Malappuram: It is quite common to see farmers cultivating rubber, plantain and other crops along the hillside and on hilltops.
Noonampara Chozhi, a farmer from Iringattiri Karuvarakkundu in Malappuram district of Kerala, wished to cultivate paddy on top of the hill. He planted paddy in two and a half acres of the hilly land area alongside Parayanmedu Mala, a hill in Karuvarakkundu, that too in the soil which had recently grown rubber. Chozhi prepared the soil on the hilltop quite well for his upland paddy crop and reaped success in it. He has been cultivating many crops. However, his favourite crop for farming has always been paddy.
This area in Malappuram district is a regular visit zone for the wild elephants here. However, Chozhi’s paddy crop, which is ready for harvest, remains fully grown and undisturbed by the elephants, in the midst of rubber saplings and plantains as if in a surrealistic painting. Though Chozhi does not expect much of a profit from the paddy cultivation, he says, without paddy, farming does not attain its state of completeness.
Chozhi took to upland paddy cultivation after participating in the upland paddy cultivation motivation programmes conducted by the Karuvarakkundu Village Panchayath and Krishi Bhavan here.
The harvest festival of Chozhi’s upland paddy crop was inaugurated by Village Panchayath president P Shoukkathali. In the programme presided by V Shabeer Ali, Health-Education permanent committee president, Vallil Shoukkath, Chandran Thekkemukkil, Prabhakaran, Manoharan Nellikkalladi, Beeran Elambilavil and Kurian participated.
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