Farmers’ day out at Raj Bhavan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was a farmers’ day out at

Raj Bhavan

, the official residence of Governor P Sathasivam, on Friday, where 17 ‘Plant Genome Saviour’ Union government award winners from across the state had a rare opportunity to come face to face with Kerala’s first citizen, who’s a ‘a farmer to the core’.

In fact, the farmers, who came with their rare produces as gifts, were caught off guard when the governor introduced himself as a farmer in the first place, cultivating paddy, sugar cane coconut and other crops in his 25 acres of land in Tamil Nadu. Their initial surprise gave way to a warm feeling when he modestly elaborated how he used to grace cattle in his farm while being a young lawyer and that he will go back to farming once he is done with his official assignments.

The event to honour the farmers, who had won their awards during the period from 2007 to 2016 with the support of the

Intellectual Property

Cell of Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), was organized at Governor’s own initiative. “Your achievements are not ordinary but fruits of hard work and toil, confronting ground realities,” Sathasivam said, honouring each of them for conserving rare varieties of crops and contributing to research activities.

The farmers came with surprise gifts for the governor – varieties of produces from their farms, including betel, aromatic plants, pokkali rice and dry fruits. “It’s a rare honour for us farmers, possibly one of the greatest moments in our life,” they said.

Among those individual farmers who were honoured were Ciby Kallingal and N A Chandran from Thrissur, N Vasavan, Sajeevan Kavumkara and K V Kannan from Kannur, Benny Mathew, K Aravind and Krishnan from Palakkad, Melethil Beerankutty and Mohammed Moopan from Malappuram, K Narendran from Kollam and Cheruvayal Raman and Shaji N M from Wayanad. While the farmers’ groups included pokkali rice farmers from Palakkad and Ernakulam districts and chengalikkodan banana growers from Thrissur.

Also present were KAU vice-chancellor P Rajendran, director (extension) Estelita, director (research) Sajan Kurien, registrar Leenakumari and C R Elsy among other officials.