City youngster on a mission to preserve native seeds

The 2015 floods taught Chennai residents many things. But what it taught a techie from the city was to set up a terrace garden. Winston Benjamin, a 27-year-old professional, has set up a vegetable garden and is currently in the process of reviving a variety of indigenous seeds. “The floods was one of the reasons for me to start terrace gardening. We really struggled to source vegetables during that period. One of my friends suggested that I grow our own veggies, and that is how I set up a terrace garden. It currently has 80 pots of vegetable and fruit-bearing plants,” he says.

Even as youngsters are quitting their full-time jobs to take up farming, Winston says if you are really passionate about farming, then there is no need to quit the job that generates a stable income. After reading and researching about farming, he realised the need to revive native indigenous seeds. “Though there is a group on social media that discusses native seeds, it’s very difficult to find seed keepers in Tamil Nadu. When I decided to grow indigenous seed varieties at my terrace garden, I purchased them from the farmers who are trying to revive the native seed varieties. Since I don’t have farmland and wanted to revive some of the lost indigenous seeds on a big scale, I have collaborated with a person called Abdul who is working on reviving the lost seeds in a government school in the city. Abdul is working in organic farmer’s market and during weekends he does farming at the school. We are expecting to complete this project by August so that the children in the school will have access to some of the lost seeds and in the process, we will be able to feed them,” he shares.

He has also cultivated a few lost varieties of beans at his terrace garden. “Though it’s hard to find those bean varieties, a few farmers cultivate them in villages. But they cultivate them in small quantities because there are no buyers for the beans. They include clove beans (not available in Tamil Nadu) that I sourced from Kerala, a variety of broad beans called ooru avarai, sword beans (thambattai), etc. We usually grow green chillies, but not black chillies. I sourced black chillies from a person who preserves native chilli varieties. Do you know there are 12 different varieties of ladies finger? I am growing red okra elephant tusk okra, milky white okra and cow horn okra to name a few,” says Winston. The youngster is also helping his friends set up a terrace garden. “It’s always good to grow your own pesticide-free vegetables. Not only does the food taste better, it’s good for health.”