Participating in a training program on organic farming changed the purpose of life of Salai Arun of Tamil Nadu. Starting with a bank balance of just Rs 300, today he has created a seed bank of 300 rare vegetables. You must know the story of this seed saver farmer of the country.
A young farmer travelled 80 thousand kilometres to save the seeds of 300 rare fruits and vegetables. This is the story of 32-year-old seed saver Salai Arun. Arun, a resident of Mangalam, a small village in Tamil Nadu, invested all his savings to create a local seed bank of more than 300 rare vegetables.
Arun was interested in farming since childhood. After losing his mother at a young age, he grew up with his grandparents and often helped his grandfather
He used to help in farming. But his love for farming turned into passion when he met organic agriculture scientist G Nammalvar in 2011. Arun took training from him and became an expert and started teaching organic farming to other farmers.
During this time, Arun saw that the farmers did not have seeds of indigenous vegetables to grow, with this concern, he decided to travel across the country and collect seeds in the year 2021. But at that time he had only 300 rupees in the name of savings.
Gradually Arun started travelling and meeting farmers across the country and has met 500 farmers so far. Today Arun is growing extinct native fruits and vegetables in a small garden in his village.
Not only this, today he is also selling seeds to people through his small seed bank named “Karpagatharu”. His seed bank includes 15 varieties of gourd, 20 varieties of beans, 10-10 varieties of tomato, chilli and ridge gourd and many other vegetables.
I hope you liked the story of this young indigenous seed saver of the country.
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2024-08-22 13:03:03