Kasaragod man is ‘Mr Bean of farming’

Express News Service
KASARAGOD: At an ‘Eco Shop’ owned by the Kolathur Farmers’ Society at Perladukkam in Bedadka panchayat, there are two separate racks for greens. One of them is completely for the natural greens from the backyard of Narayanan Kannalayam (51). “Kannalayam is quite a brand in these parts,” says Balakrishnan Mayooram (47), who runs the store. “People come asking for his vegetables and if they don’t know about him, all I have to do is introduce his produce to them once,” he says.

Balakrishnan buys greens from Narayanan’s backyard at Ayambara, 5 km away in Pullur-Periya panchayat as soon as each two days. He expenses a premium of Rs 5 to Rs 10 for Narayanan’s produce. “People don’t mind because they are aware of the goodness of his produce,” he says. Ridge gourd, snake gourd, bitter gourd, okra, spinach, brinjal, cucumber, cassava, yam, taro, turmeric, cauliflower, ginger, radish, carrot, candy potato, sugarcane. Balakrishnan stops to catch his breath. “I am sure I missed a fewothers,” he says.

Engaging in tobacco cultivation (Photo | George Poikayil)

Narayanan prefers to name himself a conservator first, then a farmer. He has greater than three sorts of many of the greens talked about above. He even has seven sorts of the hibiscus plant. But his greatest contribution to farming is he’s the proud proprietor of 90 sorts of indigenous beans and peas. He cultivates every of the varieties to preserve them. “Earlier farmers were conservators too. But now they depend on the market every sowing season. I thought we should not lose out on the indigenous varieties in the mad rush for hybrid ones,” he says. “For there will be new varieties only if the old survives.”

Recognising his effort, the Kerala Agricultural University has nominated him for the Plant Genome Saviour Farmer Reward instituted by the Ministry of Agriculture’s Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority.

Narayanan isn’t just a farmer. He is an accredited journalist with a night day by day in Kasaragod, a theatre artiste, helps publish work of rural expertise, and a sought-after social employee. “I rest only when I hit the bed at night,” he says.

He doesn’t make use of employees. He is helped by his mom P Shantha and spouse Sreeja P. At 5 am, the trio hits the sector to reap and water the vegetation on seven acres. At 7.30 am, he leaves for his workplace and returns at 4 pm. After a cup of tea, he alters to lungi and wears his headlamp, and hits the sector once more together with his mom. “I water plants every day and it can go on till 10 pm. That is why I farm round the year,” he says.

In 2018, he misplaced 13 sorts of rice within the flood. “All of them were indigenous varieties from Wayanad,” he says. He began conserving beans on a largescale in 2016 when the United Nations General Assembly declared it because the International Year of Pulses. Pulses are beans and peas which might be harvested dry. “When I read it in newspapers, I thought of finding out how many varieties of beans are there in Kerala and why not conserve them,” he says.

He had 10 sorts of beans with him in 2016, and he began getting new varieties from his farmer-friends and agriculture scientists from faraway locations similar to Rajasthan and Assam. “Unlike conserving mangoes and jackfruit varieties which can be planted and forgotten, I have to grow beans every year to conserve them,” he says. He grows round 20 to 30 varieties at a time and labels them correctly. “Growing all of them together will be hard to maintain and increases the risk of cross-pollination,” he says.

Narayanan sells his greens however not seeds. “I will have seeds of any of the vegetables I grow to give away free of cost to at least 25 farmers. I want the varieties with me to be grown by many,” he says.The okra with him is at the very least 30 cm lengthy. He has 12 sorts of plantain and 7 sorts of lemon.

He has nudged at the very least 80 ladies and kids in his neighbourhood to arrange kitchen gardens. He, too, has modified observe and began promoting value-added merchandise similar to turmeric powder and curd chilli and bitter gourd crisps (kondattam). “Selling turmeric will fetch you around Rs 90 per kg. But if I turn itto powder, people buy it for Rs 400. And they know it won’t be yellow powder but turmeric power,” he says.

With all these efforts, he makes simply round Rs 2 lakh from promoting greens. “My model should not be replicated if you want to make money. But then, the little money I make does not end up in hospital either. Even my mother is supremely fit … payar pole,” he says.