Alagu Servai, in his sixties, is small-made, has a bald head and wears a perpetual smile. This farmer is known for his wit; on one occasion he even made chief minister J Jayalalithaa laugh when he messed up his speech papers at a felicitation ceremony organised by Madurai farmers in August, 2014. Alagu is back after a government sponsored trip to Thailand from May 22 to 29 to learn agricultural practices in that country. Excerpts from an interview.

Q: How was your trip to Thailand?

A: I was among 100 farmers sent to various countries to learn the agricultural practices followed there. I went to Thailand and visited various places of agricultural interest. The experience was an eye-opener and a learning experience.

Q: What differences did you find in the cultivation methods?

A: They cultivate everything we do, like paddy, sugarcane, banana and millets, but all of them through organic farming. Farmers get their subsidies as freebies directly from government.

Q: Anything overwhelming you have observed during the trip?

A: They have a paddy variety called ‘Madurai paddy’; it was named so in memory of Chola King Rajarajan who visited the country. Many paddy varieties were introduced from India when the Cholas maintained contact with the country, I was told.

Q: What technologies do you think could be adopted locally?

A: We can’t switch over to organic farming all on a sudden like they do. Thailand farmers cultivate coconuts in a different manner. They plant them in heaps instead of in pits like we do and use channels to keep water around the plants. Also farmers don’t hand over work to farm hands. They stay on in their farms for 8 hours. It is one of the good practices I found there. I will be sharing my experiences and lessons with our farmers soon.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Madurai / TNN / June 18th, 2016