KASARAGOD: At an 'Eco Shop' owned by the Kolathur Farmers' Society at Perladukkam in Bedadka panchayat, there are two separate racks for vegetables. One of them is exclusively for the organic vegetables from the garden of Narayanan Kannalayam (51). "Kannalayam is quite a brand in these parts," says Balakrishnan Mayooram (47), who runs the shop. "People come asking for his vegetables and if they don't know about him, all I have to do is introduce his produce to them once," he says.
Balakrishnan buys vegetables from Narayanan's garden at Ayambara, 5 km away in Pullur-Periya panchayat once every two days. He charges a premium of Rs 5 to Rs 10 for Narayanan's produce. "People don't mind because they are aware of the goodness of his produce," he says. Ridge gourd, snake gourd, bitter gourd, okra, spinach, brinjal, cucumber, cassava, yam, taro, turmeric, cauliflower, ginger, radish, carrot, sweet potato, sugarcane. Balakrishnan stops to catch his breath. "I am sure I missed a few
others," he says.
Narayanan prefers to call himself a conservator first, then a farmer. He has more than three varieties of most of the vegetables mentioned above. He even has seven varieties of the hibiscus plant. But his biggest contribution to farming is he is the proud owner of 90 varieties of indigenous beans and peas. He cultivates each of the varieties to conserve them. "Earlier farmers were conservators too. But now they depend on the market every sowing season. I thought we should not lose out on the indigenous varieties in the mad rush for hybrid ones," he says. "For there will be new varieties only if the old survives."
Recognising his effort, the Kerala Agricultural University has nominated him for the Plant Genome Saviour Farmer Reward instituted by the Ministry of Agriculture's Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority.
Narayanan is not just a farmer. He is an accredited journalist with an evening daily in Kasaragod, a theatre artiste, helps publish work of rural talent, and a sought-after social worker. "I rest only when I hit the bed at night," he says.
He does not employ workers. He is helped by his mother P Shantha and wife Sreeja P. At 5 am, the trio hits the field to harvest and water the plants on seven acres. At 7.30 am, he leaves for his office and returns at 4 pm. After a cup of tea, he changes to lungi and wears his headlamp, and hits the field again with his mother. "I water plants every day and it can go on till 10 pm. That is why I farm round the year," he says.
In 2018, he lost 13 varieties of rice in the flood. "All of them were indigenous varieties from Wayanad," he says. He started conserving beans on a largescale in 2016 when the United Nations General Assembly declared it as the International Year of Pulses. Pulses are beans and peas that are harvested dry. "When I read it in newspapers, I thought of finding out how many varieties of beans are there in Kerala and why not conserve them," he says.
He had 10 varieties of beans with him in 2016, and he started getting new varieties from his farmer-friends and agriculture scientists from faraway places such as Rajasthan and Assam. "Unlike conserving mangoes and jackfruit varieties which can be planted and forgotten, I have to grow beans every year to conserve them," he says. He grows around 20 to 30 varieties at a time and labels them properly. "Growing all of them together will be hard to maintain and increases the risk of cross-pollination," he says.
Narayanan sells his vegetables but not seeds. "I will have seeds of any of the vegetables I grow to give away free of cost to at least 25 farmers. I want the varieties with me to be grown by many," he says.
The okra with him is at least 30 cm long. He has 12 varieties of plantain and seven varieties of lemon.
He has nudged at least 80 women and children in his neighbourhood to set up kitchen gardens. He, too, has changed track and started selling value-added products such as turmeric powder and curd chilli and bitter gourd crisps (kondattam). "Selling turmeric will fetch you around Rs 90 per kg. But if I turn it
to powder, people buy it for Rs 400. And they know it won't be yellow powder but turmeric power," he says.
With all these efforts, he makes just around Rs 2 lakh from selling vegetables. "My model should not be replicated if you want to make money. But then, the little money I make does not end up in hospital either. Even my mother is supremely fit ... payar pole," he says.