Why NATURAL? How do a Plant/Tree grow...?

"THE GREAT AGRICULTURAL CHALLENGE"  was written by Bharat Mansata. The book was basically based on Bhaskar Save's "KALPAGA VIRUKSHA" - a multistage agricultural plantation.

Kalpa Viruksha

 It is located along the sea shore of Gujarat state, spread over 14 acres. Farm consists of many plantations like coconut, sapota, vegetables, paddy and so on, all grown under natural farming method - no chemical fertilizers are being used. Most importantly, the farm has a spectacular yield of 400 coconuts per tree and 300 kg sapota per tree per year.

 

When Masanobu Fukuoko visited the farm, he was in wonders. "This is the best farm in the World. The farm is way better than my farm that i maintain at Japan" was his wordings in the Visitor's book of Kalpa Viruksha farm.

Bhaskar Save, was typically from a farming family and a great follower of Gandhiji. He worked as a teacher for nearly a decade and after that he stepped into agriculture. He strongly believed the lines "Practice makes a man perfect" and initially he was in farming using chemicals. But in early 1960s, he realised that the chemical fertilizers are just boosting the initial cost of cultivation and blindly depletes the soil and its biological properties. Stop not, he started to explore about how much energy a plant is absorbing from soil for its growth.

In 17th century, John Stanurar, an European medical practitioner made a study on a shrub named "VILLA" (European Shrub). He planted it in a pot and before that he weighed the weight of soil in that pot. Watered the plant using rain water, and in 5 years it had grown as a small tree weighing 70.5 kgs. He uprooted the herb and weighed the soil. Miracle, the loss in soil was a meager 60 gms. Instead the soil was found with roots and many micro-organisms. Finally, he finished his research by saying "Plant doesn't take anything from the soil within the pot. Something outside the pot helps in growth of the plant."

On the basis of this research, Mr.Save planned to study the growth of plants. Planted a cucumber seed weighing 3-4 gms in a pot, the soil used was from his own farm. After 90 days, the plant had grown with 2 fruits weighing 5 kg and 3 kg each. He collected all the remainings of plant like leaves that weighed 600 gms, a total of 8Kg 600grams. But, there was no difference in the weight of soil.

Previously, a scientific study said a plant gains 94% of its weight from AIR and WATER. (44% oxygen + 44% carbon dioxide from AIR and 6% Hydrogen from WATER) Bhaskar Save's research also ascertained the same.

For a plant to produce starch (fruit/vegetable), it uses the sunlight. Meanwhile, water air and soil helps the plant to conveniently do the process of PHOTOSYNTHESIS. As a whole, the plant, the tree, the microbes, the worms, the insects, the animals all function as one single SOCIETY to produce various food products namely fruits/vegetables/ pulses/ cereals.

THE ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THIS WILL NEVER EVER THINK OF USING CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS IN FARMING ACTIVITIES...!!! 

The Much Needed Attention

"Achhe din anne wale hain" (Good days are coming) was the slogan of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the 2014 Indian general election. For a farmer in India, it’s yet to come.  Though eight months of time are too short to judge the performance of a Government, what is disturbing is the lack of clarity on policies to revive the farming sector. As per 2012 estimates, with 49 percent of the labor force being employed in the agriculture sector, it remains to be the largest employment source. However, it contributed to only 13.7 percent of the (Gross Domestic Product) GDP.

The above graph speaks for itself. As the Indian economy has diversified and grown, agriculture's contribution to GDP has steadily declined from 1951 to 2011. There is a clear shift of focus from Agriculture to Services. The growth of the economy has been driven by the Services and Industry sector with the support of unlimited supplies of labour, which was mainly drawn from the agricultural sector. Of Course, as the economists argue, economic development would attract a large proportion of the farm labour force from agriculture into other pursuits. This would be possible only when per labour output in agriculture increases to compensate for the shift in labour output to other sectors.

We call ourselves a developing country and if development is to occur, agriculture must be able to produce a surplus of food to maintain the growing non-agricultural labour force. Since food is more essential to life than, the services rendered by traders or merchants. Going by the trend of the growing population and the annual increase in food grain production, the gap between the demand and supply is going to widen.

Will the Government bring out reforms to bring back hope for the farmers? Will they be able to reverse the trend of shift in labor from agriculture to services? Only time will tell!!!

Chemicals are foundation behind OBESITY..!

When it's not safe to breathe, how is it safe to eat

“உண்டி முதற்றே உணவின் பிண்டம் “ (“Undi muthatrey unavin pindam”) is a famous quote by Thirumoolar. It means that “Food is the ultimate thing for our body”. Way before the advent of Green Revolution, agriculture was purely meant for food grain production. But after the revolution, it turned out to be commercial business and marketing. The chemical fertilizers used by Americans and Europeans had entered the virgin soils of India, not only in food grain production,  but also in cattle and poultry. 

In order to boost milk and meat production, the cattle were not left to graze in the open field and instead was put in between bars. These animals were continuously fed with supplements which are otherwise not safe for human consumption.  As a result of this, it was found that in America girls aged 7 are attaining puberty. This percentage is doubled every 10 years, same persists in china. 

Apart from this, artificial chemical foods are being used to feed chicken and goat. A research in America showed that 27% of people with eating habits of chemically fed meat are suffering from obesity. It is said that “one-fourth of  the world population is starving for food” on the contrary, many people eat more than what they need and get affected by obesity.

It is estimated that nearly 1 crore ton of chemical fertilizers are used for cultivation of corn in America. In addition to this, pesticides and fungicides. There is no food scarcity in America, but no one can assure the produce is 100 percent free from chemicals or poisonous. Perhaps, to prevent themselves from mystic diseases like cancer they are turning to organic or natural farming. Even, in many locations of America, cattle are made to graze in open fields.

One of the staple food of India is paddy(rice). Approximately 10 crore 85 lakh acres are used  for paddy cultivation and in 2009-10 the yield was about 8 crore 93 lakh tonnes. Experts say that nearly 5000 litres of water is spent to raise 1 by kg of rice under chemical fertilizers. All our rivers are dried up, and now we are  sucking the underground water to meet the water demands. But in natural farming it is proved that paper thin water level is enough for production. Moreover, many farmers say that alternate wetting and drying pattern is enough for traditional paddy varieties.

Moreover, traditional paddy varieties are resistant to diseases and pests by their genetics. Hence, it is high time to turn natural farming system in order to conserve land and water from getting polluted and depleted and for us, human mankind to reap poison less food to lead a healthy and mystic disease free life.

Go Organic!!!

"Archaeological evidence points to this area being one of the longest continuous habitations in the Indian peninsula. In Adichanallur, 24 km (15 miles) from Tirunelveli, archaeologists from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) unearthed 169 clay urns containing human skulls, skeletons, bones, husks, grains of rice, charred rice and celts of the Neolithic period, 3,800 years ago."  Source: Wikipedia

Evidences show that Tamilians were cultivating grains for the past 3800 years. The discovered grains are still preserved! But, the modern age, turned every single human to run after money, rather than a healthy life. We work, and then work, and then work hard, sacrificing our family, to end up with diabetes, cancer, heart attack and many more diseases. Ultimately, all our hard earned money goes to those hospitals who treat patients as money pumping machines. Are we in peace, from the day we entered the corporate world,  until we retired or even post retirement?

Answer: NO.

We eat well thinking that we're having food that is safe for human consumption. Perhaps, we're wrong..! All our food products packed or unpacked, from whole grain to Tea dust - everything comes with at least two pesticides.

Think for yourself! Farmers just dip the seed they sow, into pesticide cans, before they sow in the land. After seedling, yet another pesticide is sprayed, and this continues till harvest, with a gap of 15-18 days between each spray. Coming to LAND, the green revolution had introduced many CHEMICALS and they termed it as FERTILIZERS. Oxford dictionary quotes Fertilizer as "a chemical or natural substance added to soil or land to increase its fertility". Soil fertility lies in its micro-organisms and earthworms. If these chemicals are termed "FERTILIZER" why do they kill the microbes and worms. Stunned? Check out the farmer's land who only use fertilizer and pesticides, you can never find a single earthworm even if you dig 6 feet deep. During our childhood we saw beautiful butterflies around the fields, but today? Its nearly EXTINCT!!!

When farming practices followed, in all aspects, is with the help of chemicals and pesticides, then how could you believe you're eating natural??

Turn back, let us turn our dead soil into live one...! That's the only way we can lead a healthy life. It takes only 3 years to rejuvenate our soil. Our ancestors owed soil as God. Let us use organic manure, vermi-composts, and believe we can make a revolution..!

"The food you eat can either be the Safest and Powerful form of Medicine or the Slowest form of POISON"