By
Shevlin Sebastian
Last
week, when Anoop Thankan, project manager of Green Grass Dairy in
Cressy, Tasmania, was wandering between the cows in a grassy area,
suddenly he heard the 'ping' sound on his smartphone. When he looked
he saw that it was an email from the Australia-India Council. When
Anoop read the mail, he let out a whoop of joy.
Thanks
to his presentation, the Council had just given the company a
$150,000 (Rs 75 lakh) grant to help bring Australian farming
expertise to dairy farmers in Kerala.
On
his annual visits to his home at Kottapaddy, near Kothamangalam,
Anoop observed that the dairy farmers were decades behind. “They
used outmoded methods of production and feeding,” says Anoop, who
looks after 3000 cows.
He
says 60 per cent of the daily feed should consist of different
varieties of grass. Another 30 per cent should be proteins and
mineral-rich legumes and shrubs such as moringa, hibiscus and
mulberry leaves. “For the remaining 10 percent, they can have
tubers like jackfruit and tapioca, or grains like wheat, barley or
maize,” he says.
Anoop
and Green Grass director George Rigney are planning to hold one-day
workshops in Kasaragod, Wayanad, Kothamangalam, Chengannur and
Thiruvananthapuram next month. The topics that will be discussed
include farm management, forage production, soil management, animal
health and infrastructure design.
Of
course, since Anoop is in 17 Whatsapp groups of Kerala dairy farmers,
he knows about the devastation caused by the recent floods. “Many
farmers in Idukki, Wayanad, Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam have told me
they have lost all their livestock,” he says. “A few farmers have
got back some of the cows but all the grass has been destroyed. Some
farmers have lost their sheds and other buildings. We are trying to
figure out how we can help.”
In
the meantime, work is going on to develop a Green Grass App in
Malayalam and English. “Farmers in Kerala will be able to access
Australian videos and modules. They can also ask questions which will
be answered,” says Anoop.
He
pauses and says, “I just want to do my bit for my homeland.”
(Page 1, The New Indian Express, Kerala editions)
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