Balakrishnannair is an adept farmer who was able to create a natural organic farm
out of the rich silent valley area and make it rewarding.
Mother earth blessed him in return
by giving him prospering results.
The specialty of this soil is that,
even in very hot and humid climate,
the soil does not turn into hard lumps or go dry and get set.
Even if we plough the land and see, it is not hardened soil.My father bought these land
15 years before. This land is on my brother’s & my name.
The man who previously owned this land did not do any cultivation in this land.
The land was not put to use as he was sick. Land was full of weeds and unnecessary wild plants.
Few coconut trees were there, but wild animals like pigs dug burrows around its roots and destroyed them. We cleared the unwanted weeds & forest first
and left the remains of the cleared weeds in the soil itself and kept so for a year.
Only after the plants decayed and added to the fertility of the soil,  we start cultivating in this land.
We first planted paddy and there was an initial output of seven tons.
If we use the crushed paddy to make rice,
the rice water looks rich and creamy like an ice cream.
We did not plant paddy in the entire ten acres of land.
In between we planted banana plantains,
green gram which gave really good harvest.
Then we planted vegetables like beans.
We had a situation where we did not have a market to sell that much quantity of beans.
It was priced between Rs 2/- and Rs 5/- in vegetable markets around.
We loaded them in big sacks to sell faraway areas  and we did not even have the money to pay for transportation.
Then we sold in Coimbatore
and Ernakulam markets.
In those days, i.e. prior to 8 years, the market for organic products and vegetables were not much. It is not necessary that for a getting a good yield, fertilizers need to be used.  See, if you notice these bunch of bananas, the main bunches have been cut and only fourth grade bananas are left. Harvest was taken just three days before.
If you have one banana from this bunch and one from another farmer’s yield, it will definitively taste different.There is no doubt for that!
One thing I can say with complete conviction and confidence is that, we have not used even a bit of chemical fertilizer in this land.
In many areas herbicides are being used. I used to tell them not use herbicide,
For the first 3-4 years there would not be any problem.
But later the trees that give regular yield like coconut and areca nut will be destroyed.
I have told this to nearby farmers.
But those who have been using herbicides before have been affecting now.
In this soil when we planted green mustard sapling,
the seeds we got as output were bigger than the sapling planted.
Organic nature of soil is not necessary for arecanut plantation.
But for fruit rot disease (mahaali)
bordor mixture is sprayed.
That cannot be considered as a pesticide.
After the first harvest,
we planted paddy only after five years.
Even though the harvest was not great as the first time,
it was still a good harvest.
We consume the food made of that harvest.
Balakrishnan Nair still follows an ancestral way of agriculture
in his land spread over five acres.
We undertake farming in a manner directed by my father.
Here we have mainly planted banana plantain.
This is the second year of banana plantation.
After cutting out the banana bunches we leave the
branches and the leaves in the soil itself
and carry out mulching.
The land is left idle for one and half years.
Then only cultivation is carried out in the land.
Anyone who is watching this video,
and all farmers should keep this in mind,
soil does not need any artificial manure,
maintaining the natural richness of soil alone
is needed for a good harvest.
If we do not destroy the soil, we will get a harvest more than what is expected.Just take the example of coconut tree and areca nut tree, we do not pluck the nuts, we give the farm as it is, and they say in most of the farms the output decreases or increases compared to the previous year,
but here we have a constant favorable output.
The biggest reason is the method of agriculture that we follow.
If we use fertilizers, we will have to concentrate on application of fertilizers
from time to time for each plant.
But in the method that we follow, we need not do anything extra.
He made steps out of the slope of the land and made platforms,
rainwater is then channeled through drains and then spread over the land for cultivation.
The water from the land used to rush down with
high energy and used to flow like a river downwards.
Now all these pits get filled up leading to soaking of water in the soil
and only rest of the water flows to the pond.
So water does not flow much to the small pond below.
Because of this the level of water in the pond does not decrease much.
In the severe summer before, the pond used to go dry if we used to pump up a lot of water. But this time around, we believe such a shortage would not happen.
We have undertaken cashew farming in about three and half acres.
It’s been ten to thirteen years since we planted the cashews.
Last year we got cashews worth four and half lakhs.
We have not administered manure in all these years.
Climbers of pepper are also grown in these trees which also serves as an income. Many farmers from this area
switched from cashews to rubber plantations.
Now, if we are getting more than four and half lakhs from three and half acres,
all we did for it was to pick the cashews!
We just buried the cashews in the soil before 13 years.
Nowadays we need to make a platform. Earlier days we need not used to do that also.
Only few farmers are left who still have a cashew plantation.
Rest of them cut down the cashew trees,
some did it for firewood alone.
This year the biggest profit we got was from cashews.
Added profit is attained through pepper.
We can say without any doubt that Balakrishnan Nair is a farmer
who proved that sloppy hills can be converted to a fruitful organic farm
through his personal experience and the example set by him.
In such slopes, platforms are made and square pits of one meter each are made.
Two rhizomes of banana plantains are planted face to face.
So that banana bunches will grow to opposite sides.
In one meter square areas we have dug pits.
In one pit we can grow two banana plantains.
Since we have planted coconut, areca nut and other trees we have planted only two banana plantains in one square pit or else you can do up to three.
The biggest benefit of this is water conservation.
Even during severe summers,
around 7-8 months
moisture is retained in the soil.
This is more like rain water pit.
And plantain is cultivated in this rain water pit.
Agriculture is profitable here be it coconut, areca nut, pepper. Agriculture can never be a failure. If we put in hard work it will turn out to be profitable,
you won’t have a difficulty in leading a stable life as food will be available, if you have your own land available for cultivation. Even if you cultivate in rented land, people do make it profitable.
To see & understand the optimum utilization of land for the larger benefit of mankind,
one should visit Balakrishnan Nair’s farm.
