Tourism News
Hospitality, the organic way
With new avenues of hospitality emerging in different parts of the world, Kerala too is catching up with the trend. Adding a new dimension to the hospitality service in the state are the local farmers of Paliyakkudy and Mannankudy, hardly a kilometer away from Kumily in Idukki District. Supported by the Casino Group, the sons of the soil would offer tourists the opportunity to work in their pepper farms, and the tourists would reciprocate this gesture with money. Sounds a bit unrealistic, but this is precisely what the Casino Group is gearing up to prove, when the first harvest of organic pepper is due in the coming season of December 2003 to February 2004. You may see tourists plucking pepper for a fee, says Mr. Jose Dominic, the Managing Director of Casino Group of Hotels. This only forms a part of the story and the more important one is how the tribal families, owning anything from 30 cents to two acres each are getting ready to chart a new course in their livelihood, through organic farming in the state. First phase of the project would see about 520 tribal families (350 families in Mannankudy and 170 in Paliyakkudy) growing organic pepper in about 150 hectares of land. The produce is being certified by an international agency, the German based Lacon Quality, whose stamp (or by other approved agencies) is a must for the sale of organic food and agricultural products in the European Union and the United States.
