NE AGRICULTURE BUREAU
TRICHI, JULY 30
In order to revive the traditional rice varieties and promote natural farming, Isha’s Save Soil Movement organized a festival – ‘Traditional Indian Paddy Festival’ – in Trichy on Sunday. More than 1,000 farmers from all over Tamil Nadu participated in this event which was held at the SRM Medical College campus.
- We are the only company in India to manufacture icecream using traditional rice as an ingredient: Menaka, woman entrepreneur
- If you want to make a profit in organic farming, you have to prepare the natural inputs at the right time: pioneer traditional rice farmer Vijay Mahesh
- Save Soil Movement fetes farmers for inventing agricultural implements
Trichy Mayor Anbazhagan participated as the special guest. The Director of SRM Medical College Malmurugan and General Manager Sridevi also participated in the opening ceremony.
The Mayor said, “This event is a program to explain how to maintain soil fertility, which is essential for the healthy living of people. A disease-free life can be achieved if soil fertility is preserved by natural farming. Agriculture is a basic need not only for Tamil Nadu but also for India. To realize this, I express my sincere appreciation to Isha for organizing the ‘Traditional Indian Paddy Festival’.”
Woman entrepreneur from Chennai who participated as a special speaker in this event Menaka said, “I have been selling traditional rice varieties for 13 years. When I started the business, there was no awareness of the benefits of traditional rice varieties. But now awareness about it has increased to a great extent. People are starting to invest more in health after the Coronavirus. People are searching more and more on YouTube about the medicinal benefits of small grains (millets) and traditional rice varieties. It benefits not only the people but also the farmer who produces it.”
“I sell more than 200 value-added products through my company. The icecream made with black kavuni rice and coconut milk has become very popular. We are the only company in India to manufacture icecream using traditional rice as an ingredient. We take orders and sell black kavuni rice icecream for weddings and birthdays in Chennai. Similarly, if every farmer knows the needs of the people and sells the traditional rice varieties at a higher price, they can see good profit,” she said.
The owner of Dhaanyas, a natural food company from Madurai, Dinesh Mani said, “If the farmers keep paddy or rice, they cannot keep it for long. But if it is converted into nutritive flour or other value-added products, it can be stored for a long time and sold. Thus, there is no compulsion to sell immediately at a low price for fear of spoilage.”
Similarly, pioneer traditional rice farmer Vijay Mahesh said, “If you want to make a profit in organic farming, you have to prepare the natural inputs at the right time.”
Not only Tamil Nadu but pioneer rice farmers from Kerala, Telangana and Karnataka also participated in the festival and gave advice to the farmers. Renowned entomologist Poochee Selvam spoke about pest management and food medicine expert Healer Shaktivel spoke about the medicinal properties of traditional rice varieties.
Also, various aspects, including the exhibition of simple agricultural tools invented by the farmers from planting to harvesting, the traditional seeds exhibition etc, attracted the attention of the farmers. Farmers who found agricultural implements were honoured by the Save Soil Movement. The field coordinator of the Save Soil Movement Muthukumar also gave a speech explaining the movement.
