Valluvan (58), a farmer in Pollachi district, said he is spending Rs 500 per tree annually, while the earning is only Rs 300.

New Delhi: A Tamil Nadu farmer, who once lost Rs 200 on growing each coconut tree, has transformed his 11-hectare holding into a Rs 2.5-3 lakh per acre enterprise through multi-crop, tree-based farming – earning him recognition as a UN FAO Soil Farmer Hero. Valluvan (58), a farmer in Pollachi district, said he was spending Rs 500 per tree annually while earning just Rs 300, leaving him stuck in a cycle of losses before he changed his approach in 2009. “I was losing money on every coconut tree I owned. I knew I had to find a solution,” he told reporters in New Delhi. The change came after the emergence of Isha Foundation’s The Save Soil – Cauvery Calling programme, promoted by spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, which advised a shift to multi-crop, multi-tier tree-based agriculture.

From three crop varieties, Valluvan now cultivates more than 14 varieties on the same land – coconut, nutmeg, black pepper, seven banana varieties, turmeric, elephant yam, curry leaves and 30 tree varieties. Income steadily increased from Rs 30,000 to Rs 2.5-3 lakh per acre, while the organic carbon content of the soil increased from 0.5 per cent in the first year to 1.56 per cent in the seventh year. The farm also faced two severe droughts, including a 2017 crisis when groundwater levels dropped more than 1,000 feet and there was no rain for two consecutive years – a period when many neighboring farmers cut down their coconut trees. Through mulching and rainwater harvesting pits, the field maintained adequate moisture without additional irrigation. It now uses one-tenth the water it once required, and Valluvan hopes to eliminate irrigation needs altogether within a few years.

“Even sensitive crops like nutmeg and pepper, which farmers say require a lot of water, survived without additional irrigation,” he said. The farm’s multi-crop model also acts as an economic hedge, said Anand Ethirajalu, project director of Save Soil – Cauvery Calling. “If coconut prices fall, his nutmeg saves him. If nutmeg also falls, his banana saves him. He has a range of crops,” Ethirajalu said, comparing the strategy to that of a cricket team with equally capable options. Since its 2019 expansion, Cauvery Calling has planted 13.4 crore trees on private agricultural lands in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka – about 10 per cent of the 242 crore trees targeted to restore year-round flow in the Cauvery river basin. However, Ethirajalu identified scaling, funding and policy barriers as major obstacles to widespread adoption, calling for drip-irrigation support for wood crops, removal of restrictive state-level timber-sale regulations, and insurance and subsidy schemes for tree-based agriculture. “The only solution to global warming and the climate crisis looming over the entire world is tree-based agriculture,” Valluvan said.