Value addition is increasingly being found for the lotus being cultivated in the wetlands of Tirunavaya in the district.
Even when major temples across the State find a slump in the number of devotees arriving for darshan and major temple festivals facing postponement in the wake of the COVID-19 scare, the two dozen-odd farmers engaged in lotus cultivation at Tirunavaya are confident that this year’s yield will not go begging.
The Tirunavaya lotus has always been in demand as it is preferred to the lotus from other places such as Thripayar and Nagercoil because of its colour, size and smell. The Tirunavaya pink lotus is preferred in temples across the State, including Guruvayur.
Farmers are hopeful that there will be a spurt in demand for value-added products such as kondattam, squash, pickles, and other herbal products made with lotus. Several Ayurveda medicines, especially some meant for children, are made with lotus.
Re-Echo initiative
“We used to supply lotus to Ayurveda medical firms, including Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala, whenever we had good yield. But our priorities continue to be for puja in temples,” said Mohammed Aslu K., alias Aslu Lotus, a farmer at Tirunavaya. An initiative made by the Re-Echo, an environment protection group based at Tirunavaya, for promoting lotus cultivation and creating value addition to the beautiful pink flower since 2015 has had its results. The Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) at Tavanur had shown interest in lotus and explored the potentials of the flower for making such products as kondattam, squash, pickle and cream.
“We could bring the attention of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the lead bank and several other organisations to lotus farming. We could win some respect for the farmers as well,” M.K. Sateesh Babu, financial literacy counsellor of the Malappuram District Cooperative Bank.
The Re-Echo conducted a Lotus Mela at Tirunavaya in 2015 and a couple of years later conducted a mega floral carpet by using 12,500 lotus flowers. This floral carpet had secured an Asian record for using the largest number of lotus.
“We could use so many lotus flowers because it was cheap at that time. Our objective was to bring the attention of the land and its people to the farmers who have been cultivating lotus as a means of traditional living in Tirunavaya,” said Mr. Sateesh Babu.
The tourism potentials of lotus are also being explored by farming lotus in such a way as to help the tourists pluck them for pleasure.
