Babu Rajasekaran wields a machete as he meets us around 30km from Ooty down the slopes adjoining Mukurthi National Park. He will be there escorting Organic strawberry. He is very much intrested in producing organic strawberry in the organic manner in large number. Rajasekaran is 35 years old and is a graduvated IT professional who worke at bangalore and after few years he returned back to Nilgiris which is his hometown. He had a idea of planting organic strawberry farms in the district. He used the unused tea estate to do his farming the area itself is untouched with very little influence of chemical fertilisers. His aim is to set example for the other farmers that farming methods do not have to be unpinned by intensive use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. He has been working for 3years to produce good quality strawberries. He has faced many problems during the first batch of plants destroyed by strawberry root weevil a pest that attacks the crop. He came to crack down a type of nematode that rids the crop of the pest without having to use any chemical insecticide. All hard work paid off when multinational company
approached him and tested the quality of his strawberries including the presence of
insecticide and pesticide. Now he is supplying strawberries to Bengaluru and chennai and few other places in Nilgiris.