary hospital in the state at Puthencruz in the eastern part of the district with the support of the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU).
The hospital costing Rs 5 crore will be set up on an 83 acre plot and will have a sub-centre of the KVASU to give training to personnel. The district panchayat would mop up Rs 4 crore from various local self-government institutions including the Kochi Corporation and municipalities to set up the hospital while the KVASU would contribute Rs 1 crore for it, said Eldhose Kunnappilly, district panchayat president.
He said that the KVASU had been entrusted with the task of preparing the plan for the building of the hospital. “A team from the district panchayat will visit the Wayanad and Thrissur veterinary hospitals to study the facilities there by July end and I have already spoken to the KVASU Vice-Chancellor Dr B Ashok in this regard to proceed with the work which is expected to start in four months,” said Eldhose.
There will be an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a newborn care centre, labour room and also wards to admit animals for treating them. The hospital will have an ambulance. An Animal Birth Control (ABC) wing also will function to bring stray animals and sterilize them and then return them to the place from where they were brought.
Eldhose said that an animal protection bhavan too would be opened at Maradu to co-ordinate animal protection activities of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty towards Animals (SPCA).
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / DC / Vinod Nedumundy / June 15th, 2014
Niravu farmers rely on traditional methods to keep pests away. Frontyard of Babu’s house, packed with creepers. / Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup / The Hindu
A look at life in Niravu, a resident’s association in Vengeri, that swears by its organic produce
Walls are sparse here. Hop, jump, climb up, slide down and one has crossed umpteen plots, a few houses and many gardens; not prim, puny ones, but gardens where grass is unruly, foliage thick and free. Niravu in Vengeri may well be the most well-known resident’s association in Kozhikode. It is our flagship – for organic farming and community living. The media sets aside many column space for its initiatives, ministers throng it, to inaugurate, applaud and proclaim it as a model worth emulating. It is a tax-paying resident’s association with a membership fee of Rs.10.
Amidst the fuss and the media attention, life goes on quietly here. What continues is the hamlet’s quiet determination to keep working, unmindful of distraction. People are comfortable with the attention and are keen to teach, but their beliefs are firm-footed. From a community that grew vegetables it needed; executed stringent methods for plastic disposal and ventured into entrepreneurship that was eco-friendly, Niravu, and, consequently, ward 10 which houses it and the neighbourhood it belongs to, is dreaming big. Niravu is set to take its locally produced vegetables to a larger market. Steps for it began with the launch of an official website – www.niravu.com. Supported by NABARD, the Niravu farmer’s club will take their surplus vegetables to the market by Onam. The association has taken a building on rent at Tali where Niravu LED lights are already on sale.
New step
Niravu’s decision to be a market presence is another small step in a long journey. “We do not believe in sudden leaps, but small steps,” says Babu Parambath, project coordinator. The residents meanwhile, 117 households to be precise, of which 85 are actively into kitchen gardens, are getting ready to produce a larger volume of vegetables. Till now, they took home what they grew, gave neighbours and loyal customers the rest. As part of its new initiative, Niravu will also collect vegetables from farmers whose produce has been verified and confirmed to be organic. Rules are stringent, says Babu, “Every vegetable at the shop will have a slip with the farmer’s name and place. So customers can get the produce tested too.” Niravu’s vegetables have already been given a zero-pesticide certificate by the Pesticide Residue Research and Analytical Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram.
On a regular working day, it is largely quiet in the Niravu locality. “About 50 per cent of the families are double income ones,” says Babu. The obvious query is immediately answered. “We devote just half an hour each morning and evening to the plants. Except for potato and onion, I don’t buy any other vegetables,” he says. Most households boast a small patch and one sees the last remnants of a recent harvest. At Babu’s house, long beans and bitter gourd creepers make a canopy. On it hang, stray, lonely vegetables, left to ripe. Each season is an experiment and at Babu’s house, under a rain sheet, is an army of mud pots in which spinach seeds are sown. “We are planning more rain sheets in the community,” he says.
According to Babu, the new initiative plans at generating income with vegetables. “We believe a family will earn anything between Rs. 4,000 and Rs. 10,000 a month,” he says. It helps that most families have their strengths. Though at Babu’s house one finds an assortment – long beans, bitter gourd, spinach, bush pepper, ginger and more – his specialty, he says, is tomatoes. For Ramlath next door, it is fat bitter gourds. For Reeja Sathyan, little away, it is coloccasia. For Aruna, the homemaker, it is broad beans, and for Geeta Devadas, the one-and-a-half-feet long egg plant.
A few hundred metres away, at Asha Gopalakrishnan’s house is a cowshed, where a Kasargod dwarf, a gift from the Jaiva Karshaka Sangham, rests. It is from here that the organic nourishment for the plants – dung and urine – is collected. Outside the shed, is a small collection of large cans filled with cow’s urine. “Not a drop is wasted,” says a proud Babu. While the urine is given to neighbours for free, a basket of cow dung comes at Rs. 50. “The money goes for maintenance; they need to keep the cow’s surroundings clean”. In turn, the cow grazes in the vast spread of green, munching pesticide-free grass.
The community farmers mostly rely on traditional methods to keep pests away. A popular one is a mixture of cow’s urine and garlic juice. The best pest control methods evolved on default. Ramlath’s plump bitter gourds were a result of a can without a lid. While others sprayed their garlic mixture, she kept the large can with the mixture covered by a mosquito net under the gourd creeper following instructions to keep it in the shade. With the strong garlic smell never leaving the surroundings, pests were always at bay and her gourds healthy and large.
With the vegetables in place, seeds are what Niravu is turning its attention to. Geeta brings out small, polythene bags and paper parcels with an array of egg plant seeds. The ripe vegetables collected from neighbours are diligently deseeded and seeds sold for approximately Rs. 20 a pouch. The collected revenue is distributed among those who supplied ripe vegetables. “Last time, at an exhibition, we sold seeds worth Rs. 12,500 in two days,” says Babu. “Here, we have no ego,” Babu explains the spirit behind Niravu. There are no fixed dates for the 21- member executive committee to meet. “Whenever a need arises – once, twice or thrice a week — we meet at somebody’s sit-out and discuss and take decisions over tea. It helps that no posts in the committee are permanent. The president and secretary are chosen for a year. If their performance is exemplary, they get one more. All our roles are well-defined. We are clear in our minds about how to go ahead,” says Babu.
The Niravu Story
Niravu’s story is of the commitment of a few individuals and the support of generous government and quasi-government bodies and educational institutions. It began with what is now a well-documented survey, of the 1,824 houses in Vengeri ward in 2006. It was found that of the seven cancer patients in the ward five were women. “More number of women, cancer patients set us thinking. Doctors remarked that women were more in contact with pesticide-laden vegetables. Each time they washed and cleaned them, traces of pesticides entered their blood stream through little cuts and scratches on their hands,” says Babu.
Thereon began a community’s attempt to reclaim a way of life they had abandoned. Senior citizens who had long left agricultural work were called back to guide youngsters with their traditional wisdom on agriculture. Though Niravu, the informal community, was around since 2006, it became a residential association in 2009. To get their first patch of vegetable garden, the residents ventured out wide and far. All those who married into and out of Vengeri searched for seeds in their new and old neighbourhoods. Many vegetables found its way back to the Vengeri gardens, so too four varieties that were not known to have grown here before – square beans, elephant-trunk okra, medicinal ash gourd and the one-and-a-half-feet long egg plant, now commonly known as Vengeri brinjal. At Niravu, now about 30 acres of land is set aside for organic cultivation. Spare patches of land are devoted to paddy. Niravu and Vengeri first ventured beyond vegetables, when they were lead by their councillor K.C. Anil Kumar to harvest paddy in a 12-acre out-of-use land. The naysayers were many, warning them about the impossibility of paddy without fertilisers, labour crunch and non-availability of seeds. But the councillor stood firm, unearthed old seeds from distant relatives and went to sow the seeds, recollects Babu. Labour came in from the girls of Providence Women’s College who got the land ready for paddy. “Seeing them, our own children couldn’t stay away. Old timers polished their old sickles and joined in,” says Babu. Niravu could always garner attention and support. District administration officials and cultural representatives have always espoused Niravu’s cause, making themselves present at all functions. It was so when they sowed and reaped their first harvest, so too when they found a novel way to oppose protesting Bt Brinjal — by growing one lakh saplings of their indigenous variety. In 2013, the agriculture department supplied to 27 families that cultivated vegetables on over two cents of land with requisites – buckets, spade, drums etc. The CWRDM pitched in with workshops: one on water and soil conservation and another on organic farming. Niravu’s Jalasree and Jaivasree project were commended by the Department of Environment and Climate Change. At Niravu, they moved beyond farming. They have a system in place to dispose plastic waste. Four times a year, cleaned plastic and bottles, segregated and stored, are deposited at a designated place and taken to the recycling plant at West Hill.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by P. Anima / Kozhikode – June 13th, 2014
The Department of Agriculture has unveiled an action plan aimed at achieving self-reliance in vegetables and milk and reviving coconut farming in the State by 2016.
To be taken up under the government’s Mission 676, the plan seeks to bring an additional 69,400 hectares under horticulture to achieve a production target of 8.69 lakh tonnes by 2015-16.
Addressing the media here on Wednesday, Agriculture Minister K.P. Mohanan and senior officials said 10 lakh coconut trees of the dwarf variety would be planted across the State by February 2016 under a flagship programme to revive the coconut sector and address the shortage of tree climbers. Mr. Mohanan said the Neera production plant being set up at Elathur in Kozhikode by the Kerala State Coconut Development Corporation was expected to be commissioned by December 2015. The plant would have a capacity to produce 1,000 litres of Neera a day.
The action plan includes a variety of schemes aimed at making Kerala an organic farming state by March 2016. The programme seeks to bring 3,000 sq m under polyhouse method of horticulture at Vadavathur in Kottayam and Kodumon Estate, Pathanamthitta by November this year. The State Horticulture Mission will take up a project to set up 1,28,000 sq m of polyhouses and introduce organic certification in 3,500 hectares. Cluster units will be set up in Kannur, Wayanad, Idukki, and Palakkad to extend vegetable farming to 3,900 hectares.
As many as 2,00,000 milch cows will be added to the cattle population while the annual production of fodder will reach 44 lakh tonnes. Three new dairy farms are to be set up at Enmakaje, Kottoor and Muthalappara in Kasaragod district. Two new hi-tech dairy farms are expected to be commissioned at Vithura in Thiruvananthapuram and Kuriyottumala in Kollam by August 2015.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Kerala / by Special Correspondent / Thiruvananthapuram – May 29th, 2014
Living the life of an ascetic is not that easy. But for P Gopalakrishna Swami, who started the Jyothipeetom Ashram on the Thirichittapara hilltop at Thannimoodu near Nedumangadu, life has been a series of challenges for the last 33 years. One may not find anything to be excited about the ascetic in him but his hard work in developing the rocky hilltop into a garden of rare species of trees would leave anyone wonderstruck with admiration for the 78-year-old man.
The real wonder remains with his selection of rare species of trees and medicinal plants. ‘Athi’, ‘Ithi’, ‘Kunthirikkam’, ‘Veppu’, ‘Aryaveppu’, ‘Njara’, Bamboo, ‘Karpooram’, ‘Sampranimaram’, ‘Njaval’, ‘Elanji’, ‘Erukku’, ‘Plassu’, ‘Vellanochi’, ‘Kadukka’, ‘Nelli’, ‘Pulinchi’, ‘Garudakodi’, ‘Parpadakamaram’, ‘Nagagandhi’, ‘Punna’ are some of the exotic species forming the lush green cover on a major part of the rock. Sandalwood, red sandalwood, ‘Neelakadampu’, ‘Arassu’, ‘Kallarassu’, ‘Kattikodi’ (the plantwhich dilutes water), ‘Kallal’ and even foreign plants like African cherry and ‘Rudrakasha’ have been grown at the site. Scores of other medicinal and fruit trees offer food to the monkeys that inhabit the area and keep the tree-lover company. “I purchased one acre of land on the hilltop and a pond was made to store rainwater. Over 150 loads of rock were used to level one side of the terrain and two to five feet of earth was spread over the entire area to prepare the ground,” he recollects. Around 16 years ago, a Hanuman temple was also constructed at the site.
As the rocky hilltop was not conducive to growing even common garden plants, his effort was to develop a layer of earth on the rock surface to allow the tree saplings to sprout roots and hold firm against the whistling winds on the hilltop.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by N V Ravindranathan Nair / June 05th, 2014
S Sarma MLA inaugurating the land preparation machine suitable for Pokkali wetlands at a function organised by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra near Edavanakkad, Kochi, on Tuesday | express
Kochi :
The Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of CMFRI here has launched a land preparation machine suitable for pokkali wetlands.
Inaugurating the launch ceremony near Edavanakkad on Tuesday, S Sharma MLA said that mechanisation of pokkali fields is the need of the hour for the existence of this traditional organic farming system.
According to the KVK, the machine will be great for sustainable pokkali farming, as skilled labourers are not available in many places and this will reduce the expense.
The field capacity of the mini tiller is 1.5 acres in eight hours at a cost of `2,500.
Whereas 15 labourers are required to cover this much area in the same time for a cost of `12,000.
A group of 15 Kudumbasree women from each block panchayat, where pokkali farming exists, will be trained and developed into mechanised pokkali task force.
The KVK has already received funding from the Mahila Kisan Sahshaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) through district Kudumbasree Mission for this initiative.
The KVK had conducted extensive scientific studies on the performance of the machine, popularly known as garden tiller or mini tiller, earlier this month in different pokkali fields.
This 60 kg, 5.5 HP machine requires field dry to the extent that a person can walk over the field without sinking into it.
Most of the pokkali fields would get dry to this extent naturally if the previous shrimp farms are vacated in time to facilitate draining of water during the first week of May. However in certain fields, pumping out of water might be required to dry out the field.Programme coordinator Shinoj Subramanian introduced the machine to a group of pokkali farmers and Padasekhara Samiti office-bearers in the presence of grama panchayat ward member Sajith, technical experts from KVK Pushparaj Anjelo, P A Vikas and Agricultural Officer Serine Philip.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kochi / by Express News Service / June 04th, 2014
When he followed in his father’s footsteps in farming at a tender age, K P Divakaran had not imagined that agriculture would bring him fame in future. This 63-year-old farmer, hailing from Peruvayal, Kozhikode, is the winner of the award of excellence for his outstanding performance in the implementation of various components under the Vegetable Development Programme of the Kozhikode District Agriculture Department, this year.
The award, comprising a memento, a citation and a cash award of `10,000, is more than an encouraging factor for the middle class farmer. “I look upon the award as a recognition of my effort,” smiles the lean man while harvesting ripe bananas at his plantain farm. “With the cash award I am planning to try out new crops in my farm,” says Divakaran, who keeps farming first in his list of priorities. His cluster received the award for the best cluster in the district.
A dropout from Peruvayal UP School, Divakaran took farming as a full-time job to help his father make both ends meet. Uncertain about the satisfaction and comfort level offered by the title of a farmer, he left farming when he was 20.
Without getting a decent job he returned back to farming in his 30s. Asked what he receives from farming, he says, everything. In his 50 cent land, he cultivates plantain, bitter gourd, pumpkin, spinach, tapioca, long beans and many more.
“I am rooted to the soil and rarely do I take my feet off from my field. For the past 33 years I have been following conventional farming methods in my farm.” When asked about experimenting with farming, he says, “I am not from a well-off family and still I am not in a position to experiment with farming. A simple mistake made during new experiments may wholly affect the entire cultivation,” he says.
Divakaran himself sells vegetables to customers without the help of a middleman. “What keeps me close to my customers is the absence of a middlemen. After finishing my works at my farm in the evening I go for door-to-door delivery of my produce. “I have never returned home with unsold vegetables,” he says.
In his words, enough water and manpower are available, but the unavailability of land is a major problem that farmers come across in Peruvayal. You can hardly find a land lying underutilised in the small panchayat. Thanking the Agriculture Department for its support, he says the department encourages farmers by providing them with new seeds and imparting knowledge on the use of bio-fertilisers. “They also give us a free hand in cultivation,” he says.
source: http://www.thenewindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Aswatha Krishnan / May 30th, 2014
People of Kairaly tribal hamlet at Mukkil Peedika, near Mepadi, Wayanad, harvesting salad cucumber from a polyhouse. / The Hindu
Salad cucumber, grown in polyhouse set up on a 15-cent plot, gives tribespeople a tidy income.
The people of the Kairaly tribal hamlet at Mukkil Peedika in the Moopainadu grama panchayat of the district have set up a 400-sq m polyhouse for vegetable cultivation on the slope of a hillock with the financial support of the State Tribes Development Department.
There are 80 families in the colony – 70 per cent of them Paniyas, a vulnerable tribal group.
They erected the polyhouse as part of the Integrated Tribal Development Initiative of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) at a cost of Rs.10 lakh on a 15-cent plot provided by Seeta Balan, a primary stakeholder of the project.
The project was first of its kind in the State, said N. Anilkumar, director, MSSRF. Setting up the state-of-the-art facility in this remote village was a formidable task owing to absence proper roads and power connection, said C.S. Chandrika, principal social scientist, MSSRF, and principal investigator of the project.
“In the initial phase we trained four tribesmen. They planted 956 salad cucumber plants in the polyhouse,” she said.
“We planted the crop 80 days ago and got nearly 60 kg of cucumber in the first harvest itself. When the sixth harvest was completed on Wednesday, we got 300 kg of cucumber worth Rs.10,545,” Sheeja and Unnikrishnan, a tribal couple engaged in farming, said.
Rs.35 a kg
They harvest on alternate days and from each harvest, get around 60 to 80 kg of produce. The tribesmen could avoid exploitation by middlemen as they were directly selling the produce, at Rs.35 a kg, at an outlet of the Wayanad Institute of Medical Science at Rippon near Mepadi, said P.C. Babu, a field coordinator of the project.
Training in polyhouse farming would be extended to more tribespeople in phases, Dr. Chandrika said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kozhikode / by E. M. Manoj / Kalpetta – May 10th, 2014
