PALAKKAD: If one comes across the gathering of students at a farm in a remote corner of the district at Pombra on any given day, it will be mistaken for a casual visit. But for both research students and their guides, this five-acre plot of 71-year-old K Aravind of P V Kalam is a treasure trove of knowledge.
It has a mind-boggling collection of 159 varities of fruit plants, including 110 varieties of banana, 54 types of medicinal and aromatic plants and 47 types of vegetables. There are 17 types of guava, 24 types of mango, seven types of Indian gooseberry,20 types of jack,15 types of chilli, five types of arecanut, four types of malayan apple, five types of pappaya and eight types of leafy vegetables.
Says Aravind, “I was an active member of the CPI for three decades, its district committee member and also served as director of the Land mortgage bank, Agriculture development bank and rubber marketing society. But I later realised that I was a misfit in politics as I had always been straightforward and never strayed from the path of righteousness. Finally,I quit politics in 2000 and took up farming activities. Of the 110 varieties of plantain,many of them are not edible as they do not have flesh.
For example, the ‘Ayiram kachi’ which gives a 9.5 ft-long plantain bunch does not have any flesh. It is the variety conservation which was more important to me than returns.”Since the neighbouring tracts are full of rubber, the birds and squirrels find refuge in my garden. Many plants like ‘litchi’, ‘sabarjilli’, apple and kiwi are also there but they do not bear fruits in the tropical climate. The trunk of the baobab is hollow and in the US a 12x12 ft bedroom has been set inside and it is said that a prison and postoffice functioned from inside this tree.
I purchased one sapling from an imported consignment of nine pieces from Thiruvananthapuram for a fancy price.“ Among vegetables, I have also cultivated ‘kumattikaya’ which is a traditional variety of sweetless water melon mentioned by M T Vasudevan Nair in one of his works,” said Aravind, who had received the plant genome saviour award this year.
The enterprising agriculturist also encountered another major challenge since the land had laterite soil whereas many of the plants needed black soil.
The only plants with commercial value are coconut, arecanut, pepper and nutmeg.
For the last four years, Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) had declared the plot as a farm school.
Since 2005, the plants are being cultivated in an organic way. According to Aravind,who is the secretary of the Jaiva Karshaka Samithi, “several of the coconut plants and arecanut in the nearby plots were affected by ‘mandari’ and ‘mahali’ respectively, but it did not affect my farm”.Finance Minister Dr T M Thomas Isaac, who spent a few hours at the farm, had revealed his appreciation through an FB post.“I was impressed with the huge collection of plants. All these plants needs to be provided with a Quick Response Barcode so that the list can be passed on to the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Wayanad.