On Your Farm - 03/01/2010

When Kerala farmer Jacob Mathew read Rachael Carson's classic Silent Spring, he, like many counterparts in Europe and the USA, decided to turn his back on pesticides. It wasn't an instant success but now he has also embraced a traditional style of farming - tall trees for timber, bamboo to help conserve water and soil and a mix of traditional spices, fruits and vegetables in place of rubber trees - and his business is thriving. Steve Peacock visits him at Haritha Farms' The Pimenta and finds he has another thing in common with European farmers - the need to diversify. So among the tall trees, spices and wildlife is another crop - tourists.