The people of Prakkadavu in Ernakulam have taken it upon themselves to create a culture of cultivating their own food, including rice, vegetables and fish as part of a major campaign to eat ‘poison-free’ food using the land available to them.

The agriculture and food production initiative has been taken under the aegis of the Prakkadavu Service Cooperative Bank. Because of the initiative, a land that had been lying fallow for about 25 years has now come under cultivation.

The bank’s major step was to help people produce their own food.

It included production of rice, vegetables, dairy items as well as poultry meat and eggs, said a press release from the Public Relations Department. Parakkadavu has been blessed with an abundant water resource as it lies close to the Chalakkudy river and people have used this resource fully to realise their dream of cultivating and producing their own food.

The initiative started about four years ago with the cultivation of vegetables in growbags.

It has now spread far and wide. With the cultivation of vegetables in growbags on terraces and small areas, the bank decided to form farmers’ groups to spread cultivation into wider areas gradually.

There are now a total of 48 organic cultivation groups comprising 800 homesteads. There are 10 to 15 members in each of the groups engaged in cultivation of various items. Diary and poultry activities too have been taken up along with vegetable and rice cultivation.

The Kurumassery Karukappadam, which had been lying idle for the past 25 years, has been brought under cultivation. A total of 12 acres was brought under vegetable cultivation.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / Kochi – April 18th, 2018