India: Gouri Amma initiated rooftop organic farming movement influenced by this farm in TVM
Plants were cultivated in grow bags and were placed on terrace and court yards.
By T Ramananda Kumar
Mathrubhumi
May 12, 2021
Excerpt:
Thiruvananthapuram: The concept of rooftop farming, which has become a pride project of the state, was initiated in 2001 by K R Gouri Amma, who was the agriculture minister in the AK Antony cabinet. When subsidy and other benefits were granted for organic vegetable farming in the capital city, many called the scheme a waste of money.
However, the people realised the advantage of the rooftop farming once the crops were harvested. Gradually, the concept was widely implemented all over the state, though very few knew who initiated the scheme. Her contributions are being remembered after her demise the other day.
Rooftop farming was started on the house terrace of T K Bhaskara Panicker, former director of Farm Information Bureau. Hailing from Kuttanad, he started growing vegetables on the terrace of his house at Udarasiromani road in Vazhuthacaud in the 1990s.
It was Bhaskara Panicker who first wrote an article on organic farming in the agriculture section of Mathrubhumi in 1989. When Gouri Amma was staying in Kowdiar House as minister, she attended a meeting at Vazhuthacaud and came to know about Panicker’s farm.
