Palakkad couple gives heirloom rice varieties new life in Perumannoor
A farmer couple cultivates disappearing heirloom rice varieties, alongside organic practices and value-added products, promoting sustainable agriculture and rural enterprise.
A farmer couple cultivates disappearing heirloom rice varieties, alongside organic practices and value-added products, promoting sustainable agriculture and rural enterprise.
A farmer couple cultivates disappearing heirloom rice varieties, alongside organic practices and value-added products, promoting sustainable agriculture and rural enterprise.
Koottanad: Kuttadan, Thavalakkannan, Kuttamodan and Rakthashali may sound like relics from another era to a generation raised on supermarket rice brands. But in the paddy fields of Perumannoor, these heirloom grains are making a comeback.
At the centre of this revival are K Sujatha and K S Rajendran of Chidambaram House, a farmer couple who have been cultivating traditional rice varieties on their fields since 2009. For the couple, the fields serve as a living repository of traditional seeds that are fast disappearing from commercial farming.
Besides these varieties, their collection includes other heritage strains from Palakkad, including Chitteni and Thonnoraan, as well as Jeerakasamba, a traditional variety from Tamil Nadu. During the previous Mundakan season, they had also cultivated Cheru Vellari, a Palakkadan Matta variety that takes around 120 days to mature.
The couple sources seeds by reaching out to traditional farmers across the district who have preserved the varieties over the years. They say indigenous varieties are relatively less susceptible to pest attacks, which makes them well suited to organic farming. Green manure, cow dung and poultry manure form the mainstay of their cultivation. They also rear Vechoor and Kasaragod dwarf cattle and poultry at home to meet their manure requirements.
For Sujatha, however, preserving traditional seeds is only part of a larger mission. She has also launched ‘Prapthi’, an agricultural and food enterprise aimed at adding value to farm produce, taking it directly to consumers and promoting rural entrepreneurship.
Prapthi has a stall at the Farmers’ Day celebrations being organised by the Chalissery Krishi Bhavan today. Its products will also be showcased at the upcoming Onam market to be organised by the Thrithala Krishi Bhavan.
By combining traditional seed conservation with organic cultivation and value addition, the couple has set an setting an inspiring example of sustainable farming on this Farmers’ Day.