Thiruvananthapuram Corporation's Vishukkani expo may start on April 20

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘Vishukkani’, an agriculture, dairy and industrial expo to be conducted by the Corporation, will not start on Vishu. Sources say that the expo was rescheduled as electrification and work on the front arch was yet to be done. The expo is most likely to start on April 20, they say. The expo will have several interesting exhibits including two dwarf cows, according to councillor R P Shivaji. “There will be a real size replica of an agricultural farm for children in the city who have never seen paddy lands. There will be both Vechur cow and ‘Kasargod Kullan’. Vechur cow is an indigenous species which remained so, as it was not cross-bred with any other species,” he says.

Vechur cow had become reportedly ‘rare’, and if it were not for the concerted efforts of conservation, it could have even become extinct. Animal husbandry scientists in Kerala have been studying how minimal its impact on climate change is with little discharge of methane. Shivaji said that for visitors who were not farmers, the exhibition had stalls by government institutions like CMFRI and ISRO. Only 20 per cent of the stalls will be given to commercial establishments, he said. “There are 120 stalls and the demand is high. We will finalise the stalls by Monday,” he says. The latest in agriculture and dairy technologies will be on display. Aquaponics and hydroponics, which do not require soil at all for cultivation; vertical farming; upland rice cultivation, wick irrigation, rain shelter and such modern technologies will be exhibited.