Social commitment not just through movies; Sreenivasan, staunch advocate of organic and natural farming methods

KALPETTA: Wayanad has always been a craze for Sreenivasan. He visited Wayanad many times to study agriculture and farmers. Finally, he started organic farming in Wayanad as well. Farming was a huge success.

Wayanad was once a land of suicides. In an interview, Sreenivasan had spoken about farmers ending their lives on a rope or in a poison bottle. "Everyone is cheating the farmers. The largest cultivation area is in Gundlupet in Karnataka, which borders Wayanad. Here, farmers took government land on lease and cultivated tomatoes. They got a good yield. That's when the monopoly traders reduced the procurement price of tomatoes by 10 percent. They thought they could get tomatoes at a lower price. The farmers had pride. They trampled and threshed tomatoes worth lakhs of rupees in the middle of the road. Our market is full of heartless traders; it would be a wonder if farmers did not commit suicide," he said.

Sreenivasan stepped into the fields without any hesitation to promote organic farming. He started farming in Wayanad, Idukki, Thrissur and Ernakulam. He marketed non-toxic vegetables and paddy under the name Srini Farms. He introduced Vineeth and Dhyan to organic farming.

Sreenivasan has had to face a lot of criticism for taking up organic farming. Some said that organic farming was to launder black money made from films. Some said it was to increase his popularity.

Sreenivasan also openly stated that even the government has a double standard regarding organic farming. Sreenivasan once told a story about a farmer being tricked by being given chemical fertiliser in a sack, claiming it was organic, through Krishi Bhavan.