Do you know that there are over 150 sorts of pumpkin that exist everywhere in the world? Are you conscious that there are greater than 60 sorts of eggplant and over 10 sorts of okra?
As superb as this sounds, many of those varieties are on the verge of turning into extinct. With solely the most typical and common ones being bought within the markets, the survival of the remaining appears to be like bleak.
On a mission to avoid wasting as many sorts of greens as doable, 38-year-old Aravinthan R P from Coimbatore give up his job to pursue his dream. To date, he has collected and planted varied seeds — saving near 70 sorts of eggplant, 20 sorts of okra, 28 sorts of tomatoes, and 20 sorts of beans.
“I by no means actually imagined that I’d find yourself doing this. However life labored out in a manner that saving these sorts of seeds has now turn into my ardour,” Aravinthan tells The Higher India.
When you possibly can’t discover genuine natural produce, you develop them
Born and introduced up within the small city of Karur, Tamil Nadu, Aravinthan was all the time below the affect of farming.
Rising up, his father was a farmer. After finishing his engineering diploma after which grasp’s in Germany, he labored as a analysis assistant on the Karlsruhe Institute of Expertise for some years earlier than coming again to his homeland in 2012.
The choice to return to India modified Aravinthan’s life fully.
“My father wished me to jot down civil service exams so I made a decision to arrange for that. Within the meantime, my father took over the administration of a college in Coimbatore, so we moved nearer to it,” he shares.
“We’ve got over 100 residential college students and wished to offer them with nutritious meals. We regarded for sellers who promote natural greens, however there was no proof that they had been really natural. So we determined to develop our personal meals,” he provides.
“My pal who used to develop natural greens on his terrace mentioned that he can’t clarify in phrases how juicy and engaging his greens are. He mentioned that it’s not very exhausting if you happen to use the fitting strategies. This impressed me, much more, to develop meals for the kids in school,” says Aravinthan.
He shares that his forefathers have been farmers and so he had a liking for nature and farming. However with not plenty of expertise in pure farming, Aravinthan determined to start out small and plant a number of greens on the varsity’s terrace.
“Since we determined to do natural farming, we discovered that heirloom seeds can be the best choice. We’d give solely pure fertilisers and vitamins to all of the vegetation, in order that they turn into genetically sturdy and adaptable. However once we tried to supply heirloom seeds, we couldn’t discover them simply. This gave me the concept of founding a ‘seed financial institution’ on the college,” he says.
“What began as simply an urge to present wholesome meals to my residential youngsters become a very completely different factor. In 2015, we began rising our natural meals on the event of Pongal,” he provides.
Moreover, he grows the greens organically with no chemical substances or synthetic fertilisers.
“There are plenty of sorts of many greens, like onions, which might be inherently pest resistant. If we are able to discover these varieties and develop them, then we received’t have to fret about utilizing pesticides or chemical substances,” he says.
‘It’s a service, not a enterprise’
At Aravinthan’s college, all the scholars take part in planting their meals.
“To encourage children to do farming, we’ve got a program referred to as agricultural sciences in our faculty. The scholars of the course assist in planting the crops and harvesting them. They get a first-hand expertise in farming. The opposite youngsters assist often too,” he says.
“We additionally launched ‘develop baggage’ to our college students. The luggage are mainly kits with seeds and instruments. The youngsters sow their vegetation on campus and handle them. The seeds from the harvest are then saved within the seed financial institution. This helps the youngsters inculcate wholesome farming habits,” he provides.
Speaking about his motivation to maintain going, Aravinthan says, “My thought was easy; I simply wished to present my youngsters a nutritious diet. Additionally, nurturing the seed financial institution is necessary. If we don’t attempt to save them, they’ll go extinct. If we lose one number of a vegetable, it is going to be misplaced endlessly.”
Speaking about his produce, he informs, “At present, we produce round 2,000 kg of greens and varied sorts of beans per yr. Through the years, we’ve got collected tons of of seeds and are attempting to protect them. We slowly expanded our farm to the spare house close to the playground within the college. For each new selection, we plant one or two bushes, as we’ve got restricted house,” he says.
“We develop tomatoes, eggplant, radish, okra, broad beans, chillies, drumsticks, pumpkins and many others. We even have water apples, vanilla tamarind, coconuts, and a few pulses like inexperienced gram and pigeon pea lentils,” he provides.
The produce is usually consumed by the resident college students every day.
“The leftover is given to our workers academics they usually can simply take it dwelling. If there are any extra leftovers, we share them with our neighbours. The scholars put up stalls and the neighbours are welcome to take the greens at no cost. There’s a WhatsApp group of our residents and neighbours the place we inform the small print of the greens to allow them to come and get them,” he explains.
Shweta Sharma, who has been instructing Hindi within the college for the previous decade, says, “I began instructing in 2013, and after two years the varsity began to plant its personal meals. The very best half is that they contain the scholars within the exercise too. I feel it is vitally necessary to induce an increasing number of college students in agriculture as they’re our future. Particularly, right here they be taught natural farming which may be very important.”
“No matter is leftover, the workers takes dwelling. Yesterday, I took some drumsticks they usually had been so juicy. That is the factor in regards to the produce from our farms; they’re so recent and pure,” she provides saying that anybody can simply spot the distinction between natural greens produced on the varsity’s farms and the common greens bought exterior.
“The seeds, however, are given to fans like me who wish to preserve them. We don’t promote them however slightly share them. The exercise of preserving seeds isn’t a enterprise however a service for me,” says Aravinthan.
With this enterprise, he hopes to make farming worthwhile and induce an increasing number of youth into agriculture.
“As for the longer term, we wish to develop corn. It is rather troublesome to stop cross-pollination in numerous sorts of corn. However, there are numerous methods to stop them, and I wish to determine that out. I can solely hope to avoid wasting as many sorts of greens as doable and encourage extra folks to do the identical,” he says.
In case you are concerned about conserving seeds and saving completely different species, Aravinthan is keen to share his information. You’ll be able to attain him at 76395 55088.
Edited by Pranita Bhat
