CHENNAI: With excess rains and long droughts destroying crops, people, especially those living in the cities have to cough up more to buy vegetables. However, there are a few enterprising individuals who have found a way to trump these setbacks.Solution? Growing food at home, something 65-year-old Ganapathy Iyer has been doing for the past nine months. Today, every inch of the 1,000 sqft terrace of his house is producing vegetables that his household needs. “I am growing around 22 types of vegetables,” said Ganapathy.
Based in Kozhikode, Ganapathy has also begun cultivating exotic vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower. “With the onion price skyrocketting, I thought why not try growing some on my terrace? I’ve sowed a row and expecting a good yield in four to five months,” he said.According to him, the cultivation on his terrace farm is a continual process. “While some plants have begun yielding, others are reaching maturity,” said Ganapathy. According to him, he grows vegetables in grow bags and plastic cans that have been modified into pots.
“There are 200 such bags and cans on my terrace. I have begun getting yield from the lady’s finger, cowpea, brinjal and ridge gourds,” he said. There are various types of leafy vegetables like a particular variety of taro that has been developed for its edible leaves and stems. “Besides the usually-grown vegetables, I also have cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, beetroot, tomatoes, snake gourd, bitter gourd, different types of chillies, ash gourd, bottles gourd, pumpkin and cucumber. I have herbs like mint and coriander along with curry leaves in my terrace farm,” he said.
Ganapathy also uses drip and wick irrigations. Also, he has used rain shelter to prevent his vegetables from rotting due to excessive rain. Ganapathy practises organic farming. “I use coco peat, soil and cow dung to fill the bags and cans. To fertilise the soil, I use groundnut oil cake,” he said. He uses neem seed cake to ward off pests and the rain shelter also acts as a pest deterrent. “I spend a lot of my time at my terrace farm. My wife helps me out,” added Ganapathy. With every inch of his terrace taken up by the grow bags and cans, he is now planning to make use of every inch of the 5.5 cents of land on which his house has been built.