Pollachi's coconut farms make way for more manageable creeper vegetables

The sight of pandals (structure for creeper crops) is striking as one drives past Pollachi towards the Anamalais and the area bordering neighbouring Kerala. Growers say the area under pandal vegetables in that belt has increased from around 100 acres a couple of years back to over 800 acres at present.

“These vegetables are grown in the coconut farms of yesteryear,” says T. A. Krishnasamy, President of the United Coconut Growers’ Association of South India.

According to Krishnasamy (better known as Kittu Gounder), high-yielding coconut trees were felled in and around Pollachi area as farmers could not maintain the farms. Farmers took to vegetable cultivation instead, with the help of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.

The varsity has, under the NADP (National Agricultural Development Programme) scheme, implemented the project in 10 blocks spread in Coimbatore and Tirupur districts. “We identified two farmers in each of the blocks, imparted training and provided partial support for cultivation,” said Assistant Professor of Horticulture Dr Kumanan.

Among the vegetables, cucurbits are high-value commercial crops. Cucurbits include vine crops such as bitter gourd, snake gourd, ash gourd, ridge gourd, bottle gourd and coccinia and others belonging to the family of Cucurbitaceae , say farm varsity sources. And bitter gourd is said to top in area among other vine crops.

Baladhandapani, a farmer with a 2-acre holding in Thimmangkuthu panchayat (located 14 km off Pollachi), says he bought the land six years back to cultivate tomato. “The other growers in this area advised me to grow bitter gourd. Initially, I raised the green bitter gourd variety and sold the produce in the Coimbatore market. Traders pay cash and procure the produce at the farm gate. They paid us a rate of Rs 6–7 a kg.

“In due course, most growers here shifted to Maya (a white hybrid bitter gourd), which is in great demand in the Kerala market. This variety fetched us Rs 25 a kg last season, but fell to Rs 15/kg in the just completed season. It was no distress sale though,” adds Baladhandapani, a class X drop-out, who took to farming without qualms.

“The returns have been good this far. There is no paucity of farm hands in this area. Further, we need farm labour for vine crops only at the time of sowing and during harvest. The training imparted by TNAU has helped us improve production techniques and yield levels,” he said.

The growers, however, apprehend shortage of Maya seeds in the coming season. The President of Thimmangkuthu Panchayat, T. P. Karunakaran, said the area under bitter gourd in his panchayat was around 70 acres, and the yield per acre, around 30 tonnes.

“Input costs have gone up.  A 25 gm packet (of Maya seeds) was quoting Rs 140 during the earlier season. It remains to be seen whether we will be able to get sufficient quantity of seeds during the ensuing season. We will need 5,000 plantings per acre,” he added.

The 220-day crop begins to yield fruit in 45 days. Thereafter, they harvest the fruit twice a week up to 220 days, say bitter gourd growers.

“After the season in Tamil Nadu, Kerala traders procure the white bitter gourd from Wayanad area, before moving to Bundipur in Karnataka. The supplies are thus taken care throughout the year,” said Baladhandapani.