Mankurussi
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2017/ Pesticide-free paddy farming
K.A. Shaji, Together to promote pesticide-free paddy farming, October 8, 2017: The Hindu
Start-up launches farming at Mankurussi with the help of local community
It was a different experience for the residents of Mankurussi and surrounding villages in the district on Sunday when a group of former technocrats from Kochi joined hands with the local community to organise a paddy seedling transplanting festival.
The festival was part of the efforts to initiate paddy cultivation in 73 acres of land in the village on a group-farming basis. A mud football tournament, the first of its kind in entire Palakkad district, and initiation of over three dozen college students into paddy cultivation activities were also part of the programmes.
A dozen teams of budding farmers from Ottappalam and Parali took part in the mud football, which was organised in a field prepared for seedling transplant. The youngsters were provided with practical training in paddy transplantation activities.
According to Suresh Kunhupillai, a former technocrat with Infosys, it was about three months ago that he and a few of his friends floated Farmers Collective, a start-up promoting cultivation of pesticide-free paddy using scientific agricultural practices across the State. “The Mankurissi initiative is our first attempt and it will be replicated soon in the Kole wetlands of Thrissur. More such initiatives are in the pipeline and they are aimed at helping traditional farmers to approach paddy cultivation with confidence. We will not use pesticides but the rice will not be classified as organic,” said Mr. Kunhupillai.
Expenses to be met
According to technocrat Rijesh Rajan, who hails from Mankurissi, the experiment in the village is in collaboration with over a dozen local farmers. “Our start-up will find agriculture loving entrepreneurs to meet entire expenses of paddy cultivation here. The farmers need not spend any money on agricultural activities. They can just supervise and safe keep the cultivation,” he said.
The Farmers Collective is now in the process of formulating an e-commerce platform to sell the rice to buyers across the globe. “We will procure the entire paddy at a higher price than what the government’s procurement agencies are offering. We are also prompting the farmers to grow ducks close to the farmland as they would eat the insects. Framers will not lose any money as the crops will be insured,” said Jinu Thomas, another coordinator of the collective.
