‘Terrace farming’ is becoming a big hit in the district. As part of the ‘promotion of urban clusters’, the ambitious project of the agriculture department has made inroads in the district.
According to Saleena George, principal agricultural officer, the department’s terrace farming project, a huge success in urban pockets of the district, had a good output - vegetables equivalent to that cultivated in 93 hectares in the fields. It is estimated that if the idea of terrace farming is expanded, it will create wonders in a district like Ernakulam, where agricultural land is massively lost to mindless urban expansion. The total production in the last fiscal was estimated at 1,162 tonnes.
“In the last fiscal, we supplied around 14,630 grow bags (containing protein mixture) and seedlings to interested ‘urban farmers’. Most of them are employees in the government and private sector who cherished a farming dream. The majority are resorting to farming due to the worry that people, including children, are forced to eat vegetables, contaminated by toxic fertilizers and pesticides, arriving from neighbouring states. The project was a huge success in Vyttila and Kalamassery,” said K V Sathyabhama, assistant director, Agriculture.
She said that cultivation can be done four to five times in a grow bag. “Our project is 75 per cent subsidised. The beneficiaries have to pay `500. A single unit consists of 25 grow bags”. With the grand success of the project, there is a demand from many panchayats that the project should be implemented in their areas too,” she said.
Maya Nair, assistant director, Agriculture, Kalamassery, where the project was a huge success said that the project attracted massive participation of the urban people cutting across gender and age. “In the last fiscal we produced 238 tonnes. The problem of land limitation in rapidly developing urban areas like Thrikkakara was addressed using the project,” she said. With the success of the project the department is planning to distribute 3,000 grow bags this fiscal.
N P Paulose, Ernakulam District Cooperative Bank president said that the bank is in the last stage of the implementation of a special project on ‘terrace farming’. “We have appointed former principal agricultural officer Asha Devi Varma as the project consultant. We will provide loans to interested urban farmers at a nominal interest,” he said.
Babu Joseph, chairman, Development Standing Committee, district panchayat, said the district panchayat had also implemented terrace farming in the last fiscal. “But it couldn’t succeed due to technical reasons.
The agency delayed the delivery of grow bags and seedlings to be distributed. So we could supply them only by summer but the seedlings were damaged,” he pointed out.
The officials in the Agriculture Department pointed that apart from summer, all other seasons are suitable for ‘terrace farming’.