Makes farming a profitable venture


An edible food forest raised on zero-cost principle

Purvabhumi, the ‘adisil vanam’ (edible food forest), spread across 107 acres at Mudukulam village of Gandarvakottai taluk in Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu, was once a cashew grove. It has been brought to this shape over 22 years of hard work, continuous financial loss and a determination to make farming a profit-making venture. The turnaround was made possible with analytical reasoning, costing and application of appropriate technology.

The cashew grove was bought in 1993-94 for raising palmarosa grass when R. Senthilnathan, an entrepreneur of Tiruchi, who now manages the farm, was a student. The project was given up soon as the yield was low. Sugarcane replaced palmarosa, but it was also given up due to delay in receipt of cutting order and payment from sugar mills. It gave way for banana, which again, proved to be labour-intensive and failed to yield profit due to price fluctuation. Coconut was planted in 1997-98 but the revenue was low due to disease and lower yields................Read more

 

Source: The Hindu


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