THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘Friends of Nature,’ an organic venture cultivating vegetables in vacant lands in the city, has made great strides within five months of its launch. Initially, the 16-member team cultivated spinach in 28 cents of land and earned Rs 27, 000. But now, land owners have permitted them to grow vegetables in their unused land. After the success with spinach, they identified two more areas of 30 cents and 25 cents on Sasthamangalam - Edapazhanji road in Thampuran Nagar and cultivated ladies finger, long beans, bitter
gourd, snake gourd and cucumber.
The team gets the guidance of Karshika Karma Sena under the aegis of Kudapanakunnu agriculture office. “We have assigned roles for the respective members, including watering the plants. We marketed the first crop of spinach in front of one of our members’ tea shop here, and they sold like hot cakes,” said S. Suneeth Kumar, a staff member of Kerala State Beverages Corporation.
Suneeth Kumar, 36, the man behind the initiative, says it is a collective effort. Now, the local organic stores are vying with each other to get their produce,
including Pothys and Spencers department stores. Their initial investment in organic farming was Rs 35,000.
Mr Shafeek A. Shihab, 26, of Palkulangara, a technical analyst with an MNC in Technopark, also grows salad cucumber, bitter gourd and long beans in his 1,300 sq-ft rooftop. His is not cent percent organic as his cultivation is confined to poly house which uses fertilisers, but no pesticides. “I had invested '2.4 lakh three years ago and now I have earned profit. My crop comes under ‘safe to eat’ category where I don’t use any pesticides, but uses fertilisers,” said Mr Shafeek, who is helped in his business by his mother, Nisha Shihab.
