Aravindan Neelamegam is an organic farmer in the Pudukkottai district, Tamil Nadu. He cultivates suger cane, and not only is this done pesticide-free and with organic fertilizers, but his farm is also drip irrigated with renewable energy from solar panels! By this means Aravindan shows the way of innovative sustainable agriculture for the 21st century.
The area where Aravindan lives is a drought prone district, and the tendency during the last decades is less rainfall every year. This year brought a late and heavy monsoon with severe floods in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, resulting in destruction and many deaths especially in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu. But around Pudukkottai, some 350 km south of Chennai, the farmers are still wishing for more rain. They are not only facing to little rain fall, but also depletion of the ground water level.
Aravindan has therefore opted for drip irrigation in his farm, which is less water consuming than conventional irrigation. Around the 15 acres (6,7 Ha) of sugar cane plantation, there are tubes with small holes buried in the soil, which are connected to an open well. The well has a pump set that is driven by an electric motor which receives energy from solar panels. The total potential from the solar panels is 12 kW, and Aravindan installed them two years ago.
Aravindan tells that he started to cultivate organic 10 years ago, after he had faced several years of bad yields, even though he was applying more fertilizers every year. He then came in contact with Kudumbam, an NGO that is working with organic agriculture in Tamil Nadu. He asked for advice and the trainers of Kudumbam explained to him that the heavy application of inorganic fertilizers was actually making his soil losing its organic matter and fertility. He was willing to try anything, and started to make compost and cultivate green manures (nitrogen fixing plants). And his efforts gave good result, only one year after going organic his yields were increasing, as the soil health at his farm improved. Aravindan is now a pioneer of organic farming in his village.
