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| Gopi.K.V, Anjanam, Pathiriyad, Mamparam P.O, Kannur 670741 Ph: 0490- 2385286 |
All the awards help farmer Gopi in repaying the debts incurred for owning a farm of his own. And the Karshakashree award of Malayala Manorama, which he won this year, will definitely be another such help.
As the son of a farm labourer from Mokeri, Kannur, he had no ancestral land to call his own. With the permission of his siblings, he had mortgaged the family land to buy 3 acres of barren land at Pathiriyad. And with the land as security, he had obtained a loan from the bank to finance his agricultural foray.
Trying to break the near-laterite soil of his new plot was a Herculean task, as he recollects. But luckily for him, there was a huge waste of coir pith dumped outside an abandoned coir factory adjacent to his plot.
When there are two problems, creative persons use one to solve the other. Gopi spread the pith on the barren land and began the cultivation. In any case, it wouldn’t have been possible for him to wait for natural weathering, as farming was his sustenance and livelihood.
So, planning for immediate and perennial returns, he turned to the cultivation of spinach. The choice wasn’t wrong as ‘Cheera Gopi’ was able to produce and market the item successfully.
He had prepared contour bunds and spread coir pith throughout the land. Soon, other crops, including coconut, bananas, other vegetables, betel leaves, tapioca, arecanut, pepper etc rose up from the once barren landscape of his organic farm.
And in order to run an organic farm, he started breeding fowls and pigs. He even runs a nursery and finds time to share his experience with other farmers.
The Krishi Vignan Kendra at Panniyoor has been extending wholesome cooperation to his efforts. And the prayers and care of his wife Sheeba and children add spice to these efforts.
Courtesy:
Nimi George (text),
Lean Thobias (photo), Karshakashree, March 2006
Contributed by: Administrator
