Innovation Worth Replicating: A New approach to Farming

Before taking you to the intricacies of sustainable farming, its pros and cons,and method to do so, I would first like to give you an example which will made you feel the need of it. I met a farmer in mendiya pani village in Barwani District, Madhya Pradesh. His Name is Rem pratap Singh.

Me - Namaste Bhai Saab!

Selfie with farmer Rem Pratap Singh

Rp - namaskar(haath milate hue). Baithiye sahab.

Me - Kya haal hai ? Kheti kaisi chalri hai?

Rp - bas kapas buo hua hai , upar wale ki kripa rehni chaiye.

Me - kitne acre me lagayi?

Rp - 3 acre

Me - kitna beej laya ?

Rp - 7 packet , 800 ruppe ke bhav se.

Me - khad aur dava leke aayi ?

Rp - urea aur Dap aayi 10,000 ki aur liquid aaya 3800 ka 6 litre.

Me - nagad?

Rp - nhi sahab paise kahan hai! 2500 upar dena hai 4 month baad jab fasal aayegi.

Me - oh bhai saab yane 5 % per month ke byaj pe.

Rp - kya?

Me - kuch nhi, yane karib 22000 karcha hua

Rp - majdoori karib 3000 ke aas pass lag jayegi. Me - kitna kapas aa sakta hai.

Rp - iss baar beej ache nhi aaye, 4 foot se bada 1 ped nhi hua. 8 - 10 quintal bhi aa jaye toh baht hai.

Me - abhi toh karib 3000 - 3200 ka bhav chalra hai na

Rp - haan woi pakad lo

Me - yane 30000 ruppe banege. Aur mushkil se 6000 rs bachege.

Rp - haan! Pragati ki maar nhi padi toh

This is the story of 90% of farmers in India. He worked hard for 4 months and made scanty. If he would have worked as 200/per day labour. He would have made 20000 rs. This is a plight of every farmer and they are losing curiosity in farming. There is an immediate necessity for things to get changed. As we are aware that India is an agrarian country. I would like to walk through the data.

64.39 % of population of India lives in Rural India.
80 % of village population is involved in Agriculture and related sector.
Which brings somewhere close to 50 % of India is dependent on agriculture as per 2011 census data.
The overall contribution of Agriculture in country GDP is 13.9 %.

Above data proves that there is an overdependence on agriculture. Farmers are investing more and is not able to make desired return. This gives birth to organic farming concept.There is a lot of buzzes nowadays about organic food in cities specially metros and the credit for this goes to recent health problems. The result of these contaminated food is now showing up. People are looking for an alternative which should give real nutrients.

Organic farming is a method of farming which simply banishes the use of artificial material for the growth of plants. It can also be perceived as the amalgamation of Traditional farming with frugal innovation. Let me give you an analogy for it. Once people used to invest in equity and shares, deals in intraday,long term or F/O but because of its precariousness, they are switching over to a more secured way of investment that is Mutual Funds. As we know MF is a fusion of stocks. Money put in MF is reinvested into a diversified sector which reduces the risk as a loss in some stocks will be compensated by profits of others. This reduces risk and gives steady returns. The same ideology should be applied to agriculture. Farmland should be like Mutual fund account. Sow the land with diversified crops rather than investing in one. This can be better understood with an example of farmer Mr. S. Sadananda. He earned 22 lakhs from 2.1 acres of land.

“ He cultivates nearly 30 varieties of the crop on his land, including tomato and areca on half an acre each which yield him Rs. 2 lakh and Rs. 50,000 respectively.Ginger is cultivated along with areca in the plantation, and it yields him about Rs. 70,000 a year. Mr. Sadananda has also made space in his areca plantation for rearing 250 Giriraja hens which he sells every three months to earn about Rs. 1 lakh a year. The poultry droppings are valuable manure for the areca plantation while agricultural waste is used as feed for the birds.He has planted about 2,000 rose cuttings on three-fourth of an acre, which fetches him about Rs. 4 lakh a year, and has set up a greenhouse on one-fourth of an acre for cultivating capsicum and high-quality rose alternatively. Capsicum, cultivated for about six months, yields him about Rs. 5.4 lakh while the rose variety that replaces capsicum for the next six months gets him about Rs. 2.5 lakh a year. A small vegetable garden, a fish-rearing pond, coconut and jackfruit trees on the periphery of his land, in addition to coffee plants, papaya, sapota and lime trees also find a place. His cows produce 80 to 100 litres of milk a day.” Courtesy - The Hindu.

This technique has additional benefits as well. With such a diversified cropping pattern the soil gets rejuvenated and nutritional balance is maintained. There was a myth that organic farming reduces productivity of land. It happens for first few years but only till the time soil get adjusted to change.Soil takes some time to collude with natural nutrients. But it has immense benefits.

There is one quote “ A person who puts less money in bucket and withdraws huge dividend is the best investor.” The input cost of the organic farming is significantly low. There are 3 main inputs for farming i.e Seed, Fertilizer and Pesticide. farmer have to learn to manage the cost and quality of this 3 commodity aptly. Today I will give you the aphoristic approach for it. There is glut of material online to suffice your curiosity need.

Seed Treatment - This is one of the most important things in organic farming. It can be best understood as child future depends on the nourishment he receives in his childhood. It is called Bijamrita. Seed should be treated with proper nutrients before planting. Please click on the link for the procedure.
Fertilizer - As soil has now lost the ability to provide the desired food to plant because of years of exploitation, Organic manures will fulfill that need. The major manures is Farm Yard Manure, Jiwamrita, Vermicompost, Amrut Pani.These are few traditional manures which can be prepared with negligible cost. Get more details from here.
Pesticides - A plant which is grown organically has much more resistant than the others. An organically grown plant absorb more nutrients from the soil and less water. This keeps the water content in stems and leaves low and keep it more solid from inside. Thus pest then faces strain in penetrating the outer layer. Hence organic crops repel pest. However, there is diverse technique to fight against pest and disease. Agniastra, Brahmastra and Neemastra are few ways to protect plants.

There is enough material available online to learn organic farming. Through this article, I would like to draw your attention to this pressing issue country is facing. Please follow the appendix for information.

Rather than getting into farming directly, there are numerous ways through which you can help farmers. Companies like Organic Mantra, Timbaktu Collective, Organic Mandya are few successful stories which are working on the ground and promoting sustainable agriculture. They are bridging the gap between the Demand and Supply. There is a huge demand for organic products in the international market and in metro cities. One who is looking for the social enterprise can tap this sector. There are immense potential and necessity for change.

I am attaching useful links below which will help you get more deeper understanding of the sustainable agriculture