Niravu Organic Village, an e-tail project aimed
at encouraging the cultivation of hybrid varieties of organic vegetables, was
launched by a residential association, comprising 101 households, in a ward of
Vengeri village of Kerala’s Kozhikode district (which is the first organic
village in the southern state, and does not use pesticides).
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)-funded project, would enjoy technical support from the Kerala Agriculture University and the agriculture department. A study conducted in March 2014 by the Pesticide Residue Research and Analytical Laboratory under the College of Agriculture in Vellayani gave its vegetable samples zero-pesticide certificates.