KANNUR: Back in 2016, Beena Karingattu and her husband, K V Mani, were running a poultry farm with around 150 hens at Mahadevagramam. “We were doing quite well, selling around 40 eggs every day,” Beena says. She never expected a disastrous end to her endeavour. One evening, around 20 stray dogs attacked and killed all the hens in the farm.
“We were shell-shocked and we couldn’t even approach the cage as the dogs had torn the hens apart. The compound was littered with feathers, blood and flesh of our hens,” she recalls. After the traumatic experience, she could not do anything for days. And misfortune followed her. “I fell and broke my leg while trying to start farming at our residence. My leg had three fractures and I had to spend almost a year indoors without doing anything,” Beena says.
Once she started walking again, she had to begin afresh. Four years into vegetable farming, Beena has redesigned her life, and has become a successful farmer who even gives farming classes to women in her region. “The bad days are over. Rather I have successfully sailed past the bad days with much effort overcoming pain,” she says.
While venturing into vegetable farming, Beena had little idea about what she was set to do. “I wanted to do something, and as I always had a liking for vegetable farming, I started attending classes organised by the Payyannur Krishi Bhavan and got some tips from the agriculture officer, Rekha,” she said. Initially, she started with green chilli, ladies finger, tomato and ridge gourd.
“As I had started doing well, my relatives living next door allowed me to use 20 cents of their land for farming,” she says. Now, she needed the support of another person as her leg does not allow her to indulge in heavy work.
“Fortunately, my cousin brother, Aneesh, joined me. Things have become easier since then,” Beena says. Her committed effort has turned the once barren land fertile, growing vegetables like yardlong beans, ladies finger, green chilli and cucumber on 75 cents. “I sell vegetables to many shops, and also organic manure which I make in my house,” says the 47-year-old.
From a diffident novice, Beena has now become a successful farmer through sheer determination and commitment. “I used to attend all the classes organised by the agriculture department in and around Payyannur. The officers too have recognised my passion and they have helped whenever I needed them,” she recalls.
Two years ago, she met her teacher T V Vinod, who is now the principal of Payyannur Boys HSS. “When he came to know about my activities, he offered me his 75 cents for vegetable farming. Since then, I have been farming that land at Nelliyattu, near Korome,” Beena points out. It was after trying her hand at tailoring for some time that Beena turned to poultry farming with the support of her husband, who works as a post master at the Chirackal post office in Kannur. They have two children, MSW student Malavika and BBA student Sidharth.
While stressing on a will to succeed, she says it is important to enjoy what you do. “I am enjoying this phase of my life which has helped me erase the past failures,” she says.