650 vegetable varieties on one farm: Meet Wayanad’s National Plant Genome Saviour Award winner
Passionate about agriculture since his school days, Suraj has previously won state accolades as both Best Student Farmer and Best Young Farmer.
Passionate about agriculture since his school days, Suraj has previously won state accolades as both Best Student Farmer and Best Young Farmer.
Passionate about agriculture since his school days, Suraj has previously won state accolades as both Best Student Farmer and Best Young Farmer.
Bathery: For transforming his five-acre family plot into a thriving biodiversity haven featuring 650 varieties of vegetables - sourced from across India and developed through meticulous cross-pollination - Suraj Purushothaman of Chirakkambath Illam, Mathamangalam, has been conferred the prestigious National Plant Genome Saviour Award.
The honour, which carries a cash prize of ₹1 lakh and a citation, will be presented by the President of India on November 12. Passionate about agriculture since his school days, Suraj has previously won state accolades as both Best Student Farmer and Best Young Farmer. For this 28-year-old, receiving the nation’s highest recognition in agricultural biodiversity conservation is a richly deserved milestone.
Suraj carries out his farming on the five-acre land adjoining his home, dedicating every inch of it to an astonishing variety of vegetables. Preparations and planting for the current season are already in full swing.
His collection includes a staggering 180 varieties of tomatoes alone, with rare black tomatoes stealing the spotlight. The plants range from dwarf specimens that can sit in a teacup to towering vines climbing up to 10 feet, producing fruit weighing anywhere from 20 grams to half a kilogram. His fields also boast 60 varieties of green chillies, 70 types of eggplants, 15 varieties of bitter gourds, and 25 types of watermelons. Alongside these staples, Suraj cultivates an array of exotic and lesser-known vegetables that, while viable in Wayanad's climate, are rarely seen in the region.
Over the years, Suraj has traversed the country to track down and collect indigenous seeds, alongside breeding several unique varieties of his own through careful hand-pollination. He preserves these seeds like precious family heirlooms.
Suraj’s green thumb extends well beyond vegetables. His farm features sunflowers in a kaleidoscope of rare solid and blended hues, and he previously grabbed headlines by successfully blooming the famed thousand-petalled lotus (Sahasradala Padmam). Behind his blooming success is his family - his father, Suresh Namboothiri, mother, Usha, and sister, Surya Parvathy, who all work side-by-side with him on the farm.