Chennai: Revisiting the traditional roots, identifying the native flora species and developing them in a small farm near Chennai to give it back to the farmers. This has been the routine for a group of like-minded youngsters who act as custodians of biodiversity.
In a small piece of land at East Tambaram, five youngsters – Bharathi Kannan, P. Janakan, D. Prabhu, G. Rajesh and S. Ganesh - spare some time amid their busy schedules to develop their startup garden. The garden, solely being maintained for seed development, has 14 varieties of ladies finger, seven varieties of bottle guard, four species of Bitter guard and much more.
“Difficulties in farming have made farmers abandon various veggie species. As most of them confined to a particular region, pollination didn’t occur, resulting in extinction,” said P. Janakan while he explains the procedure of growing the trees.
Their gardens have vegetable varieties from Namakkal, Erode, Dindigul, Karur of Tamil Nadu and Vidarbha of Maharashtra.
The group is well versed with the biological properties of the plants, as the garden is set up as per the soil and climate conditions. From sword beans to Assam giant ladies finger and yellow giant sunflower, the garden, which is barely 20 cents, stands as a hub for aboriginal flora species.
Stressing on the importance of kitchen gardens, D. Prabhu said: “One could remain healthy and cut down the monthly budget.” A. Parameshwaran, who has been into seed development for the past two years said, “We are trying hard to find out certain brinjal varieties like kotapatti Kathiri from Dindigul which was exclusively used to cook the brinjal side dish for biriyani.” They could be reached on 9489002820/ 8973982739.
