Kalpana Manivannan – Kalpavriksha Farm

Kalpana Manivannan, quit her full-time job as a high school biology teacher and an academic coordinator to become an organic farmer. Her passion to grow food was born out of the desire to provide her family with clean, nutritious, toxin-free food. Her aim was to try and completely cut out the harmful chemicals that are regularly ingested through food, cosmetics, cleaning equipment and other household products.

Towards the end of 2017, she began her journey of becoming an urban farmer by deciding to grow her own food. Living on a busy Chennai street with limited space to grow, the family bought a half-acre plot on the outskirts of the city, which Kalpana calls Kalpavriksha Farms.

“Once you start growing your own food, that’s what starts you off on a journey towards healthy living.”

A vegetable patch at Kalpana’s farm

In her farm on the outskirts of Chennai, she grows 80 species of organic vegetables and herbs, 20 fully grown Coconut trees, 50 plus fruit trees and flowering tree saplings. The fruit trees include Papaya, Pomegranate, Sapota, Guava, Banana, Mango and Jamun. She grows several varieties of Tomato, Brinjal, Spinach, Pumpkin, Chillies and Gourd. She has also been able to successfully grow very rare and indigenous beans: clove bean, sword bean and winged bean.

Kalpana only grows native varieties that she procures from farmers markets and never purchases hybrid seeds. In addition to this she grows cereals and pulses too. She grows 6 varieties of Millets, corn and has Toor dal trees. She initially found the harvesting process to be a hassle but persisted as she wasn’t going to give up what she grew herself!

Kalpana even has native cotton plants! The purpose is not to harvest the cotton she says, “I just want one type of all plants in my farm. I want to create a lot of biodiversity.” She keeps the pests away by planting border crops like Tulsi, Marigold and Mexican mint (Karpooravalli) as screens. She also dilutes neem oil and soap nut solution and uses this natural pesticide.

Purple Beans – a special variety of bean grown at Kalpavriksha Farm by Kalpana

Kalpana states that by growing her own food, she has full control of what she sows, reaps, cooks and, feeds her family. That satisfaction of feeding her family chemical free, organic, native, seasonal and nutritious produce gives her immense satisfaction. So does the entire process of toiling and caring for the plants and enjoying the harvest at the end. Kalpana bakes her own bread, prepares her own jams, sauces and, pasta. Apart from these products, she also makes bio-enzyme-based home cleaners and soaps without any chemicals and is passionate about a circular lifestyle. The motivation for all of this comes back to gardening: “When you grow your own food something changes within you”. Kalpana is working towards developing the farm into a self-sustainable model with energy, food and water requirements met on the premises itself. The farmhouse is solar powered, and she plans to install a biogas plant soon.

Ms. Manivannan shares all her learnings through her website – https://kalpavrikshafarms.com. She conducts online workshops where she teaches participants how to grow organic vegetables, how to make compost, fully natural cleansers and how to cook from scratch.