Harry & his wonder farm

Fifteen years ago when Treitinger Reinhold Harry landed in picturesque Kumily, his interest was not anything beyond that of an average tourist. However, unlike other tourists he fell in love or perhaps it was love at first sight. Harry never returned. Instead, he bought seven acres of land at Spring Valley and started cultivating coffee, pepper and cardamom. There again he chose a path less traveled organic cultivation.

Looking back, Harry, who married Fathima, a native of Tamil Nadu and settled in Idukki, is indeed happy he had made an impact in this land of tourism and spices. Armed with a certification from Indian Organic Certification Agency (Indocert), Harry and his family has indeed proved his critics wrong and proved that viable organic cultivation of spices is indeed possible. This organic certification is enabling Harry to export majority of his products to Germany, his homeland.

No wonder he earns a premium on account of his organic cultivation. Harry sells a kg of dried coffee beans for Rs 1,800 (in equivalent Euro) and sells Stevia plant for Rs 1,100. “In the beginning of my activities in Kerala people laughed at the white man who speaks of organic stuff etc. You have no yields, doing a lot of work for nothing, they said. 'Go and build a few huts to accommodate tourists, that's easier to earn money' was the locals' advice to Harry.

GOING ORGANIC : Reinhold Harry now has another 100 acres in Megha Mala where he cultivates coffee, cardamom, pepper, vegetables, vanilla and Stevia plant which he calls the 'Sweet Wonder' whose product is a substitute for sugar and can be used by diabetics. However, going organic was not an easy exercise, Harry told Commodity Market.

Stevia is 200 times sweeter than sugar, it contains no calories and does not affect sugar levels in the blood stream. Apart from a sweetener, it can be used on cuts and bruises for fast healing, Harry said. “I went on trying, failing and partially succeeding. It took 10 years to get cardamom to an acceptable yield. Although I was always told that cardamom can't be grown organically I knew all along that it must be possible,” Harry said.

Harry confesses that he has found the perfect way to grow cardamom organically. But he has been able to find out ways to reduce 50 per cent of financial expenses and obtain at least conventional yields in 50 per cent of the area. “One also may consider that I'm almost alone with my work, except a few lonely farmers who really try different things as against thousands of others who follow conventional farming,” Harry said.

Harry uses cow-dung, slurry from biogas plant and organic compost and no chemical fertilizers or pesticides in his farms. His bio-pesticide is a mixture of jamanthi flower, gingelly oil and washing soap. He believes that snakes, toads and dragon fly are all part of our eco-system and they should not be harmed. For Harry it is an arduous process to carry manure and other inputs at his farm situated 300 feet above with no clear roads.

He uses ropes and pulley to lift all these inputs to his farm. Harry has three ponds and two lakh litre rainwater reservoir to meet his water requirements. In all he has 38 cattle and six calves and uses milking machine to milk his cattle. He also has inland breeding of fish and also cultivates mushrooms.

YIELD COMPARISONS: Reinhold Harry doesn't believe in comparing yields between conventional and organic farming. When asked about the rampant use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in cardamom cultivation in Idukki, he said: “Pesticides are a problem all over the world, although not taken really seriously by the public. The reason for that is that the farmers' community has lost faith in nature and taken part in a society which values only money and power.”

The yields are about the average of conventional farms, Harry said. “I believe that if thousands of farmers can take to natural farming of cardamom slowly the yields would be much higher than in conventional,” Harry said. In natural farming the yields increase with time, the input decreases while in conventional farming the opposite is the case. In fact that's the case with every crop.

“But as long nobody tries, there won't be results. Science has money, sponsored by governments and companies while we have our manpower and very little financial sources. Business is still more important than our earth,” Harry told Commodity Market. When a conventional farmer treats one problem with chemicals he creates some other problems which he'll be treating next time, so he'll keep on treating all the time. It won't end, doesn't it look very insensible? For farmers like Harry other than subsidies for getting certification and rainwater tanks, they don't get any support from the government.

Regarding vanilla, he said farmers could still get good returns if they concentrated on quality of the beans. “I don't allow beans below 16 cm to grow as there's no price for low quality vanilla,” Harry said. This reduces his yield to some extent but increases the price for his produce. “Instead of producing more we need to reduce the input and increase the quality,” Harry opined.

Regarding prices of spices, it varies from time to time. “Farmers can't change that but we can try to produce highest quality and have to take marketing in our own hands as much as possible. Going the conventional way means only that we'll depend on chemicals and politics,” Harry commented. Harry has 3-4 labourers, and he says it is mostly not available due to enormous labour shortage.

HARRY, THE WONDER: Harry says he had no background in farming back in Germany although he used to go to the forest to collect honey. He has studied Chemistry at the college level. Local people of Idukki who thought Harry to be crazy 15 years ago are all in full admiration of him now. Harry is in every sense a farmer who has a down to earth approach to cultivation.

He is now a hero of Idukki as he carries cow-dung, tills land, and moreover speaks excellent Tamil. He, along with his wife Fathima and three children, is in every sense involved with his organic pursuits. His favourite hobby is to rest in the swing and listen to music. However, he is not so happy about Malayalis who gave a partially hard life for him, especially bureaucrats. “It is not easy for a foreigner to do his own venture in India and survive,” he said. However, he is all praise for the climate of Idukki.