This government farm in Nelliyampathy shows the way in fruit cultivation

Interestingly, farm tourism in the paradisiacal hill station of Nelliampathy, which hardly has a population of 10,000, in Palakkad district attracts as many or more travellers daily. Tens of thousands of people visited the breathtaking Nelliyampathy hills in the past few months to get immersed in the charm of nature through the ‘Natura 2025’ farm festival held at the state government’s orange farm. The festival was a shot in the arm for the farm, which was facing a bleak future. By throwing open the doors to tourists, the farm clocked an impressive sales turnover of lakhs of rupees.

What brings tourists to Nelliampathy? Nippy weather, verdant forest and wild animals can be found in any other hill station, right? But the factor that makes Nelliyampathy stand out is its orange farm. It is a tall order to find another government farm in Kerala that attracts visitors in droves. The orange farm has a great legacy that dates back to 1943, when orange farming made inroads into the region. Visitors make it a point to buy fruits and fruit-based value-added products from the farm.

A peek into history
The Poliya estate of the Kingdom of Cochin metamorphosed into a farm in 1943, and it became an orange and vegetable farm in 1956. Right from the beginning, the focus was on cultivating oranges, limes, lemons, and various types of vegetables. Recently, the production of value-added products based on oranges and other fruits was started.

Unfortunately, there was nothing encouraging from the Nelliyampathy farm for many years. Depressing developments such as withering fruit trees, labour problems, wild animal attacks and land disputes were mainly reported from Nelliyampathy. But for the past five years, the farm head Sajidali and colleagues are sweating it out to turn the tide.

Fruits galore
Without a doubt, orange is the farm's main attraction. The orange is cultivated following a continuous farming technique in 7 acres of land, and now the productivity has increased manifold. As many as 7,000 mandarin orange trees are planted at the farm. The farm has an exhaustive mother tree collection of native fruits such as guava, water apple (‘chamba’), surinam cherry, ‘kattunelli’, ‘arinelli’, and mangoes, and exotic fruits such as lychee, avocado, velvet apple, logan, rambutan, loquat and milk fruit, among others. The fruits are cultivated in 23 acres of land at the farm. The mother tree collection of water apple has been converted into a cool resting spot (‘chambamarathannal’) by spreading the mulching sheet for the visitors.

A fruit forest with 50 varieties of fruits and an expansive passion fruit canopy can also be found at the farm. The passion fruits are cultivated in 27 acres of land and the farm enjoys a purple patch when the passion fruits are converted into value-added products such as squash, jam, jelly, pickle and ready-to-drink beverages. Jelly is made from the tough outer skin of the passion fruit. There was an uptick in the farm’s growth trajectory when both native and foreign fruits such as musambi, guava, mango, jackfruit, dragon fruit, strawberry, logan and lychee found space in the farm.

The visitors can also learn about how to cultivate varieties of exotic vegetables. Such types of veggies are cultivated as intercrops of oranges and other fruits. The vegetable saplings are produced in the controlled environment of polyhouses. The vegetables such as cabbage, violet cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, radish, carrot, beetroot, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, capsicum, beans, green peas and Kashmiri garlic are cultivated in the open space following the precision farming technique. And the production of these veggies is thriving. The farm is also into cultivation of butter bean, which had been around since the time of the Britishers, and nearly 20 winter crops are grown in 10 hectares of land in the farm.

The farm gives an introduction to the methods of cultivating ornamental plants, coffee, medicinal plants and spices. Moreover, the facility is a perfect platform to know more about budding, grafting, production of pro tray saplings, model vegetable gardens, pepper cultivation through Vietnam model, open precision farming, polyhouse hi-tech cultivation, processing of fruits, latest agriculture equipment and farm tourism strategies. The farmers are in awe of the pepper cultivation method whereby pepper vines are grown on PVC pipes wrapped in coir.

People who visited the ‘Natura’ festival in February got the opportunity to indulge in boating, horse riding and scale the watch tower. There are many takers for value-added products of the farm. The value-added products are made from freshly harvested fruits without adding any harmful preservatives and sold at reasonable rates. All the products are sold like hot cakes at the farm itself, says Sajidali. The farm also boasts of tree huts, meadows, lotus flower pond, flower beds, foodscaping and auditorium.

Visiting hours
The farm is open on all days, including Sundays, and the entry fees for adults and children are Rs 25 and Rs 10, respectively. Entry is free for children under the age of seven. The guest house has three rooms and one hall. For more information, contact 94461 47430 or email orangevegetablefarm@gmail.com.