Chennai Organic farm, Nalla Keerai, sprouting wings

Ladies-fingers/Okra/Bindi/Pottu

As we reported sometime back about a new organic farm in the outskirts of Chennai, Nalla Keerai (good greens/spinach in Tamil) is now ready to spread the love of their efforts to Chennai residents.  They are calling for suggestions for a list of 10 parks within Chennai to which they will deliver early morning fresh organic keerai for customers to buy.  So to your keyboards and send your suggestions if you love organic greens.  You can vote for your park either through their email (NallaKeerai at gmail.com) or via their Facebook page.

Red Ladies-fingers/Okra/Bindi/Pottu look lovely

Love & consciousness are important ingredients, fertile soil is contained in small cultivable patches

Jagannathan, organic farmer with a passion

Some wonderful Keerai

Greens are not always green!

New discoveries from Chernobyl disaster

An article in The Hindu paper reports on an amazing research done of soya beans farmed within the vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  Although the consequences from the radioactive fall out from the damaged reactor have been gruesome, ongoing studies on nature's adaptation to the unique environment on earth reveals that plants have adopted unique mechanisms to repair and retain its genetic make up.  The article points out to studies of soya beans and how the plant concentrates radioactive metals found in the soil into its shoots, leaving the beans (in this case the seeds of the plant) with relatively lower levels of damaging radioactive material.  In effect the plant shields its seeds' genetic heritage from stored exposure of radiation therefore allowing the seed to preserve the genetic make of the plant and the next generation a fighting chance to retain the original make-up of the species.  The scientist are at a loss as to what are the mechanisms operating this miracle.  It shows that Nature is a lot more intelligent than we previously thought.

It will be interesting to see our level of awareness in a few generation when further analysis of affected nature from the Fukushima disaster in Japan reveal its secrets.  I can foresee interesting applications from such studies in the search for adapting plants for growing food in similar hostile conditions such as in outer space, the surface of the moon and possibly other planets where shielding from the solar radiation is not as effective as the magnetic field of the earth.

The Farm Mela @ Chennai

The Farm is a multi-acre farm located among the new office jungle of the Chennai IT corridor.  It set off to offer family-fun experiences based on farm activities.  They do a brunch on w.e. and this coming w.e. (18th and 19th August) they are promoting a Mela for local artisans to promote their wares.  Do come and visit, the Farm is counting on this kind of activity to promote its offer and allow it to sustain its existence.  There is tremendous pressure from land developers to sell the farm and make way for more office buildings.

A new organic farmer in Chennai!

We were pleasantly surprised to see the news of a new local organic farmer in Chennai.  Nalla Keerai (Good Greens or Good Spinach) was started by s group of IT professionals wanting to make a difference for the plight of farmers who see their cost rise and their income drop.  Applying their minds to the problem, they have stepped forward to set up a model farm with practices that optimize cost and cut out the expenses of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.  Furthermore, they are experimenting with local vegetables and for now attempting to grow green leaves such as spinach.

They have 20 varieties of spinach being sold at 15 Rs a bunch.

Online organic food from Rajasthan

I came across this website from one of the comments left on our blog, it sells organic food products online and delivers anywhere within India.  I feel the prices are on the expensive side, especially when you compare with Nilgiris organic range of products, but I have not gone through the entire range of products they sell, so if anyone has bought items from them, please give us your feedback in the comments section.

The website is very well designed, and you can feel that whomever is behind this initiative has put their heart in it.

A yield class from Tel Aviv

drip irrigation of tomato crop

A small article in the Hindu this Sunday points to the small contingent of 2000 farmers from India that have attended the recently held 18th International Agricultural Exhibition help in Tel Aviv, Israel. Of these 2000, 600 each from Maharastra and Gujarath were sent there on government sponsored programs. A small but intrepid group of 40 farmers from Tamil Nadu attended, but they had to shell out the 1 lakh plus expenses to attend from their own pockets. The exhibition central theme was awareness of thrifty use of water resources.

The Tamil contingent let by organic farmer Mr. Thooran pointed out the importance of the lessons learnt and the need for government to support farmers whole heartedly as agriculture is the base of human development.

 The Israelis are famous for their prowess at turning desets into oasis of agriculture miracle. We should by now realise that our governement is incapable of forming comprehensive policies that provide integral support to farmers aspiring to make a difference, therefore it is important to secure, as pointed out by the author of the article, private co-operatives that create the frameworks that can enable small farmers to leverage this kind of knowledge and better market their produce.

The International Agriculture Exhibition is held every three years, lets hope that we can see more farmers from South India in 2015.

Indian farmers adapting to Climate change

An interesting article in the Times of India about various reports of farmers adapting to the realities of the climate vagaries in different parts of the country.
Bihar, in northern India, has seen its fare share of floods in the last decade, and as a result of fields being submerged in water, farmers have adopted to grow a plant that adapts very well to these condition, makhana or fox nut of the water lily family which produces white seeds that can be eater raw or cooked.  The makhana plant is easily recognisable by its unique leaf as show below.  Mahkana farming is a flourishing business today.  There has also been an interesting social change as a result, previously the growing of the makhana plant was only done by communities of low caste people who grew the plant in fish ponds.  The upper caste farmers deemed it below their dignity.

Bihar floods in 2007

Makhana leaf

Another story from Rajasthan where according to the TOI article ice was seen to form in the Jaisalmer report (but this is unconfirmed as I could find no other sources mentioning this story... maybe the TOI reporter has been out in the hot sun a little too long).  There desert state has been having erratic and scattered rains, a new phenomena, which has adversely affected the traditional species of herbs and grass plants.  As a result, animal husbandry has taken a toll.  However, the farmers have been switching to mixed cropping in order to compensate for their losses, and as a result, a sweet local variety of melon, the matira, rich in water content and producing delicate seeds used for making sweets has become very popular as it requires little irrigation.

Milk man for the new millenium?

A great story from Orissa, where a young native entrepreneur, Srikumar Mishra, has set up a new milk distribution business with a sustainable angle.  Better shelf life of milk and other products, but also a keen messaging campaign to its customers that the milk does not require boiling as is so often the case with fresh milk in India... hence saving on cooking gas and valuable energy.