Nanadro B Marak

Nanadro B. Marak is an organic farmer from West Garo Hills in Meghalaya who grows black pepper. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of agriculture, from Meghalaya ^[1].

Rs 10,000 to start

Marak was born on 27 March 1958 and comes from a humble background ^[2]. He began with Rs 10,000, planting the Karimunda variety of black pepper, which bears medium-sized dark berries ^[2]. For the first three years his saplings were damaged, but he did not give up, and stuck to organic methods using cow dung, vermicompost and other natural manures ^[2]. Each year he put in a little more, and his harvest grew ^[2].

Ten tonnes a year

He plants 100 vines every year and has 3,400 on five acres ^[2]. Each yields an average of 3.2 kg, adding up to more than 10,000 kg of pepper a year, and he uses threshing machines to strip the berries from the spikes ^[2].

In 2018 the International Pepper Community named him the best pepper grower from India, and he received an international award for his approach at the International Pepper Conference in Vietnam the same year ^[2]. He trains other farmers, and more than 8,000 have benefited ^[2].