Malayali trio in Ireland wins award for organic farming

Born into a family of farmers, agriculture has always been a passion for Kattappana native Jobis Joseph, who migrated to Ireland in search of a job around 10 years ago. Now, in the North Atlantic Island of Ireland, in a county overlooking Mount Seskin, Jobis has joined hands with Shabu Paul and Brijoy John to cultivate vegetables and fruits in the farmland allotted to them by Bohernabreena Allotments. The Bohernabreena Allotments with 40 plots was established by Paddy Phibbs, a local farmer, in 2012.

Shabu is a native of Kolenchery in Ernakulam, while Brijoy is from Taliparamba in Kannur. The duo arrived in Ireland in search of a job five years ago. While Jobis has been working as a manager with the MHL group in Dublin, Shabu and Brijoy are employed in the food industry. 

The Malayali trio has been cultivating 16 varieties of vegetables and fruits — strawberry, blueberry, balloon berry and gooseberry, in addition to vegetables like carrot, cauliflower, potato and broccoli — in the the farmland for the past two years. Their hard labour has yielded fruit, as they bagged the best organic vegetable and fruit grower prize 2021 in a county-level farm exhibition held at Tallaght in South Dublin on September 4. 

As many as 74 allotment holders had participated in the exhibition.County councillor Brian Lawler presented the trophy for best organic vegetable and fruit grower to the trio at the valedictory function. “Tending to our plants gives us satisfaction and provides some relief from all the stress. We are now experimenting with some Kerala vegetables in our farm. Though we are staying around 10km away, we spend our free hours here. There are many Indians in our locality and we distribute the farm produce to them,” said Jobis.