Groups of farmers regularly visit Mala in Thrissur district after learning of this prime vegetable growing belt from the media. They invariably return impressed by the profusion of tomatoes. Apart from tomatoes, fields in some 20 acres are dotted with brinjals and chillies.
But it is tomatoes that capture their attention. What’s so special about growing tomatoes? It’s unusual in Kerala. Apart from three panchayats in Palakkad, tomato is not cultivated anywhere in the state because farmers are fearful of bacterial wilt, a disease that tomatoes catch easily in coastal states.
But now there. . .
