THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A rich canopy of green wraps the whole of Prasannan G’s rooftop. Densely-packed bunches of soyabean and passion fruit, all ready for harvest hangs from the awning of greenery while the rooftop bursts with a rich assortment of plants. One corner is dotted with pots where paddy is all ready for harvest.
A retired cop, Prasannan, is now a messiah of farming. The 62-year-old who retired as SI from the crime branch is celebrating farming on his rooftop, turning his home into a wonderland of plant species. For the past four years, the man with a green thumb has been weaving magic in his rooftop by growing veggies of varied kinds, and that too the organic way.
The dryland paddy cultivation is his first tryst with growing paddy on the rooftop. After a wait of 120 days, the paddy is all ready to be harvested. “Once harvested, it will stand us good for four whole days,” he says. Myriad varieties of amaranthus, lady’s finger, chilli, tubers, tomatoes, and other essentials such as turmeric, beans, ginger, turmeric, cauliflower, cabbage, capsicum and medicinal plants such as brahmi rub shoulders with each other.
With the growing of the paddy variety Uma turning a success, he has sown seedlings of ‘Navara’ and is impatiently waiting for it to sprout. “Whenever I come across new plant varieties, I bring it home,” he adds. The eclectic collection of veggies is the result of this passion for farming. An enthusiast at farming, Prasannan tries out several innovations in his ‘farmland’. One can see banana grown in sacks, a tea plant and cardamom growing in abandon in this temperate climate while old utensils and tyres turn into pots. “There is no refuse here. Everything is used in some way or the other,” he says.
It was the yearning to have homegrown veggies that led Prasannan to take up farming on his rooftop. “I never used to rely on city markets for veggies. I would go to rural markets to fetch vegetables,” recalls the ex-policeman. And so post-retirement, he enlisted himself to learn to farming from the much popular rooftop farmer R Raveendran, at the farm school Raveendran had opened under Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) programme.
Ever since, farming has become an integral part of his life. “After I started the cultivation, I have never had to depend on the markets. I just come to the rooftop and collect the vegetables for the day,” he says. “You have to care for them like you would look after children. My dream is to grow every other vegetable we use in my farm. I hope to venture into growing fruits next,” he says. He is assisted in his work by his wife Vilola Devi.
Prasannan regrets having been late to get initiated into the art of farming. “I think I should have taken this up years back,” he adds with an intense wistful longing.