Kannur: For the past 4 years, a sports teacher has been cultivating vegetables in the compound of NGO quarters at Thekkiyil here.
D Jinalkumar, who works as PT teacher at Chelora High School, is engaging in farming on the barren land during his leisure time.
Jinalkumar grows brinjal, okra, chilli, long beans, bitter gourd and spinach in addition to over 50 Nenthran banana plants. There are 87 houses in the NGO quarters. Seeing Jinalkumar’s effort, other families also have started cultivating vegetables in their compounds.
Jinalkumar’s wife Jipsy is a staff nurse at Vadakara District Government Hospital. They have 2 daughters Polima, a class 10 student and Thelima, a class 6 student. All of them help with farming. With sheer hard work, the family manages to produce more quantities of vegetables than they require.
They also rear 54 chickens and a few love birds. They have built a fence around the compound to stop cattle from entering the farm and destroy the crops. The fence also prevents stray dogs from attacking the chicken and birds.
There is a collapsed room near Jinalkumar’s quarters. He is keeping the chicken in this room. Upto 30 eggs are collected from the Gramashree variety of chicken. Jinalkumar and family started staying in the quarters 4 years ago. Since then, they have been growing vegetables in the compound.
