P Bhuvaneswari’s determination and hard work turned barren land into fields of gold, where she harvests paddy, vegetables and fruits
The Hindu
By practising organic farming, the recipient of the Karshakashri award for 2021, has ensured that her farm produce is snapped up by buyers without any intermediaries
Rising with the sun, P Bhuvaneswari begins work on her fields when the horizon is still rosy with the promise of a new day.
Winner of the Karshakashri Award for 2021, Bhuvaneswari is a woman of few words. With more than 24 acres, including orchards and paddy fields, under her care, the 62-year-old homemaker has her hands full.
Apologising for not taking calls earlier, she says she was busy drying turmeric to be ground into powder. She says: “There is always something to be done on a farm. Since I grew up in a family with extensive farmlands, I was not unduly worried about making a living from farming when we came to live in Elappully panchayat in Palakkad district, in 1995 after my husband, Venkitachalapathy, a school teacher, retired.”
Her hard work and determination turned the dry barren four-and-a-half acres that her husband inherited into a veritable Eden of paddy fields, coconut groves , mango and jackfruit orchards, vegetables and fruits.
“The parched land was filled with shrubs and stones. With my eldest son Sajith, who was then 14, we cleared the land and planted sheema konna (Gliricidia). With a bank loan, I purchased 20 cows and began to earn a living by selling milk,” she recalls.
There was no question of selling the property to move to the city. The way forward was to make farming a paying proposition. She attended a workshop conducted by Subhash Palekar, champion of natural organic farming, and that helped her in learning to farm without the aid of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
The first task was to improve the fertility of the soil. Using lime, cow dung and urine, she enriched the soil without any artificial fertilizers. Leaves of the sheema konna were spread over the soil to reduce evaporation and conserve the scare water resources on their property. Within five years, the land began yielding the fruits of labour.