Seshadri at the aeroponics saffron farm on the terrace of his house.
Credit: Special Arrangement.
Thiruvananthapuram: After Idukki, saffron has blossomed in Kerala's Wayanad too with a civil engineer turned farmer successfully carrying out aeroponics farming.
33-year-old Seshadri S has cultivated saffron and the first yield is in the final stages of harvesting. He brought corns from Kashmir and is testing the quality of the saffrons cultivated in his aeroponics farm.
His passion towards farming propelled Seshadri—an alumnus of College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram—to quit his civil engineering job and venture into saffron farming, that too at a time when most youths are looking for jobs abroad.
"I had an interest towards farming and hence ventured into it. I came across aeroponics farming for saffron being tried in Pune.
"I went there, acquired the knowledge and set up the aeroponics farm on the terrace of my house. Around 400 kilograms of corns procured from Pampore in Kashmir, which is known for saffron cultivation, was used. The first round of yield came out very well," Seshadri told DH.
Last year a couple of farmers had cultivated saffron at Kantaloor near Munnar in Idukki, which is known as 'Kashmir of the south' owing to the similarities in climate.
It was done with the support of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) under the ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application, Research Institute.