Mangaluru Man Grows 50 Kgs Of Rice On His Terrace With Minimal Water. Here’s His Amazing Story.

Increasingly more and more people are becoming sceptical about the genetically engineered, fertilizer packed goods we may be consuming. So farming in urban cities is slowly becoming the latest fad. Even with a space crunch, people are still managing to grow a small kitchen garden.

However, not many have opted to grow paddy on their terraces. This is for the simple reason that the general perception about is that it a lot of space and requires a huge amount of water.

This perception has been proved wrong by Krishnappa Gowda Paddambail a resident of Mangaluru. He has successfully grown paddy on his 1200 sq ft terrace for over five years.

A report by The Hindu, says that it was his childhood memories of paddy cultivation which inspired him to take up the hobby.

How did a government employee, Krishnappa manage this? Dedication, passion and a few 200 ‘grow bags’. A grow bag is essentially a large plastic bag containing a growing medium used to grow plants- usually tomatoes and other salad crops.

Unlike traditional cultivation, Mr. Paddambail uses water minimally, and his bags of soil mixture, sand and cow dung last four years with careful maintenance. He turns coconut husk into hanging planters. After de-husking, he fills soil and ties up the husk to hang it around the house.

He uses a method of crop rotation and cultivates rice in the month of April-May. He then uses the same bags to grow radish. He also grows fruits, vegetables and turmeric on his terrace.

He harvested 10 kilos of radish and eight kilos of turmeric. The garden also produces sugarcane, yam, drumsticks, pomegranate and guavas.

Due to this venture, Krishnappa and his wife have almost stopped buying vegetables from the market.

He has also never sold a single produce cultivated in “Meenakshi Kripa”, the name of his house which he had built 10 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKzeMBM4Kv4

This eco-friendly and pocket-friendly method is inspiring us to start a terrace garden of our own. Kudos Mr. Krishnappa!

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