KOZHIKODE: With just a few days left for Vishu festival, Kudumbashree members of various units in the District are busy harvesting their vegetable farms. Two days before the festival, massive Vishu fairs selling organic products will begin in various parts of the District. “Kudumbashree has been displaying various organic products at festivals and fairs around the state,” CDS member Beena Unni said. “This time, we are organising one of the largest Vishu fairs exclusively with all our products.” Also, on display are organic inputs such as manure and growbag mixture.
“Organic production of vegetables and fruits is gaining momentum, so we decided to produce agricultural inputs as well to increase demand for quality inputs such as organic fertilisers, pesticides, and bio-controls,” she said. But unlike previous years, the production of organic vegetables has come down because of soaring temperatures that has been experienced for quite a long time. Unavailability of water has hit many of the Kudumbashree vegetables farmers.
“Despite that, because we want to give Malayalis poison-free vegetables this festival season, we are coming up with different vegetables”, she added. The preparations for vegetable production started a long time ago with the guidance of agriculture officials. The major focus of the women farmers was to select the barren land and cultivate vegetables on it. Vegetables like cucumbers, pumpkins, ash gourd, bittergourd, spinach, brinjal, cauliflower, lady’s finger, and banana are among those that are being harvested this season.
