(1)The perception that modern scientific agriculture is the panacea to combat the hunger of millions is a chimera and (2) we have failed to protect and multiply our desi livestock. Thus we are back to square one !!!!
Gandhiji had been eloquent in his speech and writings regarding cow-protection. Many moderns dismissed it as another fad of Gandhiji. But two articles in today's (06/03/2014) Sci-Tech Page of The Hindu, impress upon us the FOLLY of modern agricultural practices employing large scale use of manufactured chemicals like fertilizers and pesticides. One article reveals that overuse of phosphorous have adversely affected the health of land and water in Kerala.http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sci-tech-and-agri/science-of-the-soil-to-help-sons-of-the-soil/article5755125.ece
In contrast to this ,the experience of a farmer from Chitoor Dist of AP , who had solely depended on DESI Cow-dung and urine, to boost his output are explained. Desi cow-dung and urine are the common ingredients of his manure and pesticide. Since cost of the inputs are very minimal, it benefits both the farmer and the end-user. For the consumer in the present circumstances, the benefits are two-fold, lower cost and poison free food-item.
"Cow-worship means to me worship of innocence. For me the cow is the personification of innocence. Cow-protection means the protection of the weak and the helpless. .......Rishis of old are said to have performed penance for the sake of the cow. Let us follow the footsteps of the rishis, and ourselves do penance, so that we may be pure enough to protect the cow and all that the doctrine means and implies"-Gandhiji.(p.118, Hindu Dharma). Gandhiji's VISION is truly remarkable.
The tall claims of modern scientific agriculture is thus contested. Further the above two articles, reinforce my premise that human intellect is waning, and this stands in stark opposition to the modern view !!!!
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/bio-inputs-give-better-yield-for-brinjal-growers-in-chittoor-ap/article5753743.ece
The complete articles (two nos) are given below :-
(1) FARMER'S NOTEBOOK
Bio inputs give better yield for brinjal growers in
Chittoor, AP
M. J. PRABU
There is a general view that
agriculture is not a remunerative profession. But for those who continue to do
farming, there seems to be no choice. Either they leave the fields fallow or
sell the lands for quick money.
“Reasons for being
unremunerative are many like high cost of inputs, inability to break even in
profit, marketing etc. But in spite of all these problems there are people like
Mr. P. Muniratnam Naidu in Kasturikandriga village, Tirupati Rural Mandal,
Chittoor district for whom agriculture is lucrative.
New house
Mr. Muniratnam owns about two
acres and in the last two years he has been able to construct a new pucca house
from the income he got from his land by growing brinjals (common variety
available in the market).
“This is considered big news
among many farmers in the region. In fact, after getting to know Muniratnam’s
details, several farmers started getting into brinjal cultivation. Today an
entire street in Muniratnam’s locality is named as Brinjal Street,” says Dr. K.
Gangadharam, General Secretary, Welfare Organisation For Rural Development
(Word) an NGO in Tirupathi in Chittoor.
Commendable work
Word has spread among farmers
in the district on the need to promote the cause of organic and sustainable
agriculture.
“The crop was initially grown
in 60 cents which was later extended to an acre. In the remaining one acre,
groundnut, onions and some vegetables were grown. The income from brinjal was
quite noteworthy for me. I harvested nearly 12 tonnes in three months earning
about Rs. 96,000 as gross income while the net income was Rs. 60,000.
Annual income
“In a year I earned Rs.
2,40,000 from brinjal alone. I make my own inputs after getting trained by Word
and hardly spent much protecting the crop against the dreaded fruit borer that
affects it,” says a smiling Muniratnam.
Presently more than 300
farmers in the region are using the indigenous bio inputs such as jivamrita,
agniastra and neem astra, according to Dr. Gangadharam.
“Our organisation has been
trained by Mr. Subash
Palekar, in zero budget farming and in turn we are teaching our farmers
to practise the same,” he says.
Jivamrita is a growth enhancer
which is used for almost all crops like paddy, vegetables and flowers.
It is made by adding 10 kg of
desi cow dung and
10 litres of urine dissolved in 200 litres of water. To this two kg of jaggery
(or four litres of sugarcane juice) and pulse flour each (any pulse) is added
and stirred well.
The solution is kept under a
shade for a week to ferment well and then allowed to mix with the running
irrigation water. For the fruit borer pest farmers have been trained to use
agniastra or neemastra.
Agniastra
Agniastra is made by soaking
one kg of crushed tobacco leaves in 10 litres of desi cow urine.To this, 500 grams of chilli
and garlic pulp (ground into a paste) each and 5kg of crushed neem leaves are
added. This is diluted in 100 litres of water and sprayed.
Neemastra is made by mixing five
litres of cow urine, two 2kg of dung and five kgs of crushed neem leaves in 100
litres of water and allowed to ferment for 24 hours. Later after filtering it
is diluted in water and sprayed on brinjal to control the pests.
Market
Almost all the brinjal
growers either market their produce through a weekly organic outlet managed by
Word in Tirupathi or also send the produce to Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad
markets.
For more information and
personal visits interested farmers can contact Mr. P. Muniratnam Naidu at
Kasturikandriga village, Tirupati Rural Mandal, Chittoor District, Andhra
Pradesh, mobile: 09989509877 and Dr. K. Gangadharam, General Secretary, Word,
Natural farming school, Chenchuraju Kandriga, Pichatur Mandal, Chittoor : 517
5589: Andhra Pradesh, e-mail: wordngotpt@rediffmail.com, mobile: 09849059573.
Keywords: AP
brinjal farmers, remuneration
in agriculture, organic
agriculture, sustainable
agriculture
(2) Science of the soil
to help sons of the soil
Discoveries and analyses of everyday
problems and suggestions to handle them, often published in more modest
journals are ignored
Way too often, media coverage on science
and technology tends to concentrate on topics of current fashion or what some
people call as “high-fi” themes — be it the God particle, stem cell biology, or
yet another nanomaterial. Articles that appear in “high impact” journals are
covered more often while discoveries and analysis of everyday problems and
suggestions to handle them, usually published in more modest journals are given
the go-by. Two such reports concerned with pressing problems of everyday
importance to India appear in the latest issue of Current Science (Volume
106, 10 February 2014, pages 343-345), which need to be highlighted. One of them has to do with the
overload of phosphorus in the soils of Kerala and how it affects the health of
the land and the waters of the region and what may be done about it. And
the other is a report about the discovery of a few bacteria in the coast of
Gujarat which can degrade plastic materials such as polythene. And it is a pity
that main line media, right here in India, have not found them worthy of
coverage and publicity.
The first is a short report (just about
1200 words and two figures) by scientists from the Indian Institute of Spices
Research in Calicut, concerning the massive accumulation of phosphorus in the
soils of Kerala. The Kerala State Planning Board has taken up the massive (and
rather “boring”) task of analyzing the status of acidity in the agricultural
field in all the Panchayats of the state. As many as 1,56,801 samples across
the state were analysed (a huge exercise in itself) and of these about 91 per
cent of the fields were found to be moderate to strongly acidic (pH between 6.5
and 4.5). This is bad because plants grow best by absorbing nutrients from soil
whose pH is between 6.5 and 7.5. This is the ideal pH range for plant root
growth; when the pH reduces below 6.5, the phosphorus (P) in the soil gets
“fixed” by the metals present in the soil (such as aluminum and iron) and no
longer available in the soluble form for absorption by the plant roots. And P
is vital since it is used not only to make the DNA and RNA of the plant cells
but also as the energy currency in the biochemical processes that all living
beings use for metabolism (just as we use the rupee in our daily live
transactions).
How
did this high level of P come about? Through the overuse of fertilizers and
manure by the farmers. As the Calicut scientists report, soil in Kerala is
already inherently acidic and the overuse of fertilizers and manure only adds
to the problem. Not only does much of the P in the soil gets fixed and becomes
unavailable for plant growth but even some of the soluble phosphorus is lost
through the run-off water from these sites and affects the quality of water in the
nearby lakes and water bodies.
The Kerala State Planning Board’s report is
thus an important and admirable exercise that calls for action. The Calicut
scientists make some relevant suggestions towards this, e. g., skip the
applications of high P fertilizers, test the soil periodically and reduce (or
avoid) manure that contains high amounts of P. We must express our appreciation
to Drs K. M. Nair, P, Rajasekharan, G. Rajasree, P. Suresh Kumar and M.
C.Narayanan Kutty of the National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning
(of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research), the Kerala State Planning
Board, and Drs R. Dinesh, V. Srinivasan, S. Hamza and M. Anandaraj, at the
Indian Institute of Spices Research at Calicut for this important and relevant
research and analysis. The second report in page 345 of the same issue ofCurrent
Science , by the budding science writer Ipsita Herlekar, highlights
the discovery by scientists at the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research
Institute, Bhavnagar, Gujarat. These scientists analysed as many as 60 types of
bacteria in the Arabian Sea along the coast of Gujarat and found three species
from there, namely, K. Palustris M16, B. Pumilus M27, and B. Subtilis
H1584 , are able to “eat” polyethylene — the synthetic plastic used in
everyday life as bags and films to cover materials, and that the B.
Subtilis H158 strain was the best among the three. This calls for
further work which might help us find an eco-friendly way to manage this
totally out of hand (and totally man-made) menace of plastic waste and
pollution.
Let us applaud Drs K. Harshvardhan and
B.Jha, the CSMCRI scientists for this discovery and hope they will take this
further into the level of practical application, Ipsita for elegantly
highlighting this CSMCRI work, and the journal Current Science for
publishing these reports which are of “high impact” at the practical and
actionable level. Bread and butter science is just important as “blue sky”
science.
D. BALASUBRAMANIAN
dbala@lvpei.org
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