God's own farms

You may think I am exaggerating. Well, drive through Wayanad and you will know why I used such a title.

At Idukki, visitors get surprised by the richness, the quality and the variety of the produce.

Travel through Kerala and you will come across plantations and paddy fields quite often.

Here is an arecanut farm-

As you can see, Areca trees are tall and without branches. The climbers, after getting on top of one tree, swing and get to the next one.

Arecanut is one of the ingredients of Pan, the chewing stuff.  Often used with betel leaves, they are also called betel nuts. Here is the close up-

Arecanut plantations fringing paddy fields are a  common sight in central kerala. Places such as Changaramkulam in central Kerala has active arecanut markets.

Here is another paddy field with adjoining banana plantation.

You will see banana plants in every Kerala backyard.

While banana plants are seen everywhere, not so common sight is these pine farms. There are certain pockets where they are grown.

Can you guess what it is?

Here we go-

Here is a couple of snaps from fruit plantations.

Kerala is the land of spices. Idukki is the best place to visit spice gardens. Pepper is one of the leading plantation crops. A couple of pepper vines are usually part of the backyard, any where in Kerala.

Rubber plantations are a common sight in the high range area. They were planted aggressively many decades back, when the fortunes of this cash crop was on the rise.

Rubber tapping is a regular process. See rubber milk stuck to the persons hand-

Here is a different type of farm. The slope is cut into a series of flat surfaces. This photo is from Koviloor in Idukki. Small plants and herbs are grown in terrace farms.

 Marayoor is a village near Koviloor, known for its sugarcane plantations. These plantations support the local jaggery industry.

 Read about Kerala

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