PERAMBALUR: Not only has his interest in organic farming bestowed V Nagarasan, a 43-year-old native of Keelapuliyur village in the district, with the sound health that he so yearned for that made him even his leave job abroad, it has also now provided him with means for a stable income.
Hailing from an agricultural background, Nagarasan completed his diploma in mechanical engineering in 1995 and went on to work abroad. Although earning up to nearly a lakh rupees per month, his lifestyle that involved consumption of pocket foods left him with various health issues. This made him quit his job and decide to go back to his hometown.
Nagarasan told TNIE, "I had a lot of health problems and took medicines owing to consumption of pocket food while abroad. After coming down, I learned about organic farming from many farmers and farming-related books and took it up.”
Accordingly, in 2017, he started planting vegetable, flower, and fruit yielding varieties – including coconut and 15 varieties of bananas, on two acres of land in his village using organic methods. Besides cultivating teak and red sandal trees, he also set up a polyhouse on 25 cents to grow carrots, beetroot, cucumber, bell pepper, papaya, ladies’ fingers, spinach varieties and grapes.
Construction of two sheds to rear 30 goats and 100 poultry animals followed. He is also cultivating mulberry that is used as their feed. He and his family have also only been consuming the produce from his land over the past four years.
Although the cattle do not fetch him any income yet, vegetables and flowers from his farm provide him with sufficient income.
“With this, my family and I can eat food that is non-toxic. Apart from this, I stopped taking the medicines for my health issues. Now, I enjoy eating healthy foods," said Nagarasan.
While he mentions that he has not taken up farming as a profession, Nagarasan said, “I do farming with the help of my family to consume healthy food. We sell our products to others after meeting our household needs.” “Through this, we get a regular income of Rs 30,000 per month only from flower and vegetable sales.
We reinvest the income we get from other produce on our land," he added.
Organic farming and consumption of non-toxic food bestow me with more physical health and peace of mind than I did working abroad. That apart, I am happy that I have created awareness of farming for children of the next generation, Nagarasan said.