A Sexagenarian Farmer with a 'Nutmeg Will’

Kadukanmackal Abraham Mathew (pic: K Shijith)

A sexagenarian farmer, who lives in the suburbs of Kozhikode, has taken special care of not just his children but also the nutmeg trees in his will. While dividing the four acres of land for his son and daughter, Kadukanmackal Abraham Mathew has added a clause that his children can exchange the property to a third party only 100 years after his and his wife Chinnamma’s death.

Abraham, who hails from Kallanode near Koorachundu, explains his will logically. He has single-handedly developed a high-yielding nutmeg variety, ‘Kadukanmackal nutmeg,’ which even fetched him a place in the Limca Book of Records besides various honours and awards from the state and union govts since 1995.

It is one among the crop varieties which the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations selected from Asia in 2010 under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

“If there is no 100-year clause, it is almost certain that my children or their kids would sell this fertile farmland for some other purpose. I don’t want to destroy this priceless asset,” says Mathew.

And what if the kids strike a deal trickily before the period? “Then, according to the clause, the whole land would automatically come under the hands of the state government,” he clarified.

 And did his wife endorse this unique agreement? “Actually, she wished to give the right to exchange the property soon after our death. But my son and daughter had no problems.”

Of course, ‘Kadukanmackal nutmeg’ was not developed in a day. Of the 100 nutmeg saplings that he planted in 1971, Mathew found peculiarities in one plant. Then he visited the farms of 80 nutmeg farmers in and around the state to find whether there was any variety that was better than the one he identified in his land. And Mathew could not find a better variety. Then he chopped all the plants except the one around half-way mark and started budding the stem of the unique variety with others.

“Overall, it took around 19 years to complete the budding process in all plants,” says Mathew. “The budding done in this plant became successful only in the 63rd attempt. The process clicked with other plants after around 40 attempts. That’s why this tree appears a little younger than others,” he adds.



(The New Indian Express, May 2012)