KOCHI: Setting a role model for society on ensuring self-sufficiency in times of adversity, brought on by COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdown, families at Vadakkekara in Paravoor taluk have started vegetable cultivation on their premises. The project initiated by Vadakkekara grama panchayat mainly aims at encouraging all households under the local body to launch vegetable cultivation during the lockdown.
The vegetable seeds will be delivered by the emergency response team of the panchayat to the households. Till Monday, the sixth day of the national lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak, panchayat officers have distributed vegetable seeds to 4,812 houses.
There are 10,000 houses in Vadakkekara, and the officers are hopeful of distributing seeds to more than 60 per cent of the families that are willing to launch vegetable farming. The panchayat officers said the distribution and farming will be carried out as per the precautionary protocol due to the Covid-19 threat.
“We have launched the project when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in his press conference, stressed the need for launching vegetable farming. This is the time when every member of the family is sitting at home as part of the lockdown.
We are helping the people to set up vegetable gardens, terrace farming, kitchen garden, cultivation in grow bags and in the available spaces,” said Vadakkekara panchayat president K M Ambrose. The seeds of amaranthus, cowpea, ladies finger, brinjal, bitter gourd, snake gourd, tomato, green chilli, pumpkin and saplings of selected pulses are also offered by the panchayat. The families who are interested to be a part of the farming project can contact assistant officer Shinu on phone number 9847168656.
“The members of our team will not only provide the seeds but also guide the families on the effective farming techniques and how to take care of the saplings,” he added. The panchayat will honour the persons who nurture good and healthy vegetable farms during the lockdown. “We will give awards to those families that maintain good farms,” said Ambrose.