Farming the Parsi way
CHETHALAYAM: In the wilderness, the lone Parsi farmer of the district (may be of the entire state) lives a lonely life. Enjoying the comfort of wilderness that creeps into his farm gradually, Yazedy Palia is a contented man.
“My grandfather Y R Palia came here in 1920s as part of a medical treatment. He was loosing his eye sight and some of the eminent doctors in Bombay told him to shift to some other places with greenery to bring back his eye sight”, said Palia, the junior.
“My father was a different person. He travelled only by bus. At the age of 16, he came here and lived a very adventurous life. His experiments proved successful and he realised the value of timber led to buying lot of land here”, he said.
Palia junior came here in 1998 when his brother, who was supervising the farm, was shifted to Mysore.
“I follow a farming method of my own without using any pesticides and chemicals and follows the nature’s ways without intervening into the laws of nature,” Palia said.
Why did he turn to biofarming? “All the diseases have their natural enemies in earth. You need only to nurture them. Since 2000, I use only bio-fertilizers like pseudomonas and trichoderma”, he said.
But he gets only a meagre income from the big farm and for a living he entered into spice trade.
“I enjoy every moment I spent here. I want nature to remain pristine. We have spotted deer and many other animals in my holding. Elephant herds raid my farm every day in search of food”, said Palia.