VILLAGE NEWS
Our farmers’ club in Sadivayal, Tamil Nadu is preparing the land for their next crop of organic Bhavani Rice. Last year, they planted 35 acres of it and then harvested their first profitable crop in five years.
This season they are expanding the acres to 40. They are finally able to plant after long awaited rains.
Planting the organic rice also means practising the use of organic fertilisers and pesticides such as jeevamritam, a natural fertiliser.
Sadivayal is in the Coimbatore District and most of the people who live there are of the Irulas tribe. By last count, there were 44 households. During the years when the farmers were not earning from crops, they had to take up daily wage labour.
The farmers’ club is made up of people from 20 of the poorest families in the community. Working as a group, they can also learn more about the latest organic treatments, new seeds and the convergence method, which brings together traditional food systems and modern agribusiness. Each farmer takes a responsibility for such.
