Pizhala women harvest organically-grown bounty

KOCHI: In June when the world reflects upon the importance of environment by planting saplings or through speeches, women of Pizhala have set an example by harvesting their vegetables cultivated using organic-farming techniques.This harvest is part of the Teresian Rural Outreach Programme (TROP), a project initiated by students of St Teresa’s College with the help of St Francis Xavier’s Church, Pizhala, in April 2011. The project aims at transforming Pizhala, a small village under Kadamakkudy panchayat, into a self-sufficient village in terms of food and at the same time inculcate the culture of agriculture among the youth. The most striking feature of this venture is that its main promoters and beneficiaries are women.Another distinctive feature of the project is that it brought together housewives, teachers, students, government officials like the local Agricultural Officer and the panchayat president, and the church under one roof.Under the project, students of St Teresa’s College organised training programmes on organic vegetable cultivation, in collaboration with the Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council Keralam (VFPCK), on April 4, 2011, in Pizhala.  Their efforts were supplemented by the organisational support of the local church. In a session held in the parish hall, 115 housewives were divided into 14 groups and each group was provided with seeds of spinach and lentil as well as bio-fertilisers. Group leaders were put in charge of monitoring the project on a daily basis. The choice of plants was basically guided by high incidence of anaemia which has turned to be a major health concern among women and children in Kerala (according to the 2005-06 National Family Health Survey, approximately 33 percent of married women and 52 percent of children in the state suffer from anaemia).The enthusiastic housewives utilised even the smallest patch of land available to them. Those without adequate land successfully experimented with rooftop cultivation. Their passion for the project was reflected in the fact that that they were not ready to exchange their produce for monetary gains, rather they preferred to use it to improve the health of their own families.