Agriculture

"I already had an inkling of the dire consequences of our diet. But I woke up to the problem only after I encountered the case of a girl who had begun menstruating at the age of six. I was shocked!"

In five years, the retired engineer, now 70, has managed to set up a beautiful terrace garden where he grows most vegetables, fruits and leafy greens.

Today, this 37-year-old part-time techie is a full-time farmer who cultivates paddy, coconut, oil palm and cocoa organically, making nearly Rs 10-15 lakh a year!

It is our pride that some of these farmers are our very own TBI heroes, who through years of effort, rode a wave of change in the field of Indian agriculture.

What sets TEFF apart from the other NGOs working towards the same cause is their realisation that food can be grown anywhere. With the same vision of helping the urban citizens take up farming or gardening in the space that was available to them, TEFF started a Waste Management Park in June 2017.

63-year-old Senthamil Selvan narrates his six-year journey into converting once barren and uncultivable land into a beautiful farm.

Today, NaPanta has reached 1,17,000 farmers. The daily unique farmer visitors are over 3,000, and the daily app interactions are more than 25,000.

The youngster turned to organic farming in 2016 and grows a range of grains, pulses, fruits, and vegetables, without any chemicals. He also undertakes wood cultivation.

“The benefit of using Azolla is that it is locally available and inexpensive. It is cheap and renewable."

In a room less than 1,000 sq ft, with over 1,000 plants, they grow seven varieties of lettuce (lollo rosso, oakleaf, French romaine, summer crisp, butterhead), three varieties of Swiss chard (red, yellow and white), two types of rocket (wild and cultivated) and four varieties of kale.