Madurai: Madurai-based KT Greens India Pvt Ltd is pioneering a green movement. The venture, started by K Tirupathi, owner of the city’s Temple City group of hotels, converts vegetable waste into organic manure which is given to over 150 organic farmers in the region.

“We use a sort of barter system with organic farmers. We supply them with organic manure and in turn get vegetables. We collect no money from them and get vegetables equal to the price of manure supplied,” says Tirupathi.

It was a chance meeting with former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam that changed Tirupathi’s life. “When I introduced myself and handed over my visiting card to the great man, he noticed that not only of my hotelier credentials, but also that I was working as assistant professor of pharmacology in a city college.

The President asked Tirupathi what his contribution to society at large was, and it set him thinking. “I decided to do something sustainable for society and with started this project to help farmers with organic manure to grow organic vegetables. I invested over Rs 10 lakh to buy machinery to make compost in three large pits in a plot of land near Madurai. Vegetable and hotel wastes are collected and segregated, pulverised into bio- matter and then composted with the help of bio-organisms. You get organic manure in 50 to 60 days of composting.”

For each tonne of organic waste generated from the hotels chain, 600 kg of organic manure is produced and supplied to organic farmers in Madurai. A 2 kg bag costs Rs 50, and the product is available in volumes up to 50 kg bags.

S Suryanarayanan of Maragadavalli Agro Farms, in Coimbatore, who is working as a consultant for this project said, “We are looking to replicate this green concept in Coimbatore, which is good in waste management. Hoteliers and restaurant-owners should come forward to take part in the mission, which will benefit them too.”