With giant FMCGs in India being questioned about deceptive labels and the excessive sugar content material of their merchandise, the highlight is again on the Indian farmer. The pandemic did carry a few mindset to eat clear and purchase straight from the supply, however current headlines have urged extra individuals to take the pure route. We make issues simpler for you by bringing you tales of farmers in Tamil Nadu who produce recent value-added merchandise in small batches and retail them on to the client. Suppose chilly pressed oils, coconut chips, ghee, espresso, and extra farm-rich goodness.
The Pure Farmer
A seventh-generation household farmer for the final 35 years at Kamanur village in Kodaikanal taluk, R Mahesh Narayanan follows humus-based pure farming. This, he explains, is a type of farming impressed by the close by forests, slightly than input-based natural farming.
A employee hand-picking espresso at The Pure Farmer
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
On the 150-year-old farm, he says, espresso has been a mainstay. During the last 30 years, pepper joined their listing of main income earners. “We domesticate black and white pepper. There’s a coconut grove in our yard, and from the yield we make coconut oil. 5 tamarind bushes that we planted for shade now present us with tamarind,” says the 56-year-old who was impressed by Padma Shri award-winning agriculturalist Subhash Palekar to make the swap to pure farming. “Our espresso farm was a excessive enter, intensive farm, harvesting bumper yields. In 2015, the yields dropped dramatically, wild animals invaded our farms, and the money owed began working excessive. This was when our buddy steered attending a pure farming coaching programme. Skeptical about phrases like ‘natural’, ‘world warming’, I went alongside extra for the corporate than for the course,” says Mahesh, who admits being “shocked” by his learnings.
Although he needed to struggle the panic to revert to technology-led farming, the staff made the swap. In the present day, alongside the main crops, he additionally cultivates avocados, large passionfruit, fowl’s eye chili, cinnamon, allspice berries and leaves, Indian bay leaf, and turkey berry. “We additionally supply wild honeycombs from native conventional tribal honey hunters and course of them into uncooked honey. Different merchandise embody robusta espresso, jams (made by his spouse, Pramila), cascara (a brew constituted of the pores and skin of dried espresso cherry skins), and vinegar constituted of fruit skins,” he explains.
Mahesh along with his speciality espresso saplings
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
During the last 4 seasons, Mahesh ventured into specialty espresso. At his farm, espresso wooden is transformed into pure media coasters, candle stands, and fruit, cheese, and bread plates.
To order, name 9842199516. @thenaturalfarmer_ on Instagram
Goodness Farms
When the pandemic hit, Maria Jenita was approached by a buddy working within the Tamil Nadu Agriculture Division who highlighted the plight of distressed farmers in Thiruvanamalai. They had been struggling to discover a correct market and procure truthful costs for his or her produce. Maria, a analysis affiliate and educating Fellow at Anna College’s Centre for Meals Know-how, took this as a possibility to remodel her laboratory-based analysis into tangible options that profit society.
A snapshot of Goodness Farms
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
Alongside along with her father, she visited farmers in Cheyyar and established a committee for natural farming. “We carried out intercropping strategies on the farmers’ land with the help of the NGO, Namaazhwar Affiliation of Puducherry. Concurrently, I designed a cold-pressed oil extraction machine in collaboration with the Manufacturing Engineering college students from my College,” says Maria, 34, who has over 38 farmers (throughout Cheyaar, Mettur, Valparai, Mayiladuthurai) acquiring truthful costs for his or her produce by means of Goodness Farms.
Final yr, Maria went on to purchase her personal land at Cheyyar the place she now cultivates rice, millets, and seasonal meals grains. “As our challenge progressed, I shifted my focus in direction of millets and the creation of value-added merchandise utilizing complete millets. This led to the event of millet flakes and millet rava from complete sprouted millets utilizing our patented know-how,” she explains. Different merchandise embody cold-pressed oils, cane jaggery powder, rice, diversified varieties of flour, and turmeric, amongst others.
Particulars on goodness-farm.com
Maria Jenita
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
Mei Natural Farms
Hailing from a protracted line of dairy farmers, Praveen Kumar explains how his household has been working a dairy farm in Edamichi village (about 74 kilometres from Chennai) for generations.
Whereas he grew up in Chennai and pursued larger research in Pune, Praveen all the time longed to return to his ancestral village and restart the dairy farm which had fallen silent after the passing of his grandfather within the early 80s. “Armed with a Grasp’s diploma and a number of other years of hands-on expertise in animal husbandry by means of volunteering, I decided to start out my very own dairy farm. With the steering and help of my father, we began Mei Natural Farms in 2017,” he says of the three.5-acre farm with over 50 acres of widespread village grazing lands that he now runs solely after his father’s demise in the course of the pandemic.
Ghee being made at Mei Farms
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
“We’ve got a complete of 25 animals together with our bull, Rambo. We produce about 45 liters of milk every single day on common, and all of the milk is transformed to ghee,” says Praveen, 39, including that they churn curd to make butter, which is then slow-cooked over 36 hrs to make ghee. In the present day, he retails cultured desi cow ghee (₹1,200 for 500 ml), chili ghee (₹1,100 for 500 ml), and farmyard manure for house gardeners. Since they make small batches to make sure high quality, solely 500 ml bottles can be found.
Explaining the method of making the chilli ghee, he provides, “I like chilli oil, and I’m not a giant fan of the commercially out there ones. I made a decision to make my model of the identical, and infused our ghee with garlic and ginger, after which add chili to it. The flavour is placing and has the appropriate kick. We use it as a salad dressing, and even with pasta.”
Praveen Kumar
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
The journey has not been straightforward, nevertheless it has been immensely rewarding, says Praveen. “I’ve found a profound sense of function, witnessing the constructive influence our sustainable practices have had on each the setting and our group by selling the significance of natural farming and its long-term advantages.”
To order, Whatsapp 9940032341 or @meiorganicfarms on Instagram