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Eat healthy the organic way
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An organic store in Mylapore is aiming to put poison-free food on Chennai's dining tables.
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IT WOULD take a lot of imagination to call it a shop. One has to be really enthused to even seek out the place on V.M Street in Mylapore. But in the middle of the haphazardly arranged vegetables, oil, condiments and jaggery, Srinivasan stands tall with evident pride in his inventory. He thrusts a packet of turmeric powder at you and dares, "Test it in any lab. It is completely natural and chemical-free."
Not long ago Srinivasan's interest in all things natural was confined to membership in Exnora's Naturalists' Club and its field trips. The hotel management graduate's dream was to set up a chain of affordable tourist hotels all over Tamil Nadu. While scouting around for sites in 1993 he met Dr. Sultan Ismail, and listened to his passionate espousal of chemical-free farming. In it young Srinivasan found his true calling.
"Farming the natural way solves the problem of environmental degradation," he says. "One lakh tonnes of chemicals and 70,000 tonnes of pesticides (most of them banned) are dumped into our farms every year. The outbreak of allergies among children in the last two decades can be directly linked to pesticides in food. Our children are being poisoned slowly." Although he set up the Poison-Free Food Growers Movement, he wanted to see if such farming was viable.
He went to his native village, leased land and began to implement his pollution-free methods. "The villagers thought I was a fugitive from the law. Some suspected the city heat had shifted my grey cells. When they saw me on a bicycle at dawn riding from shed to shed collecting cow urine to disinfect the crops, their fears were confirmed," he chuckles. Using pond silt, cow dung, vermin-compost and panchakavyam, Srinivasan harvested a healthy crop on his borrowed land.
Farmers who had avoided him now approached him for help. Convincing these debt-ridden tillers of the need for clean, cost effective, intra-rural techniques wasn't difficult.
The next step was to spread the organic message. "A city like Chennai can spark off this movement in a big way," he says. "We have started cultivating a green belt around the city. Farm lovers here are quitting their profit-focussed jobs to exercise this green option."
Cattle-enriched organic holdings need intensive labour to yield crop and cash.
Farmers have shown a 92 per cent increase in the per acre yield of rice and an 80 per cent jump in sugarcane growth using ancient agricultural wisdom. Organic fertilisers ensure the farmer's health and an increase in productivity.
The farm retains its bio-diversity and the soil its nutrients.
"Three things have to be done with war-like emergency to prevent droughts," he says. "Rain water harvesting, afforestation and organic farming." Behind the apparent benefits of natural farming are a host of man-made constraints.
"We need more farms and a streamlined distribution system. Lack of approach roads and the high cost of transport fuel and packing materials push up the prices. And supply has been irregular over the last few months because of the drought." In spite of all this Srinivasan is upbeat about putting poison-free food on Chennai's tables.
Srinivasan's organic shop is at 114, V.M. Street, Mylapore. For home delivery and other details call 28111338.
GEETA PADMANABHAN
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