L&T engineer quits job for organic farming; saves and sells 800 varieties of native vegetable seeds

When Pradeep Kumar worked for Larsen & Toubro (L&T), he travelled frequently.  As a site engineer for the company’s transportation infrastructure business, he was posted in various places from 2014 to 2019.

However, he frequently fell ill and even developed kidney stones. “My mother also started feeling unwell.  She suffered from multiple health issues, and I spent two years of my savings on her treatment. That’s when I realised there was something wrong with the food we were consuming,” Pradeep tells 30Stades.

Since continuous expenditure on treatment was not financially feasible, Pradeep began searching the internet for natural ways to remain healthy. “One such search took me to the organic farming methods popularised by agricultural scientist late Dr G. Nammalvar,” he recollects.

Creating a food forest

Organically-grown crops are chemical-free and contain beneficial nutrients like antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.

“I decided to switch to organic food, but could not find any vegetables or fruits. Everything contained chemicals, including the crops cultivated by my father and grandfather on our farm,” he says.

That’s when Pradeep quit his job (in 2019) and returned home to Anicut village in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, to grow his own organic food. “On 1.5 acres of ancestral land, my father and grandfather grew paddy, groundnuts and vegetables using chemicals. I asked them to shift to organic farming, but they opposed. My salary at L&T was high, and they did not want me to quit,” he says.

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However, Pradeep promised them zero-investment farming, and they agreed. “By then, I had collected enough information about organic farming methods. I also took training at the Vanagam—Nammalvar Ecological Foundation in Kadavur and decided to grow my food forest,” he says.

Pradeep divided the 1.5 acres of land into two parts. 

“On about half of the land, I grow native vegetables to save seeds. On the remaining, I designed a permaculture food forest. It has seven layers where I plant many varieties of fruits, vegetables, and spices,” he says.

“The first layer has palm trees, followed by the second layer of mango, jamun and other fruits and the third layer of custard apple, papaya, pomegranate and guava, besides other types of fruits, depending on the plant height,” he says.

The fourth layer comprises legumes like toor (arhar), and Turkey berry, while the fifth layer comprises chillies, brinjal, okra, tomatoes and other vegetables. The sixth layer includes turmeric, ginger, tapioca and many types of tubers, while the seventh layer has climbers like gourds and climbing beans.

“About 85 percent of my household kitchen supplies are met from this food forest. I also sell organic produce,” he says.

Also Read: How this teacher-turned-farmer created a profitable food forest in Shamli

Conservation of 800 native seeds

For the food forest, Pradeep procured seedlings of native fruits from a farmer in Coimbatore and vegetable seeds from a local exhibition on native seeds. “I took the mobile numbers of seed savers and planted native okra, tomatoes, brinjals, etc. The okra plant yielded red okra, and I was surprised. It motivated me to collect as many native seeds as possible,” he says. 

“I began travelling across Tamil Nadu to meet with farmers and seed savers and learn their farming methods. I also began exchanging my seeds with them,” he says.

Today, Pradeep has a collection of 800 native vegetable seeds, including 140 types of tomatoes, brinjal (90), chillies (60), okra (30), over 40 types of gourds, many varieties of tubers and 20 types of potatoes, including an air potato, which is a climber and tastes much better than a regular potato when fried.

“The black beauty tomato has a black skin and red pulp, while elephant tusk okra is 1.5 ft long each. Then there’s star okra, which tastes awesome,” he adds.

“Every 15 km in Tamil Nadu, you can find a farmer who has saved at least two varieties of indigenous seeds. Along with other friends and seed savers, I visit these farmers regularly, even now, to collect new varieties,” he says. They also organise a native seed festival annually at Vellore, where farmers exchange seeds.

Pradeep cultivates native vegetables for seed propagation on half of his ancestral land. He harvests vegetables for seeds and sells the remaining in the market. 

He shares the heirloom seeds for free with farmers and sells them to home gardeners through India Post throughout the country at a nominal rate of Rs30 per packet. “My aim is not to make money. I am working for native biodiversity conservation so that future generations can eat good food,” he says.

To extract the seeds, the fully ripened vegetables are allowed to dry on the plant.  This method is mostly for gourds, lady’s finger, beans, and pumpkins. Tomatoes, brijals and chillies are harvested and then ripened. 

“Tomatoes are harvested, cut and fermented in water for two days. We then wash and dry the seeds with cotton cloth. After leaving them for seven days at room temperature, we store them in glass bottles or zip-lock pouches,” he says.

Seeds are collected from green leafy vegetables at the time of flowering and are then dried, Pradeep adds.

(Rashmi Pratap is a Mumbai-based journalist specialising in financial, business and socio-economic reporting)

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