Mr. Bibin Thomas & Mahendran

Thomas and Bibin who have known each other since childhood, first meeting in primary school. They are both now fourth generation farmers cultivating cardamom, pepper, cloves, arecanut, turmeric, coconut and coffee at their family plantation.

In early 1940’s Thomas’s great grandfather Mr. Thomas Scaria travelled to the high ranges in the Idukki district from Edathwa, a small village in Kottayam district of Kerala, The aim was to find work at a spice plantation and settle down.

Similarly Mahendran’s grandfather Mr. Radhakrishnan also migrated to the region from the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu as a labourer to work at the tea plantations which back then were tightly controlled by the British officials in India.

Late 1940’s when the British finally exited India, the Indian government decided to allot land holdings to local families who were already working in the area.

This is when both these families became neighbours and friendships were formed that have lasted over 4 generations.

As fourth generation farmers, Thomas and Bibin are both well educated and like many of our other farmers trying to directly market their produce across the world rather than depending on multiple middlemen, who often pay next to nothing.

Thomas has a nack for selling and is responsible for marketing their produce whereas Bibin works closely with other farmers in his village.

Together they have close to 50 farming families working together.