Nilgiris Farmers Worried Over Decline In Traditional Broad Beans Cultivation

Farmers in the Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu are cultivating vegetables like carrots, beetroots, potatoes, beans, cabbage etc. However, a farmer named Sivasankaran described to Local 18 Tamil, that they are forgetting the cultivation of traditional broad beans. For those who don’t know, Fava beans, also known as broad beans, are a springtime crop that is cultivated and consumed around the world.

Sivasankaran said that instead of the traditional broad beans, the farmers are now preferring to grow other hybrid varieties of beans. He requested them to protect the broad bean variety and said that it is difficult to produce healthy food products despite the manufacturers raking in a lot of money. He added that these food items should also be protected.

It is said that if a person plucks the broad beans from the garden and eats them raw, it is very tasty and nutritious. After peeling off its outer covering, the inner portion of the broad bean plant is dried in the sun. After the inner region has dried, the broad beans can be used for up to 1 year. When the broad beans plant was transferred to the ground, it germinated and its vines sprouted.

According to Sivasankaran, the farmers in Nilgiris opt for traditional farming. He said that potatoes and the grams (chickpea or Bengal gram) are the important crops cultivated in the district. According to him, these crops are a significant part of their lives, and they even supply it to the hospitality industry. The food and beverage (F&B) sector is an important section within the hospitality industry. The highly nutritious and delicious chickpeas are sold for between Rs 250 and Rs 300 per kg. As of now, all the farmers have reduced paddy cultivation for commercial purposes and are growing other vegetables. They grow it as an intercrop (to grow a crop in between (another) among those vegetables.

In the past, the farmers in Nilgiris cultivated vegetables that could be preserved for several days. Broad beans is one such vegetable and has more than 15 types.

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