Ramachandran K G
Promotion of community managed nurseries of different wild and agro species is one of the prime the month of February 2021 objectives of the project. We were able to establish a nursery at Cherupuzha centre in the beginning with the support of a community foundation, called Thoduve. We have established three nurseries that cater to the needs of community members in three different Gram Panchayats. Two of these nurseries have only started functioning recently in. Several different wild and agricultural species of plants and trees are being raised at these nurseries.
We have raised more than 8000 plants belonging to 22 different species in these nurseries. In the nursery set up in Cherupuzha alone we have around 6000 plants. It is managed by Thoduve community foundation at present. The other two nurseries are managed by the village forest rights committees at present. Both agriculture crops and wild plants are planned to be grown in all these nurseries based on the availability of seeds and requirements of the community members. The details of the plants available in different nurseries are given in the tables below:
Cherupuzha Nursery
| S No | Types of crops | Name of the plants | Number of plants |
| Vegetables | Thuvara | 2000 | |
| Chilly | 100 | ||
| Tomato | 500 | ||
| Brinjal | 1000 | ||
| Tubers | Greater yams (7 types) | 350 | |
| Taro | 60 | ||
| Rhizomes | Turmeric | 1000 | |
| Ginger | 1000 | ||
| Commercial crops | Coffee (seeds yet to germinate) | ||
| Wild fruits | Mootil Pazham (local name) | 50 | |
| Chalir/Charl (local name) | 50 |
Palakkayam
| S No | Types of crops | Name of the plants | Number of plants |
| Commercial crops | Coffee | 500 | |
| Guava | 100 | ||
| Uncultivated/wild items | Koombi (local name) | 50 | |
| Chalir/Charl (local name) | 50 | ||
| Cycas | 100 | ||
| Wild mango | 100 | ||
| Wild ginger | 100 | ||
| Jeevakam (local name) | 200 |
Appankappu
| S No | Types of crops | Name of the plants | Number of plants |
| Wild plants | Cycas | 300 | |
| Wild ginger | 200 | ||
| bamboo | 500 |
More than 150 households in two settlements received various kinds of saplings from Cherupuzha nursery in the month of September 2020. 31 families of Bhoomikuth Paniya hamlet received 5 saplings each of vegetable varieties of pumpkin, ash gourd and bottle gourd. 120 households of Appankappu Kattunaicken settlements received wild gooseberry plants in the month of October 2020. A total of 1000 plus plants raised at the nurseries were given out for free to all these families.
