Sukrushi, an organic farm

An organic farm in Bangalore’s outskirts. That’s Sukrushi for you. Owned by organic farmer H R Jayaram, the farm makes use of rainwater-harvesting techniques, solar and biogas energy, eschews chemical fertilisers and pesticides using organic substitutes for the same, and practises social forestry.  Farmer H R Jayaram practises organic farming on Sukrushi, his land in the outskirts of Bangalore.

It was in the process of cultivating Sukrushi that he was introduced to chemical fertilisers and pesticides––considered indispensable in modern farming.

“However, having grown up on a rural, organic farm, where everything worked well without these non-natural inputs, I wondered if these modern methods were really necessary,” Jayaram reveals. So, he began questioning this approach, met several farmers, had discussions with scientists and agricultural experts, read The One-Straw Revolution (which advocates natural farming) and eventually realised that organic was the right way to go. So, he turned Sukrushi  (once barren land), into a pure organic one. It makes extensive use of rainwater-harvesting techniques, solar and biogas energy, eschews chemical fertilisers and pesticides using organic substitutes for the same, and practises social forestry.

Aruna Chandaraju

Farming with a passion

Florina and Edward Rebello own two-and-a half acres of land in Takode near Mudabidri. The husband and wife do not depend on external labour. Edward’s mother Elizabeth guides them while sons Elson and Rolson assist them when they are free. Florina looks after the nearby areca farm while Edward keeps experimenting in his two-acre forest farm a kilometer away.  

More than 200 plants in his farm mirror Edward’s passion. He waters the plants only once a week for two hours by way of sprinkler irrigation.

He carries gobar gas slurry on his shoulder to the farm. He has also realised his dream of developing an unconventional farm inside the nearby forest. Seven types of sapota, five cocum varieties, six flavours of lemon, four areca varieties, eight mango species, ten species of jack not only attract farmers but also birds, insects and wild animals.

A farmville that’s for real

There are examples of farmers across the state opting for innovative ways to increase crop yield or taking to sustainable, organic ways to raise farms. We compile the best agriculture stories of the year.

It is a crop that never fails the farmer. Jackfruit is drought-resistant and the incidence of pest is negligible. Formation of a Jackfruit Growers’ Association and better marketing opportunities have helped. A mango orchard yields a good harvest only if you spray insecticides twice a year. But jackfruit farms don’t require that kind of attention. Once the jackfruit saplings cross five years, it is a zero-attention crop,” says farmer R S Nagaraj of Toobugere in Doddaballapur taluk. He realised the potential of jackfruit almost a decade ago. He has planted jackfruit as a single crop on his 75 cents of land. The trees have started yielding fruit over the last three years.

Last year, he made a profit of Rs 15,000 by selling fruits to local middlemen. A member of Toobugere Jackfruit Growers’ Association (TJGA), probably the only such organisation in the country, he hopes to market fruits through the association.
Nagaraj is convinced about jackfruit cultivation enough to coax his elder brother Prakash to plant jackfruit trees on his 12-acre coconut farm. “However severe the drought is, jackfruit never fails a farmer. The barest minimum that a tree would fetch is Rs 500,” he points out.

Toobugere Jackfruit Growers’ Association Secretary M G Ravikumkar makes a profit of Rs 3,500 to 4,000 a year from an old jackfruit tree his grandmother planted many years ago. He sells the fruitlets at local santhes (fairs). His son Harshithkumar is a ninth standard student. From the last ten years, Ravikumar is investing all the money from jackfruit cultivation in an insurance scheme for his son.

Ravi advises fellow-farmers to plant at least 10 jackfruit saplings to border his fields. The trees will start to yield fruit from the seventh year onwards. Over the last two-three years, at least 30-40 small farmers at Toobugere have planted jackfruit trees in their 10-15 gunta land. The Association produces thousands of jackfruit plants every year and the demand is increasing. Rural Bio Resource Complex (RBRC), a five-year project under Central Bio-technology Department, taken up by the University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS), Bangalore is coming to an end this year. It covers 8,340 families of 75 villages in five panchayats of Toobugere hobli in Bangalore Rural district. Slowly, farmers are realising the commercial importance of jackfruit. It has a very high timber value too. If farmers are able to take their fruit to consumers, there is always a good demand and higher price waiting. This is where the role of the Association comes in.

Shree Padre

Courtesy Deccan Herald

Innovation in paddy cultivation

Innovation in paddy cultivation

Ganapathi Bhat Harohalli

An areca grower from Puttur in Dakshina Kannada, Eshwar Prasad, has converted the yard in front of his house used for drying areca into a paddy field. Only, the paddy is not grown on soil, but on areca peel. However, he intends to replace the basmati he has grown with a short-grained variety.

Not too long ago, Dakshina Kannada district was known as the treasure-house of paddy. Today though, things have changed. Paddy fields are slowly disappearing. In their place are areca plantations. A situation has arrived where farmers have had to buy rice. Along with the disappearance of paddy fields, an entire way of life too seems to be on its way out...a way of life revolving around agricultural activities such as the tradition of Hosa Akki Oota (a meal cooked with freshly harvested paddy).

Areca growers of the region typically have a huge area in front of their homes to dry areca. With their areca farms occupying a vast stretch, the courtyard in front of the homes gets bigger too. The areca growers constantly struggle to ensure that this area is not affected during rain.

This they do, by using areca fronds or coconut fronds to cover the area. In the recent past, there has been a new development. That of farmers trying to grow paddy in this courtyard in front of the house. One such farmer who has successfully grown paddy in his yard is Puttur’s Banari Eshwar Prasad.

‘Cannot be used for cultivation’

“The area where areca is dried should be maintained well. One cannot dig up the land or use it to cultivate any other crop,” explains Eshwar Prasad. It was last June when Eshwar hit upon the idea of growing paddy in the courtyard. When the first rain of the season came down, this areca grower spread areca peel on 20 cents of land. When the second spell of rain came down, he sowed paddy seeds at an interval of one foot. The paddy seeds were sown on the areca peel.

To do so, he took a five-foot-long PVC pipe, and tied a plastic jug to one end of it. He filled paddy seeds into the jug. Towards the other end of jug, he attached an eight-inch stick. Each time he had to sow, Eshwar counted five seeds from the jug and put it into the PVC pipe. Every eight inches, he sowed paddy seeds.

“Because there is a possibility of ants and birds getting to the paddy seeds, I sow very few of them at one time,” explains Eshwar, who sowed the basmati strain of paddy on this plot. Also, because there is the danger of seeds getting washed away when there is heavy rain, it is ideal to sow paddy during the first rain, he explains.

Within a week, the seeds start to sprout. There is no chance of digging up the soil and planting paddy at all on this space, he adds. Fifteen days after sowing paddy, he ensured that the right fertilisers were used on the plants.  He also took care to see that there were no pest attacks by spraying a mixture of garlic juice and asafoetida on the crop. Within four months, the paddy was up for harvest. The yield was a good one-and-a-quarter quintals of paddy.

A strain other than basmati

“The yield from basmati is low. It is also more susceptible to pest attacks. Because the roots are not allowed to touch the soil, there are chances of the paddy falling off sideways when it grows too tall. I hope to sow another strain of paddy next year; the gidda (the short -grained ) variety,” explains Eshwar. “Also, because there are no paddy fields in the surrounding areas, all the birds flock to my fields.

Nevertheless, it brings great joy to see the vast field of green. Because there is not much of an investment when it comes to raising the crop, any profit is good enough,” he points out.

Because it rains constantly between June and October in the coastal areas, there is not much of a water problem in the region. Areca peel has the ability to soak in the water, and the crop is not affected even if it doesn’t rain for three or four days, the farmer explains. One can grow this crop in the organic method and harvest a decent paddy crop for domestic use, he points out.

Courtesy Deccan Herald

When shrubs double up as fences...

Where are all the forests going? In the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, lots of trees have traditionally been chopped to make way for fences on agricultural plots.

Over three-fourth of the land area in the district has a forest cover, albeit depleting gradually over the years. A major cause of forest depletion is attributed to the harvest of forest produce that is available free of cost.

Though there is a legal classification on what makes up a forest and a clamp-down on harvest from reserved forests, most of the forest land is treated as common property resource.

This unlimited and free access to forest resources, coupled with increase in population and lack of awareness has caused a Tragedy of Commons in the district.

People depend on forests for fuel wood, green leaves, dry leaves, structural material (small timber) and many other non-timber forest products (NTFPs). While harvesting some of these products like fuel wood and leafy materials leads to partial loss of biomass, harvesting of structural material mostly leads to a complete loss of biomass.

Farmers fence their agricultural fields almost every year with structural material harvested from forests in order to protect their crop from wild animals and cattle. Owing to heavy monsoon, material used for fencing decomposes and the fields need fencing the next year.

The ideal structural material for villagers would be plants of the girth (circumference) of 10-20 cm.  While some farmers harvest bamboo and branches of trees for fencing, there are others who just chop young trees. They end up chopping future trees to meet present needs.

It is a similar scenario at Nidgod, a small village in Siddapur taluk of Uttara Kannada district with a geographical area of 814.48 hectares inhabited by 651 people. Most people here rely heavily on forests. People with land depend on the forest for biomass requirement of their crop and landless labourers rely on forests for supplying biomass from forests to land owners.

Reduction of biomass
Nidgod has a reserve forest to which there is no access to people, legally speaking. Minor forest to which there is limited access and soppina bettas are used by arecanut growers to meet biomass requirement. Many years of harvesting from all this forest has resulted in reduction of biomass, tree density and species density.

Disturbance to the forest biodiversity caused by way of cutting, lopping and chopping is very high. Loss of forest cover near the village has resulted in an increase in the distance that residents of Nidgod have had to travel to collect forest produce. This seems to be ringing alarm bells for the villagers. People have started to shift to fuel-efficient stoves and live fencing technique to avoid chopping trees.

Live fencing to save trees
A study of 80 (53 per cent of total) households in Nidgod showed that 39 per cent of them have already taken up the live-fencing technique and have planted grilicidia maculata.

This has meant saving of 10.02 tonnes of structural material per year. As compared to the earlier harvest, there is a 46 per cent saving of structural material. As G.maculata is a fast growing leguminous tree, it can be harvested a few times a year for foliage. Therefore, there is also a possibility of reducing lopping of green leaves from natural forests.

Though some of the villagers have realised the benefits of live-fencing, a huge chunk of the population is yet to realise it. Though the reasons for this major part of the population to persist with the traditional fencing method is unclear, it seems that they are unaware of how much damage they are causing to forests.

Today, after much degradation of the forest, people of Nidgod are realising the importance of conserving trees. It is important to create awareness among people about the cost saved in terms of labour hours because fuel-efficient stoves require less fuelwood.

Also, they need to be made aware of the fact that G.maculata once planted lives for many years. This has to be done with the joint effort of Forest Department and local NGOs as they are in close contact with the village community.

Courtesy Deccan Herald

Being a Farmer : by Pushpa Surendra

Farming as an occupation has been given little importance by the government and urban society. Basic services such as electricity are hard to come by. A change in the mindset of people is the need of the hour. I am often asked by my friends living in cities as to what I do on the farm or how I spend my time. Don't I get bored? How do I manage without television, and so on. When I tell them that I am engaged in farming, they look at me with suspicion as if I am covering up my idleness. Though this type of interrogation infuriates me, I have somehow resisted the temptation to ask whether teaching disinterested students "irony" in Jane Austen for two decades, practicing medicine without compassion or building matchbox houses meant for human habitation in the name of slum development, are all professions more intellectually rewarding, ethical and useful than farming. Then there are the comrades who speak for the farmer and for whom real farmers are only those who till the land and are poor and illiterate. Others employing labour are to be equated with exploitative landlords. It does not occur to them that living in cities and paying less than minimum wages to domestics and overworking them is also exploitation. In this country, we have always been told that 70 per cent of the Indian population live in villages and are engaged in agriculture, though I am told that recently this percentage has come down in 50 years by a majestic five per cent.

Simultaneously, we read about large scale migration into cities and expanding slums as a result of such migration. Whatever the percentage, there is lack of understanding about people engaged in agriculture. No one feels the necessity to learn about rural areas or agriculture, because it is not required "general knowledge". Even public service examinations do not require the candidates to know anything about agriculture except perhaps statistics relating to five year plan outlays for agriculture or the recent National Agriculture Policy, which may have very little to do with farmers and more to do with traders promoting agribusiness companies. Batch after batch of administrators, who have no understanding of farming or agriculture, make policy decisions affecting millions of lives in rural areas. For the majority of the city-bred, educated, urban middle class, farming is just a boring activity and meant for people who are unfit to perform salaried jobs in the city. More recently however, owning farms has become fashionable among the yuppy generation, as a safe investment, or a weekend getaway. Farms have mushroomed close to big cities on the lines of extended home gardens and are managed by real estate companies. A small number of people from urban areas in recent years have returned to the villages because of the deteriorating quality of life in the cities and sometimes with the intention of making farming a way of life. Among the reasons for this lack of respect for the farmer is that the city population is alienated from its links with the village from where they originally came. The earlier generations of city dwellers left behind their extended families in the villages.

Their growing children visited their ancestral homes during vacations and maintained some links with villages. For most in the city, this interaction with the village does not exist anymore. Images of the early-rising, hard-working farmer and that of the idle, unproductive farmer persist. A familiar statement is that the Indian farmer is under-employed and works only during the rainy season. The farmers would not have been able to survive if they did not work during the dry months. No one thinks of politicians and administrators as underemployed. The farmer is expected to work in the fields and earn his keep even if that means just eking out a hand-to-mouth existence. The farmers substitute their income in the non-monsoon months by wage labour in the nearby towns and cities or migrate to areas where they can find work. Farmers growing perennials have a lot of preparation to do before the onset of the next rains such as taking measures to conserve the soil moisture by mulching. If mulch is not readily available, it has to be brought from neighbouring community lands.

Considering how erratic the rainfall patterns are, the summer agricultural operations have to be done methodically. The rains have done a repeat performance of last year and the cotton crop in the fields surrounding my farm are drying up, though the statement from the agricultural department issued to the press said that there has been normal rainfall in the Mysore taluk and surrounding areas. The Karnataka Power Corporation is sanctioning new pumpsets when it cannot provide enough power to existing pumpset owners. Upon enquiry I found out that for sometime they had withdrawn permission to those who went ahead with their plans of digging borewells (sometimes within 500 metres of existing borewells) by not sanctioning power. This was six months ago but now they have started giving connections to the errant farmer if he paid Rs. 10,000/- fine to the Power Corporation. The Karnataka Electricity Board has been re- christened as the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation.

Its metamorphosis from a board to a corporation has not seen any great improvement in the services provided to consumers and especially to farmers like me who have to be grateful for one full day of uninterrupted power.  We shall not talk of the marketing facilities available because much lip service has already been rendered by the elected representatives and the appointed officers in the agriculture and horticulture departments. Most farmers are still in the clutches of contractors and middlemen. The government has set up institutions for the "benefit" of the farmers that buy the produce at such low prices that it has no relation to production and transportation costs. About a month ago, a senior officer of the department of horticulture, was reported in this newspaper as having said that Mysore district and its vast hinterland is very suitable for growing horticultural crops and is already producing a very large quantity of fruits and vegetables. He deplored the lack of good marketing facilities for the farmer, resulting in a huge loss of these perishables and this situation has arisen inspite of the existence of two premier institutions CFTRI (Central Food and Technological Research Institute) and the DFRL (Defence Food Research Laboratory) which can help in making food processing technologies available to the farmer.

A week later CFTRI's contribution to the food industry was lauded by an academic heavyweight. Passing the buck and blaming one another seems the best way to avoid responsibility for failure. What the Minister of State Agriculture, marketing, had to say was also reported. Karnataka has decided in principle to set up farmer bazaars on the models of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to prevent the exploitation of farmers by middlemen! The bazaars, the Minister said, would help farmers have direct access to the market and the consumers also would benefit by them. The Minister, I am sure, is well-intentioned, but, for the success of the bazaars, co-ordination between several ministries is necessary, especially that of transport. This is precisely where all the well-intentioned measures fail. The horticulture department gives subsidies for drip irrigation but the electricity department cannot guarantee power supply. Basic services in the rural areas such as electricity (even for agriculture) and transport facilities are in a miserable condition. Urban areas get priority in almost everything, from schooling to electrification, telephones, roads, transport and hospital facilities.

The tremendous pressure put on the land by man and animals is rapidly degrading the lands. Converting the overgrazed dry lands in rain-starved belts into productive lands is work that may take years. It is of utmost importance that municipalities and corporations make efforts to return the farm wastes back to the villages by encouraging households, markets and hotels that generate a lot of waste to separate the garbage at source so that this wealth is not lost to land. The cities can help in reviving the dying soils by returning the organic wastes back to the villages. Writing 60 years ago in his classic, An Agricultural Testament, Sir Albert Howard wrote about the importance of utilising town wastes.

"The human population, for the most part concentrated in towns and villages, is maintained almost exclusively by the land. Apart from the harvest of the sea, agriculture provides the food of the people and the requirements of vegetable and animal origin needed by the factories of the urban areas. It follows that a large portion of the waste products of farming must be found in the towns and away from the fields which produced them. One of the consequences, therefore, of the concentration of the human population in small areas has been to separate, often by considerable distances, an important portion of the wastes of agriculture from the land... From the point of view of farming, the towns have become parasites. They will last under the present system only as long as the earth's fertility lasts. Then the whole fabric of our civilisation must collapse."

Courtesy

PUSHPA SURENDRA In The Hindu magazine section dated September 17, 2000

Punyabhoomi: Advocating sustainable farming

Organic farmers in Hasan have gone a step forward to popularise sustainable farming. 'Punyabhoomi' situated in Yedoor Village of Aloor Taluk is a unique organisation formed by 'Parisara Priya Krishikara Seva Samsthe' - an eco-friendly farmers forum in Hasan District. More than 400 like-minded people have joined hands with the organisation by becoming its members.

Objectives of the union are:

• Implementing nature- friendly farming systems in its one and a half acre land.
• Documenting such methods and informing its importance to farmers and the public.
• Organising related programmes in villages.

Fruits, vegetables, cereals, medicines and plantation crops are being grown in the one and a half acre land belonging to Punyabhoomi. Trenches and percolation pits have been constructed in the farm as part of soil and water conservation. Cow-dung manure and organic waste available in the neighbourhood are liquidised and used as fertiliser. Weeding is not done unless a sapling has to be planted in the area. Entire land is developing naturally without much human interference. Vermicomposting is done to meet the needs of the farm. Earthworms are provided to the interested. A house has been constructed with rainwater harvesting and solar lighting facility.

 

Institute's Honoraray Director Mr. Vijay Angady says, "Farmers in our organisation have distanced themselves from chemical farming which proved very helpful. Now we intend to form a link between organic producers and consumers." For this the organisation supplies organic farm produces to the consumers. It has formed a network to meet the demand. Information regarding nature-friendly farming and related topics are available in its office in the form of press clippings, books, photographs and audio cassettes.

Address:
Punyabhoomi
Yadoor Village, Post: Hunasavalli
Aloor Taluk, Hasan District
Karnataka State, INDIA
Phone: 91- 8170 - 218180
 
Background:

Organic movement started a decade back in Hasan has changed the lives of many farmers. When Mr. Vijay Angady, a post graduate from the University of Agricultural Sciences joined the farm section of All India Radio, Hasan, chemical farming was common in the region. Mr. Angady's earnest desire to popularise eco- friendly farming led to the formation of 'Parisarapriya Krishikara Seva Samsthe'. He initiated the programme with a small group of farmers in June 1996 through a meeting.

 

Now the association has grown considerably, with more and more farmers opting for organic farming. The organisation stands different in its mode of work. All the members come together once in a month in a farm where they get useful guidance from a successful farmer. Dissemination of information is done through exchange of their experiences. According to Mr. Vijay Angady,"Observation and listening along with field exposure has facilitated a smooth livelihood for its members. Farm tours to other regions in the state have added to their knowledge bank." Uniqueness of the forum is that even after 10 years it has limited itself to environment- friendly farming and related aspects, keeping casteism, class difference and politics at a distance.

Encouraged by the success of this effort Mr. Angady and other members decided to have a model farm 'Punyabhoomi', from where Parisara Priya Krishikara Sanghatane would work. Mr. G.S. Giddegowda, an organic farmer and a teacher by profession has been chosen to lead the organisation along. Punyabhoomi intends to implement eco- friendly farming methods in its one and a half acre farm. With this, the association, which has already embraced 400 farmers into its fold would organise programmes to popularise these methods. Punyabhoomi also plans to document related methods and inform the general public on the advantages of organic farming.

 

Natural Farming and Permaculture

Masanobu Fukuoka's Natural Farming and Permaculture
by Larry Korn

 

Masanobu Fukuoka is a farmer/philosopher who lives on the Island of Shikoku, in southern Japan. His farming technique requires no machines, no chemicals and very little weeding. He does not plow the soil or use prepared compost and yet the condition of the soil in his orchards and fields improve each year. His method creates no pollution and does not require fossil fuels. His method requires less labor than any other, yet the yields in his orchard and fields compare favorably with the most productive Japanese farms which use all the technical know-how of modern science.

How is this possible? I admit, when I first went to his farm in 1973.  I was skeptical - but there was the proof. Beautiful grain crops in the fields, healthy orchard trees growing with a ground cover of vegetables, weeds and white clover. Over the two-year period I lived and worked there his techniques and philosophy gradually became clear to me.

Mollison and Fukuoka took entirely different routes to get to essentially the same place. Permaculture is a design system which aims to maximize the functional connection of its elements. It integrates raising crops and animals with careful water management. Homes and other structures are designed for maximum energy efficiency. Everything is made to work together and evolve over time to blend harmoniously into a complete and sustainable agricultural system.

The key word here is design. Permaculture is a consciously designed system. The designer carefully uses his/her knowledge, skill and sensitivity to make a plan, then implement it. Fukuoka created natural farming from a completely different perspective.

The idea for natural farming came to Fukuoka when he was about twenty-five years old. One morning, as he sat at sunrise on a bluff overlooking Yokohama Bay, a flash of inspiration occurred. He saw that nature was perfect just as it is. Problems arise when people try to improve upon nature and use nature strictly for human benefit. He tried to explain this understanding to others, but when they could not understand, he made a decision to return to his family farm. He decided to create a concrete example of his understanding by applying it to agriculture.

But where to begin? Fukuoka had no model to go by. "How about trying this? How about trying that? That is the usual way of developing agricultural technique. My way was different. How about not doing this? And, how about not doing that, this was the path I followed. Now my rice growing is simply sowing seed and spreading straw, but it has taken me more than thirty years to reach this simplicity."

The basic idea for his rice growing came to him one day when he happened to pass an old field which had been left unused and unplowed for many years. There he saw healthy rice seedlings sprouting through a tangle of grasses and weeds. From that time on he stopped sowing rice seed in the spring and, instead, put the seed out in the fall when it would naturally have fallen to the ground. Instead of plowing to get rid of weeds he learned to control them with a ground cover of white clover and a mulch of barley straw. Once he has tilted the balance slightly in favor of his crops Fukuoka interferes as little as possible with the plant and animal communities in his fields.

This is not to say that Fukuoka did not experiment. For example, he tried more than twenty different ground covers before noticing that white clover was the only one which held back weeds effectively. It also fixes nitrogen so it improves the soil. He tried spreading the straw neatly over the fields but found the rice seeds could not make their way through. In one corner of the field, however, where the straw had scattered every which way, the seedlings emerged. The next year he scattered the straw across the entire field. There were years when his experiments resulted in almost a total crop loss, but in small areas things worked out well. He closely observed what was different in that part of the field and next year the results were better. The point is, he had no preconceived idea of what would work the best. He tried many things and took the direction nature revealed. As far as possible, Fukuoka was trying to take the human intellect out of the decision making process.

His vegetable growing also reflects this idea. He grows vegetables in the spaces between the citrus trees in the orchard. Instead of deciding which vegetables would do well in which locations he mixes all the seeds together and scatters them everywhere. He lets the vegetables find their own location, often-in areas he would have least have expected. The vegetables reseed themselves and move around the orchard from year to year. Vegetables grown this way are stronger and gradually revert to the form of their semi-wild ancestors.

I mentioned that Fukuoka's farm is a fine model of permaculture design. In Zone 1, nearest his home in the village, he and his family maintain a vegetable garden in the traditional Japanese style. Kitchen scraps are dug into the rows, crops are rotated, and chickens run freely. This garden is really an extension of the home living area.

Zone 2 is his grain fields. He grows a crop of rice and one of barley every year. Because he returns the straw to the fields and has the ground cover of white clover the soil actually each year. The natural balance of insects and healthy soil keep insect and disease infestations to a minimum. Until Bill Mollison read The One-Straw Revolution, he said he had no idea of how to include grain growing in his permaculture designs. All the agricultural models involved plowing the soil - a practice he does not agree with. Now he includes Fukuoka's no-tillage technique in his teaching.

Zone 3 is the orchard. The main tree crop is Mandarin oranges, but he also grows many other fruit trees and native shrubs. The upper story is tall trees, many of which fix nitrogen and so improve the soil deep down. The middle story is the citrus and other fruit trees. The ground is covered with a riotous mixture of weeds, vegetables, herbs and white clover. Chickens run freely. This multi-tiered orchard area came about through a natural evolution rather than conscious design. It still contains many of the basic permacultural design features. It has many different plant species, maximizes surface area, contains solar sunlight traps and maintains a natural balance of insect populations.

Fukuoka invites visitors from Zone 4 anytime. Wild animals and birds come and go freely. The surrounding forest is the source of mushrooms, wild herbs and vegetables. It is also an inspiration. "To get an idea of the perfection and abundance of nature," Fukuoka says, "take a walk into the forest sometime. There, the animals, tall trees and shrubs are living together in harmony. All of this came about without benefit of human ingenuity or intervention."

What is remarkable is that Fukuoka's natural farming and permaculture should resemble each other so closely despite their nearly opposite approaches. Permaculture relies on the human intellect to devise a strategy to live abundantly and sustainably within nature. Fukuoka sees the human intellect as the culprit, serving only to separate people from nature. One mountain top, many paths.

Natural farming and permaculture share a profound debt to each other. The many examples of permaculture throughout the world show that a natural farming system is truly universal. It can be applied to arid climates as well as humid, temperate Japan. Also, the worldwide permaculture movement is an inspiration to Fukuoka. For many years he worked virtually alone. For most of his life Japan was not receptive to his message. He had to self-publish his books because no publisher would take a chance on someone so far from the mainstream. When his experiments resulted in failure, the other villagers ridiculed him. In the mid-1980's he came to a Permaculture Convergence in Olympia, Washington and met Bill Mollison. There were nearly one thousand people there. He was overwhelmed and heartened by the number and sincerity of the like-thinking people he met. He thanked Mollison for creating this network of bright, energetic people working to help save the planet. "Now," he said, "for the first time in my life I have hope for the future."

In turn, permaculture has adopted many things from Fukuoka. Besides the many agricultural techniques, such as continuous no-tillage grain growing and growing vegetables like wild plants, permaculture has also learned an important new approach for devising practical strategies. Most importantly, the philosophy of natural farming has given permaculture a truly spiritual basis lacking in its earlier teachings.

Fukuoka believes that natural farming proceeds from the spiritual health of the individual. He considers the healing of the land and the purification of the human spirit to be one process, and he proposes a way of life and a way of farming in which this process can take place. "Natural farming is not just for growing crops," he says, “it is for the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”

All For A Cause

An engineer from Mysore has taken it upon himself to create green shelters by planting trees at key places such as a prayer ground, a school, and a hospital, writes Ravindra Bhat

There is place for 15,000 people to sit here and offer their prayers. Also, there is enough shade to protect them from the harshness of the summer sun. We are talking of a green canopy in Mysore’s Idgah Maidan near the Farooqiya Dental College at Shaktingara.

Natural shelter
The green canopy is 1,000-feet long and 350-feet wide, and will soon get an entry in the Lima Book of Records.


The shelter is the brainchild of mechanical fitter Hyder Ali Khan.He has worked hard for 12 years to ensure there’s shade over people’s heads when they sit down to offer prayers. He planted over 300 honge saplings, nurtured them till they were tall enough to form a natural canopy. Such a canopy can be found elsewhere too, at the Srikanteshwara temple in Nanjangud, where you can see a row of cherry trees. Or at Shaktinagar’s Adhyayan School, where the canopy is 120 feet-long and 60-feet wide, for instance.

Apart from this, such a shelter can also be found in an auto stand, the premises of a theatre hall, hotel premises, a hospital, car parking area etc. All these are, of course, the handiwork of Hyder Ali Khan.

It was about 12 years back when a very tired Hyder Ali Khan sat underneath a tree to take a breather from the heat. It was then that this green canopy idea occurred to him. He discussed the idea with the Idgah Committee Chairman Taj Mohammed Khan, who gave him permission to implement his idea of planting trees across the Maidan. Ali Khan, who has served as a mechanical fitter for 27 years, has now taken to building these canopies both as a hobby and as a profession.

He is known to people here as the Hasiru Chapparada Khan. Khan plants honge, Ashoka, Singapura and cherry saplings for the green canopy and adds that it is impossible to build a canopy out of trees that have already been planted or those that have already grown strong.

“When one plants saplings, you can bend them slightly or raise them till the height you want. You can also ensure that the creepers are tied together in the form of a canopy,” he explains.

Hyder Ali Khan has other dreams. If the government gives the go-ahead, and the opportunity comes along, he dreams of planting saplings along the Bangalore-Mysore Highway and create a green canopy for vehicles for the benefit of those who use the highway. He says galleries can be constructed out of trees.

One can use bamboo for this, as it lasts nearly 80 to 125 years. A green gallery can be raised in a time span of eight years, he explains. He also points out that the saplings need the support of poles, so that they can grow straight, to form a green canopy.

Also, after they grow till the requisite height, one should make sure that the sapling branches out into eight sides. These eight branches can be intertwined with eight different trees to make an intricate network, he explains.

Also, the trees and their network need to be constantly trimmed and maintained. He also points out that the honge lasts longer, while Singapura and cherry varieties don’t last that long. He notes that a green canopy is any day better than a canopy made out of dry plants, and dry coconut fronds.

Courtesy by Deccan Herald

Green crusaders-Thinking beyond the grid

Sunil Kumar M meets Narayan S Bhat and K Puttaraju, two eco-warriors in their own way. While Bhat, a primary school teacher living in the dense forest near the Kaiga power plant, has tapped solar energy to meet all the electricity needs in his house, Puttaraju, an officer at Kaiga has been documenting rare and threatened species in the Western Ghats.

While most environmentalists and policy makers preach the importance of renewable energy and green practices, a primary school teacher residing in the dense forest near the Kaiga Nuclear Power Plant has actually gone a step beyond the rhetoric. He has put such mantras into practice to brighten his life.

The entire lighting requirement in his house, irrigation and domestic water pumps are all being operated on solar energy for the last 13 years. This has inspired many of his neighbours and fellow villagers to go solar. Nearly 60 per cent of the villagers now use solar energy.

Meet Narayan S Bhat of Shigekeri village situated in the forests of Kaiga, near Karwar. Like most of his neighbours, Bhat’s family has been making do without electricity, for generations now. Their only source of light, so far, were kerosene lanterns and oil lamps. However, the transformation came about in 1994, when Bhat was working as a teacher in Mundgod. “In one of the houses in Mundgod I happened to see a solar lantern in use. It was then that I decided to adopt this novel technology in my house as well,” says Bhat.

And then, there was light... Way back in 1997, Bhat bought and installed a couple of solar panels to meet the lighting needs in his house. Over the years, he also bought direct current water and irrigation pumps and added more solar power panels. Everything from the dosa grinder and mixie in his kitchen to the TV, computer, telephone and fencing for his farm is powered by solar panels. He says that he has not experienced a single power outage in the last 10-12 years.

“We are nine of us in the family and also have many guests every day including  labourers who work on the farm. A lot of cooking gets done in our kitchen and thankfully this technology has not failed us,” Bhat points out. Energy tapped from the sun is stored in batteries and used for operating lights and other appliances. When it rains though, there is no need to use the irrigation pump. The electricity that is generated is enough for our lighting and kitchen needs, he says.

School running on solar power In fact, the government primary school adjacent to his house also uses solar power for lighting and to power the computer. Narayan Bhat, his wife Geetha and brother Ramachandra Bhat are also keen on community service.

Their house is always welcome for trekkers or naturalists who end up in the forest and have no place to stay for the night. The entire family and neighbours gather in the kitchen to cook food in case a large number of trekkers end up at their house. Bhat is popular with the students and their parents as well and has also won the Jana Mecchidanta Shikshaka Award, for his popularity. His school has also received the Uttama Shale Award. (Best School Award).

‘Stop depending on the grid’ Even though his village was finally provided electricity from the grid five years ago, he does not use it. Bhat believes solar power is the future and that the government should popularise it in a big way.

He points out that solar power should be used for small villages of about 15-20 houses which are in remote areas like a forest or in hilly areas.

Instead of cutting trees to make way for power lines, the government should set up exclusive solar power plants in such villages and hand over maintenance to the village.
He suggests that use of solar power be made compulsory for every household in the state to minimise environmental problems and also help reduce the dependence of people on the grid.

Capturing rare species on camera


K Puttaraju is unlike other officers serving at the Kaiga Nuclear Power plant near Karwar. Though he is a specialist in information science and works as a scientific officer, his passion is wildlife and conservation.

Because the nuclear power plant is situated in the dense forests of the Western Ghats, the zone around it is rich in wildlife. Puttaraju has spent several years documenting this pristine habitat on his own. He first got interested in nature when he was in the seventh standard and happened to stay on the banks of the Tunga river attending a Veda Patha Shale. “The natural beauty of the place captured my imagination and from then I started to appreciate nature more,” he says.

Among the lifeforms he has documented include the rare and threatened species such as the Malabar Giant Squirrel, Giant Pied Hornbills, tiger, flying lizards etc.

He has listed almost 300 species of butterflies and photographed many of them including the world’s tiniest grass butterfly to the largest birdwing. Puttaraju takes a deep interest in raising awareness about wildlife and its conservation. He is not only actively engaged in collecting baseline data on birds, insects and plants, but also accompanies visitors and officers into the forests to enhance their levels of appreciation.

He believes that it is important to educate young minds as they can take up larger conservation causes later. Puttaraju also visits schools and villages in and around the nuclear power plant to talk to them about conservation and training them in identifying wildlife.

He also conducts several wildlife photography exhibitions in schools. Apart from being a mountaineer, he also serves as vice-president of the Anshi Naturalist Society. Puttaraju points out that monitoring the population of wildlife on a regular basis is important to understand if there are changes in numbers and to determine causes for such a change.

Courtesy By Deccan Herald

Women as keepers of tradition

Vanastree, earlier the Malnad Home Garden and Seed Exchange Collective, promotes biodiversity in farms and home gardens, encourages seed saving and conservation of traditional crop varieties. It also offers livelihood opportunities for women, writes Aruna Chandaraju

It is a rural woman’s collective born and bred in the villages of Malnad region. Setting it up was a city-born and city-bred girl Sunita Rao! This Bangalorean went to do her masters in ecology in Pondicherry Central University. “There I got a chance to see Auroville.  I observed old-timer Aurovilleans doing lot of work in healing of the earth, land restoration and food farming.”

Their philosophy of environmentalism influenced her and she too wanted to do something––and in a practical way.

She landed up in Malnad, where she resolved to document, research and endorse the whole activity of small-scale food gardens, informal exchange of traditional seeds (i.e not hybrids), and the role of women as seed-keepers and sources of tremendous knowledge.

“I was also tasting and admiring their diverse cuisine,” she says. Finally, the Malnad Home Garden and Seed Exchange Collective was born in 2001. Its objectives were to to  promote cultivated and wild biodiversity in farms and forest home gardens; encourage seed saving and conservation of traditional crop varieties  and provide networking and extension services. It was by the women, of the women but for the entire region, in fact for the entire ecological heritage of the Western Ghats. In the early days, founder Sunita was helped greatly by women of Neernalli village and by a lady seed-keeper and home-gardener Savithriamma. The first effort started in Neernalli. Here home-gardeners like Asha, Veda and Kamala were big sources of support.

Sunita and her team would go around villages and form small home-garden groups where seed exchange, seed-saving, skill-sharing and new methods of gardening were facilitated. The collective endorsed and celebrated existing home-garden practices and diversity especially traditional seeds,  ethno-culinary cuisine and the unique Malnad culture. Slowly, but steadily the collective grew. In 2007, it was rechristened as the shorter, catchier, and meaningful Vanastree by an 82-year-old aunt of Sunita who visited Sirsi from Chennai. Because the word Vanastree includes forests, tree and stree, it was welcomed by the women. Vanastree now has a small office in Sirsi and a modest collection of seeds.

In the last six years, rural farmer Manorama Joshi, has played an active role. She mooted the idea that these women need economic incentives and Vanastree an ecologically-sensitive enterprise component. Thus began the ecologically-sensitive livelihood programme. Manorama and her team used to produce vegetable colours for Holi. Thanks to Vanastree’s initiative in organising their efforts, the production which was 240 kg five years ago has now grown to four and a half tonnes marketed across eight Indian cities by Pune-based Eco Exist.

Seed groups and documentation

Besides Sunita and Manorama, other Vanastree trustees are marketing consultant Mala Dhawan, and self-taught mediaperson Shailaja Goranmane. Today, Vanastree’s accomplishments are focused on seed groups and documentation, but they have also provided services like training, networking and helping to establish conservation-oriented enterprise. So far 120 vegetable and 60 flower varieties have been documented; 5,000 packets of organic, open-pollinated seeds distributed; 11 biodiversity melas/festivals and exhibitions held; and women from various communities, religions and economic classes are being reached out to through seed exchange groups.

Other activities include forming a decentralised regional seed bank and one in Sirsi town; supporting collective members in creating a variety of home-based conservation enterprises and services; production of value-added foods, craft and other produce; providing internships based on experiential learning and camps and eco home-stays.

There were over 50 different products from Vanastree like seeds, farm-produce (red rice, honey, turmeric), chutneys, podis, and also a unique Nelli booklet in CD version, with over 40 recipes from all over India and esp the Malnad and useful information on the gooseberry available at their latest Mela.

But of course the journey was tough. Many problems were encountered. Sunita says there is a strong though covert gender bias with regard to decision-making in resource access and use, as well as in forest conservation. ”Women want to protect their forests but there are certain vested interests (like timber mafia) coming in the way. Giving us hope, however, is the current, helpful DFO Manoj Kumar, the good rapport with Krishi Vigyan Kendra and the support of many local citizens,” reveals Sunita.

Meeting new challenges

Nevertheless, many challenges remain. Since Vanastree’s women farmers are scattered over a 40-km radius they need adequate office staff but right now there are two persons. So, they have to rely on interns and volunteers. They also could do with more cooperation from biodiversity management committees or BMCs and such agencies. Sunita adds: “In rural areas, modern facilities don’t come easy. For the first three years I had no landline or mobile phone. I would make a list of phone numbers I needed to call.

And every few days, I would cycle down to a phone booth and make these calls. Electricity is still erratic and Internet access sporadic. Today, things are much better but I don’t take anything for granted. However, crucial ground work, the backbone of this movement––can and does carry on without much of these facilities. Moreover, there is satisfaction in living amidst such a vibrant community.” 

Though Vanastree is doing its bit, its trustees recognise there are larger issues to be dealt with. And those will need greater, countrywide and multilevel efforts. For example, more ecological refugees (people displaced by dam sites, selling off land) are reaching cities.

There are burning issues like food security, introduction of GM seeds, corporatisation of the country’s agricultural-research agenda, the controversial Seed Bill, etc. Massive and worrisome ecological changes are happening––for example, there has been no fruiting of the wild nellikai (amla or Indian gooseberry) from the past two years in Malnad.

The deeper political, social and economic issues need to be addressed to save the country’s ecological heritage, the trustees say.

Courtesy by Deccan Herald

Lessons from a farmer

Ten years back, Prabhakar Mayya gave up teaching and took to agriculture in a tiny village in Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada district. Today, he has experimented with all kinds of crops, from arecanut to banana and pepper. What’s more, Mayya has conducted training sessions for farmers and has served as a role model for them, reports Ronald Anil Fernandes

 
When he quit the teaching profession about 10 years ago, he did not imagine he would earn fame thanks to farming, especially at a time when people think twice before taking up agriculture activities.

In fact, at a time when most farmers gave up agriculture because of several problems that include severe shortage of farm labourers, Prabhakar Mayya, then a 30-year-old teacher took to agriculture in a tiny village of Nada in Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, has not only succeeded in reaping yield from a once barren land, but also has been a role model for other farmers in the region.

Believe it or not, he ventured into farming with just five kilograms of ginger and five kilograms of elephant yam (that would have cost him less than Rs 200 then) 10 years ago and he reaped 25 kg in the next year. In the fourth year, he reaped a whopping 5,000 kgs of ginger and elephant yam! However, by that time, he had also planted cucumber, cow-peas beans, brinjals and many other vegetables, besides planting jasmine saplings. With the money he received from ginger yield, he dug a borewell and also planted more vegetables like gherkins, yard-long beans, pumpkin and urad dal. It was followed by a plantation of betel leaves. About five years ago, Mayya reaped 40 quintals of cucumber, 50 kgs of urad, 500 kgs of gherkins and about 700 banana clusters.
A model farmer

Today, after 10 years, Mayya has tried his hand at almost all kinds of agriculture activities. Be it arecanut, coconut, banana, paddy, pepper vines, betel leaf vines, cocoa, teakwood, jasmine, vegetables, cattle, azolla pond (to feed cattle), fish pond, bee keeping, vermi-compost, gobar gas...the list is exhaustive. You name it and perhaps
Mayya has it. Amazingly, he has grown all these on just six acres of land.

The common problem farmers face today is an acute shortage of labourers. But Mayya’s innovative ideas have helped him manage farm activities with very few workers. Pointing to the roots of arecanut plants, he said he does not dig or heap compost at the base of the tree (as is usually done). Instead, he dumps the compost between two trees. “The mother-root which helps the tree grow is not at the bottom of the tree, but at a distance of four to five feet,” he says and adds that by doing so, one can get a better yield. At the same time, Mayya does not dig pits to plant arecanut saplings. Instead, he digs trenches and plants the saplings in the trenches. “This method is called ‘contour method’ which is popular in North Eastern states,” he said.
Bee-keeping, fish pond

Besides, Mayya also has honeybee boxes and a fish pond with a variety of fishes like Catla, Rohu and Common Carp. “Many people have taken up fishing from the pond,” he says.

One of the reasons for better yield on Mayya’s farm is perhaps the quality manure which is generated on his farm. Be it vermi-compost (for areca, paddy field) or azolla (for the cattle), Mayya arranges for the manure himself. “I needed more than Rs 60,000 just to purchase manure from the market for my plantations,” he says and points at two huge vermi-compost tanks with different species of earthworms.

Similarly, he also has a pond for azolla. After feeding azolla to cows, Mayya said there was thick cream in the milk. “However, only a limited quantity should be given to cows, lest the cows fall ill,” he cautions.

Apart from this, he also has a gobar gas facility. “The cow dung generated from seven cows is enough to produce gobar gas which the family uses for cooking,” he says.

Mayya lives in a joint family. While his eldest brother serves as a priest in a temple nearby, his other two brothers work as cooks. All of them help Mayya after they are done with their work.

His brothers’ wives also help him out, by milking the cows and extending help in regular farm activities, because of which Mayya never feels the shortage of labourers. In fact, the entire family with nine members involves itself in carrying out all the activities on the farm.
Training centre

Following Mayya’s successful venture, the District Agriculture Training Centre held a ‘Kshethrotsava’ at Mayya’s home wherein about 100 farmers took part and learnt the innovative methods adopted by Mayya. Besides, six training sessions of three-day as well as five-day duration have been held at Mayya’s home as part of ‘Agriculture Training and Management’ with help from the Zilla Panchayat and Agriculture Department.

Training on cultivation of azolla and paddy transplantation were part of the activities.
“Because they believe in the adage of ‘seeing is believing,’ we organise hands-on training in our fields,” Mayya explains.

Agriculture Department Deputy Director Putra G T, who heads the District Agriculture Training Centre at Belthangady, said farmers like Prabhakar Mayya have been a model for other farmers through their innovative methods adopted keeping in mind short-term as well as long-term returns.

Mayya has been awarded the ‘Best Arecanut Farmer’ award (taluk-level) for 2009-10 and ‘Best Farmer Award’ in September 2010, instituted by Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK), Agriculture University, Bangalore.

Farmers like Prabhakar Mayya come as a ray of hope for Karnataka, in creating another ‘green revolution,’ which is the need of the hour.


Courtesy Deccan Herald

INNOVATIVE FARMING - Reaping a rich harvest

He is good at marketing,” Susheelamma says, smiling at her husband. Sadashivaiah agrees with her wholeheartedly and adds, “I have inherited the skill. Irrespective of whether it is flowers or vegetables, I have never returned home with unsold produce. That has added to my success in agriculture.” The couple lives in Maragondanahalli village 12 kilometres from Tiptur in Tumkur district.

The Kannada translation of ‘One straw revolution’ by Masanobu Fukuoka changed 75-year-old Sadashivaiah’s outlook towards chemical-based fertilisers and he shifted to a non-chemical-based method of irrigation. He has been practising organic farming since 1991. Over the years, he has experimented with his land and crops and has evolved strategies to make agriculture sustainable. He has twelve acres of irrigated land, spread across four different patches. A seven-acre dry patch where finger millet, jowar, oil seeds, chilli, pulses, drumstick and other vegetables are grown meets the food needs of the family. Susheelamma claims that the family has to buy only four items: rice, jaggery, salt and kerosene for their kitchen. One block of the irrigated land spread over two and a half acres consists of five varieties of areca, four varieties of banana, pepper, turmeric, ginger and coconut. Cocoa, cardamom and coffee are other crops which he has successfully tried on the farm. “I ensured that there was a stable market before opting for the new crops,” says Sadashivaiah.

He spends most of his time in the farm, overseeing agricultural activities and sometimes, working along with agricultural labourers. In the morning, the day’s work is charted out and discussed. Sadashivaiah observes that once they understand the purpose and importance of a certain task, implementation becomes easy. Sadashivaiah’s family shares fruits and vegetables with labourers’ families, as they do with the relatives. “Taking them into confidence and treating them with dignity is important. For us they are our extended family. Our children are away in Tumkur and Bangalore, progressing in their profession. They have great love for the farm. We draw our strength from their immense support,” says Susheelamma.

A wide range of crops

Sadashivaiah is also popular among farmers for his passion for varieties. A range of betel varieties grown on an elevated platform in the middle of the farm showcases his creativity. Seven varieties of lemon are the highlight of his fruit farm. Another block has varieties of mango, sapota, guava and lemon plants interspered with coconut trees. A variety of jasmine, kakada, grown on 20 guntes, fetches a daily income for eight months in a year, starting from August. Lemon and vegetables are short-term crops while the others bring in the annual income. Sadashivaiah believes farming is rewarding. He again divides his income into four expenditure heads. This includes: agriculture, domestic needs, savings and other expenses like labour charges, organising agriculture related programmes and helping others.

The farm is designed in such a way that every plant draws maximum natural nutrients. Sadashivaiah says that 25 per cent of the nutrients should come naturally through nitrogen fixing, sunlight, monsoon and wind. Each plant should get 50 per cent of the nutrients from its biomass. So the bio-waste of the farm is utilised insitu. External inputs like vermicompost, cow manure and manual labour should amount to the remaining 25 per cent.

Sadashivaiah strongly feels that at least ten guntes of forest species should be grown per acre. That provides proper raw material for composting and ensures supportive biodiversity. A vermicoposting unit is maintained on the farm. Currently Sadashivaiah is trying to enhance the nutrition value of vermicompost.

Colourful crotons and flowering plants in the farm create an environment that soothes your senses, and also act as moisture indicators. When the sensitive crotons turn dull, he waters that particular region for three hours through drip irrigation. Four borewells irrigate the twelve-acre area.

Role model for other farmers

The farm is encircled by a live fence comprising teak, gooseberry plants in the southern direction, hebbevu (Melia composita) and silver oak in the north, mango, jackfruit and pongamia towards the east and tamarind and wild mango towards the west. The plants are chosen to gain maximum advantage from nature.

Farmers from different regions and districts are inspired by Sadashivaiah’s approach. He says that at least 40 farmers in Tumkur district have changed their cultivation methods after visiting his farm. Komala, a weekend farmer says, “His guidance  is very useful for first-timers like us. Every time I visit this farm I get more ideas and also bagful of plants.” Sadashivaiah maintains a nursery of plants which fetches him a small income.

Susheelamma used to work alongside Sadashivaiah till visitors started flocking to their farm. Sadashivaiah is an active member of organic farmer movements in Karnataka. Their farm has hosted several farmers’ meets and helps in passing on key lessons about sustainable farm life. 

Courtesy by Deccan Herald