During her time as a student, she was eager to become a schoolteacher and pursued a Teachers Training Course (TTC) but ended up tilling the soil, planting, and harvesting crops.
Now 34, Asha Shaiju from Kanjikuzhy in Alappuzha is elated to have won the State government’s ‘Yuvakarshaka’ (best young woman farmer in the State) award.
Ms. Shaiju ventured into farming 11 years ago by planting vegetable seedlings provided by the Kanjikuzhy grama panchayat on 13 cents of land. She now grows more than 15 varieties of vegetables and a few varieties of fruits on 6.5 acres of land (two acres taken on lease) along with cultivating paddy and managing an aquaculture farm.
The homemaker-turned-farmer sees the prize as a recognition of her hard work of more than a decade.
"I was born into a farming family at Pallathuruthy. But when I grew up, agriculture wasn't something I considered as a career. I wanted to become a teacher. But life always offers choices. After completing the TTC, I got married and relocated to Kanjikuzhy. My ambition of becoming a teacher never got fulfilled. It was a time when I got enmeshed in familial duties. I began kitchen-farming with seedlings given by the local body. It was a big turning point. I started getting more absorbed in farming and it soon became a part of my life," Ms. Shaiju says.
She has found success in farming by endorsing good agricultural practices. Among the vegetables and fruits on her farm are ladies finger, beans, tomato, spinach, brinjal, chilli, cucumber, turmeric, papaya, watermelon along with winter veggies such as cabbage, broccoli, beetroot and carrot. "The soil in this part is considered not conducive to farming. I cultivated broccoli, carrot and so on to prove that winter vegetables can be grown here," says Ms. Shaiju, who largely practises traditional farming methods, besides the mulching technique.
Her farm produces 100 kg of vegetables every day. While most of the veggies and fruits are purchased by vendors, she also sells them, produced in an organic way, directly to people with cancer and other life-threatening diseases in the region. As part of aquaculture, she is growing tilapia and rohu in two ponds, which gives her additional income. "My own experience is that agriculture is profitable. For me, beyond the money, farming is a thing that brings immense joy," she says.
She is assisted on the farm by her husband, Shaiju K.S. The couple has a child, Ashna Shaiju.
