A farming collective in Thiruvananthapuram to launch a festival to attract the vacation crowd

Experience a 20-day festival at Ooranvila in Thiruvananthapuram with sunflowers, millet farms, pet shows, healthy food, and more activities.

How does a day spent around sunflowers and marigold blooms sound? Or a walk around a millet farm or angling for fish? Throw in a pet show and some healthy food. Interested? Then head to Ooranvila for an experience of all these and more.

The village, almost an hour’s drive from Thiruvananthapuram, is throwing open a 20-day festival for the public on April 10, celebrating the Vishu-Easter season. A farming collective in the village, Ooranvila Krishikoottam, with support from the Kulathoor Krishi Bhavan, has put together a millet festival, flower show, aqua show, fish spa, pet show, food stalls and cultural programmes spread over an area of 2.5 acres.

Leading the Krishikoottam are Siju MS, a conductor with Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, Parassala depot, and his childhood friend, Vinod V, who retired from the Indian Army. “There are seven of us in the Krishikoottam. All of us come from families that have an agricultural background,” says Siju.

It started with the marigold cultivation they undertook during last Onam. They followed it up with growing sunflowers in December which made their farm a hit among visitors who came from far and wide.

Earlier this year they began cultivating different varieties of millets.

Vinod adds, “Now that the vacations are on we wanted to do something that would attract families and children. We knew that millet and flower farms alone would not bring in the crowds. That’s how we decided upon a festival that features a bunch of activities.”

Of the total 2.5 acres, the millet farm, spread on one acre, has eight types of millets — ragi, pearl millet (kambam), sorghum (manicholam), foxtail millet (thina), little millet (chama), barnyard millet (kuthiravali) and two types of corn, sweet corn and popcorn. Flowers are grown on rest of the property — sunflower, three types of marigold, dahlia, celetia, cock’s comb and vadamalli (bachelor’s button).