THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his Cabinet colleagues turned farmers on Wednesday, planting vegetables in the Secretariat compound for making this year’s Onasadya a pesticide-free one.
The vegetables were planted in specially-arranged pots set up in the sprawling Secretariat garden. Ministers, including E Chandrasekharan, A K Saseendran, Ramachandran Kadannapally, V S Sunil Kumar, A K Balan, Kadakampally Surendran, M M Mani, P Thilothaman, K K Shylaja, J Mercykutty Amma, T P Ramakrishnan and K Raju planted saplings. The produce will be harvested before Onam, the government said. Last year too, the Secretariat successfully implemented a similar vegetable farming project. The Agriculture Department had launched ‘Onathinorumuram Pachchakkari’, a statewide project last year, to ensure adequate quantities of ‘safe to eat’ vegetables were available for Onam celebrations.
This year also, to keep the Onasadya free of pesticide-ridden vegetables, the Agriculture Department distributed two crore vegetable saplings and one crore packets of seeds to the public on June 5, World Environment Day, to make sure adequate quantities of home-grown veggies are available by the time the festival arrives in August. The seed packets were distributed to school students and farmers. In the urban areas, 42,000 grow-bag units - each containing 25 grow bags planted with saplings - are being distributed. According to the government, vegetables were grown in 67,858 hectares producing 10.12 lakh metric tonnes under the comprehensive agriculture development project. Over the past two years, vegetable farming has increased by 21,280 hectares and 3.82 lakh tonnes, the government said.
The Agriculture Department had launched schemes for achieving self-sufficiency in vegetable production after an investigation revealed that veggies produced in Tamil Nadu and sold in Kerala contained pesticides.
In the urban areas, 42,000 grow-bag units - each containing 25 grow bags planted with saplings - are being distributed.
Vegetables were grown in 67,858 hectares producing 10.12 lakh metric tonnes under the comprehensive agriculture development project.