Fruitful experiments

Often, while travelling to Tamil Nadu from Kerala on a train, one gets to see large stretches of farmland where sunflowers are grown. The bright yellow fills up the horizon, leaving a picturesque sight. But the chances of seeing such fields in Kerala are few. Sunflower cultivation is still not practiced extensively here, because the weather and soil of the state doesn’t match the crop. But if you visit Vallappuzha in Pattambi, Palakkad district, you are in for a treat. You will find yellow blooms on a sprawling 1.5 acres of land, facing the summer sun — indeed a sight for sore eyes.

Interestingly, the area is only a part of the total 3.5 acres of land known widely for its watermelon cultivation — another crop that is seldom grown in Kerala. The patch of sunflowers and three varieties of watermelon are the fruits of labour of three friends — Subrahmanian, Santhosh Kumar, and Anoop.

Since 2018, the trio have been harvesting tonnes of watermelon from their land. The youngsters are helping grow it on almost 25 acres of land now. “Many years ago, we attended a training session by Karshika Karma Sena on modern farming at Mannuthy. There, we met with a group of people who grew watermelons. With the limited resources we have, we decided to venture into agriculture, though we were unsure if they would even grow in our soil. We chose watermelon as the fruit can be harvested in just two days,” says Subrahmanian.

As a trial, they first used the seeds of the commonly available Pakeeza variety sourced from Karnataka and planted it on 1.5 acres. Krishi Bhavan and agriculture officer Deepa U V helped them. Later, varieties including the deep red kiran, yellow melon grown from the seed named ‘aarohi’ and chakkar plus — the sweetest of all — grew lusciously. “We harvested when the lockdown was declared and the market was headed for a doom. Fortunately, we were able to harvest at least four tonnes of melons and Vallappuzha natives bought them all,” says Santhosh.

Farming technique
The drip irrigation technique these youngsters have adopted helps them grow two varieties at once. “So far the technique has been successful. We first form a bed made of organic compost comprising manure, cow dung, neem cake powder, ellu podi, and lime stone powder. On top of it, a drip pipe covered in a mulching sheet is placed. The seeds are dropped to the bed below through the holes on the mulching sheet. Water and fertiliser are then passed down through the pipe,” says Subrahmanian. 

“We planted both crops together instead of growing sunflowers separately to cut down on expenditure. Both require the same fertiliser,” says Anoop. The sunflowers have now started withering. “We plan to extract sunflower oil and sell the seeds in packets,” adds Anoop. Once the harvest is done, the youngsters will revamp the field and get them ready for rice cvultivation.

PAIRING WITH MELONS
A year after the pakeeza variety fetched them a good harvest, Subrahmanian and his friends planted cucumbers in the field. This year, out of curiosity, they planted sunflowers. “Sunflowers are a rare sight in Kerala, much like how watermelon was when we started planting them. Watermelon and Sunflowers can be harvested after 60 days,” says Santhosh.