My experiment with natural contour farming
A few decades ago population pressure and shortage of food grains at
home compelled us to depend heavily on food imports and foreign
aid. To remedy that situation, our agriculture scientists brought about
the green revolution which resulted in huge stocks of food grains.
Fruits and vegetables at home. This made us self-sufficient and
enabled us to export food grains abroad. However, this green
revolution, with its heavy emphasis on chemical fertilizers and
poisonous pesticides. Was not without its dangerous effects on our
land, and in due course of time, our agricultural land started dying
out.
Chemical fertilizers destroyed the natural balance so crucial to the
soil. It resulted in the gradual decline of friendly organisms helpful to
our soil. The high-yielding and sturdy seeds of various food grains,
fruits and vegetables, which our forefathers had so meticulously
developed over the years, started disappearing. Our food grains, fruits
and water became contaminated, but the worst sufferers of this were
the farmers. This kind of farming proved to be capital intensive and
constantly increased the overheads on agriculture. This resulted in the
destruction of the agricultural environment and a gradual decline of
the farming class and the human species.
All this had a direct impact on my agriculture and hence, from the
year 1994. I changed over to the techniques of natural farming. This
new experience enriched my knowledge about natural farming which
I called ‘Gomata Sanjivak’. It consisted of recycling the stubble,
instead of throwing it away, and fusing it with Gomata Sanjivak to
convert it into on-the-spot organic fertilizer. This enabled me to
convert 30 tons of stubble, per acre, into rich organic manure.
All it required was a desire to succeed in this kind of farming. Sound
planning coupled with knowledge, hard work, a desire to earn profit
and ability to harness and conserve the natural water table are other
ingredients of success. The future of agriculture is full of global
competition and we can succeed in it only through the techniques of
natural farming. Farmers within the county as well as abroad, are
committing suicide solely due to the heavy cost of agricultural
implements, seeds chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Chemical
fertilizers have resulted into the gradual decline in the quality of soil.
These fertilizers, while giving us a temporary high yield for a short
time, created a food surplus in the market. This surplus created a
local glut; hence the minimum procurement market prices of the
agricultural products dwindled, to the disadvantage of the poor
farmers. In addition to this, BT cotton and terminator gene
technology became watchwords for modern day agriculture. It meant
a heavy expenditure to the farmers. This has deprived them of their
age eld tilling practices and
Curtailed their right to choose seeds that are harmonious with human
and environmental health.
Natural contour farming, with an emphasis on knowledge, labour and
a zest to go natural, is the only remedy against the excesses of
chemical farming. Natural farming eliminates all unnecessary
expediter other than labour and actually boosts the regenerative
capacity of the soil which makes it more productive over the years.
While embarking upon natural farming. I have thought very deeply
about all the processes that are useful for farming. These include
irrigation, soil, labour, the choice of seasonal crops and the quality of
seeds, etc. Then I planned labour intensive crops based on three
different time-frames of 60 to 65 days. 100 to 110 days and 180 to
200 days, each with the aim of enriching the soil. The residual
biomass from the first crop of 60 to 65 days was used as covering for
the next crop. This covering later decomposes into organic manure.
This makes the top soil moist and makes it less dependent on
irrigation.
Thus, I repaid more than what I received from the soil and enriched it
further. While doing this, I considered water as the most important
resource that could be brought to the soil without much expenditure. I
saw to it that rainwater is retained in the soil and does not flow away
into the nearby nulla. Our village witnessed 8 cm rainfall in just one
hour on 14 June 2003. I could hold 95% of this rainwater in my soil
through contouring which allowed a substantial quantity of water to
percolate into the soil.
I also planted trees which could conserve soil and environment and
which could provide shelter and roosting places for a variety of birds.
While doing all this, I reciprocated the labour of my farm workers
with due honour and dignity, thereby making them favorably inclined
to the idea of natural farming.
Simple equipment for contour mapping
This simple device for quick contour mapping is now ready. If made
of teak wood, this will cost about Rs. 400. If sowing is done using
contour mapping with the help of this device, it can increase
vegetable production by 2 to 3 times and yield of food grains, cereals
and pulses by 1.5 to 2 times. I have experimented and observed these
differences in year 1997-98.
This device is made of two wooden planks or blocks of 6 inches x 6
inches with a thickness of 2 inches each. A 6 feet long wooden pole,
with a thickness of two half inch, is fixed vertically into the centre of
each block by making a slot in the block and hammering the pole into
it. This joint is then fortified with the help of iron strips and nails.
Now a measuring tape is fixed on to one side of each vertical wooden
pole, starting one foot away from the tip, from above downwards,
with the help of small, evenly placed nails. Then a 50 feet long ‘slab
level pipe’ is used to join these two poles in such a way that the
vertical limbs of the level pipe are fixed to the vertical wooden poles
at either end. Electrical clips, hammered into the wooden poles at 45
cm intervals alongside the measuring tape, can be used to fix the
level pipe securely to the device. It takes me between 1 and 1.5 hours
per acre to make accurate contours after learning the nitty-gritty of
this techniques in my initial 2-3 years of experimentation. However,
the techniques could be taught to a newcomer in just one hour.
This simple device for quick contour mapping is now ready. If made
of teak wood, this device for quick contour about Rs. 400. With the
help of this device one can increase the vegetable yield by two to
three times and the yield of food grains, cereals and pulses by fifteen
to twenty times. I have actually seen this happen in just 17 to 18
years of my experience.
However, the technique could be taught to a newcomer in just one
hour. The apprentice could be taught how to draw marking lines and
avoid all the pitfalls while doing so. The technique requires leaving
two to tree centimeters of slope for specific irrigation needs of
different kinds of crops.
I have also studied the techniques of conserving water in this matter.
Earlier, I used to have 200 to 300 feet long bunds to hold water in the
field. But after some serious thinking about these long bunds. I came
to the conclusion that if I divide these 300 feet into smaller chinks
and then it decreases progressively along its length. This means that,
in the first 150 feet, more water percolates than necessary. This
excess of water could be conserved, I thought. To save water, I
decided to have irrigation channels of about 40 to 50 feet long instead
of 300 feet. I could irrigate each chunk in three hours and that much
quantity of water. Later on, I discovered one more method of
conserving water. Earlier, for irrigation I used to break open the vents
of the main canals one by one. It involves running for tree hundred
feet to break open the other vent, during which time water from the
main canal would flood the field and damage the boundary walls. The
quantum of water that was wasted in the process exceeded hundreds
of gallons.
I thought of doing something to avoid this wastage and started
opening the vents not one by one, but every other one on my way to
the end of the main irrigation canal, and then breaking the remaining
alternate vents on my way back. This ensured released of water from
the main canals to the fields and saved the extra energy of a man
running about to release the water and actually saved it. If you add up
this small saving of one year, you could save thousands of liters of
water every year by this simple method.
In addition to contour mapping, I started working on another
experiment to conserve cent percent of the rain water in my fields. A
step towards this was to dig a small tank of 20 feet long x 10 feet
wide x 10 feet deep per hectare. Calculations indicate that this
approach accompanied by contour mapping could save enough water
required for irrigation throughout the year thus creating selfsufficiency for water. I prepared some data to establish these
calculations in year 2003-04 as follows: 1 cm rain-water\hectare is
equivalent to 1 lakh liters of water. The year when I prepared this
data, there was 100 cm rain recorded in my area. This means rain
water pored 1 crore liters of water per hectare of my land. My farm is
total 12 hectares. Thus, there was 12 crore liters of rain water in my
farm. 30% of this water was lost due to natural evaporation.
Remaining 70% i.e. 8.4 crore liters of water got converted into
underground water table. This is the amount of water that I saved.
Now when it comes to the usage, I have 2 electric pumps of 5hp
pump pulls out 36000 liters of water per hour. I analyzed the annual
usage of these pumps in my fields and observed that each pump is
used for 800 hours per year. This results in 800 * 36000=28800000
liters of water being used from each pump. So the total underground
water sued in my field amounts to 2 * 28800000 = 57600000 liters of
water. So if we look at the numbers, I saved 8.4 crore liters of water
and used 5.76 crore liters of water. This shows that after fulfilling my
water requirements I was able to save an extra that after 2.64 crore
liters of water. This saved water on one hand and saved fertile land
from lowing away with rain water on the other.
I started my agriculture vocation form 1975 when I sowed jowar,
cotton, tur dal, moong dal, wheat, gram and vegetable by traditional
methods. I started using chemical fertilizers and pesticides in my
farm since year 1978 and reaped it’s benefits in terms of 12-14
quintals of cotton. 18-20 quintals of jowar 10 quintals of tur dal, 1516 quintals of wheat and 10 quintals of gram per acre. I even
harvested up to 200 quintals of vegetables per acre and continued to
reap such high yield until 1986. As a result, the state of Maharashtra
conferred upon me the title “Dedicated farmer” in the year 1983. I
continued to get such high yield till 1987. But from the next year
onward, the yield began to show a steady decline.
Between the years 1990 and 1994, my farm showed a marked
decrease in the yield of every kind. This was quite obvious in terms
or cotton, jowar, wheat, grams, vegetables, tomatoes, coriander,
chilly, cabbages and pumpkins. While the yield fell down sharply, the
production cost of the same hade risen steeply. The question of
profits from the farm did not arise. The shortfall in vegetable produce
was substantial and the total yield per acre did not go beyond 5 to 20
quintals. The farmland had died due to chemical fertilizers and
poisonous insecticide sprays had killed every organism, including the
friendly ones in the soil.
It is around this time that some farmers of our area started thinking
seriously about natural farming and I too became a part of this
discussion group. I began my experiments with natural farming in
1994 but this did not mean that I abandoned the use of chemical
fertilizers completely : I decided to phase them out gradually over a
number of farming seasons. In 1994, I started a comparative exercise
and used four bags of chemical fertilizers per acre in some plots of
land and one bag of the same in the other pieces of land. I realized
that the yield from the both was equal in quantity. This meant that
using four bags of chemical fertilizer was a waste of money. But
when the same weed is converted into organic manure, its value
becomes rupees 50. This is an invisible profit….
Benefited by this observation, I decided to use just one bag of
chemical fertilizer on some pieces of land and no chemical fertilizers
at all on the remaining plots. I used insecticide sprays wherever I
found it necessary. At the end of the season, however, I realized that
the yield form the plot of land where insecticides were sprinkled had
actually declined, whereas the yield form the plot of land where no
insecticides were used, had actually doubled up. So I continued to use
chemical fertilizers and insecticide in one half. But I could not resist
the temptation of using insecticide spray in the other half. I used a
small amount of insecticide spray especially when I could see a
healthy crop being attacked by pests and insects.
In the year 2000 I could conclude that the yield from the natural plot
was much higher than the one where chemical fertilizers and
insecticides were used. The cost of production in the artificially
grown fields was much higher that the cost of production in naturally
grown fields. The only cost in the latter was that of labour. The
incidence of pests too was minimal in the natural plot. This was quite
noticeable in terms of some specific crops like beans, papaya and
pumpkins. These pests had virtually stalled the production of the
same yield during the year 1990-1994. I continued this comparative
experiments of sowing in two different fields till the year 2000.
In the year 2000, however a simple observation in the field brought to
my notice a profound phenomenon. The plot of land that was being
tilled naturally had two acres of cauliflower plantation. The sudden
change in the climate brought about an insect attack and to quell this.
I used insecticide spray. Close observation of the plantation the next
day showed complete obliteration of the insects and along with it,
lakhs of field ants were found dead near the ant hill. This unintended
killing of the ants ran counter to the philosophy of natural farming. I
had become captive to the popular dictum, ‘spray insecticides when
you see a good crop’ which diminished the benefits of natural
farming.
The death of the ants was not just an emotional issue for me. The ants
death would have been beneficial to the soil, had they met a natural
end. Their millions of bodies, rich in proteins and other qualitative
ingredients, would have enriched, rich in proteins and other
qualitative ingredients, would have enriched my soil. But the
unnatural death of the ants deprived my soil of this vital manure. This
must be happening, I thought, with many other friendly organisms of
the soil. I decided never to use insecticides again within my farm, and
this is how I changed over completely to natural farming since the
year 2000. I called off my experiments with partial chemical farming
since this year.
My farm yield has increased steadily since the year 2001 and I could
harvest a record crop in the year 2002. Today, farmers and experts
who visit my farm are pleasantly surprised to see the results of my
natural farming. My farm affirms knowledge, hard work and
planning, the three mottoes of an authentic farmer. Let me tell you
that unless you follow this trio of a principle, you cannot increase the
yield in your farm.
I have also minutely observed the transformation that came over
slowly to my farm after I changed over to the natural way. My
experiments with natural faming began in 1994 and it is at this time.
That I had decided to recycle weeds and grass in my farm, be it
natural or chemical, and not to throw it on the bunds. I did not pick
the weeds and grass but let them remain on the land and reduced my
expenditure on their usual disposal. The weeds get decomposed over
a period of time into organically rich manure and can be used as such
for the next crop. I am going to talk about this process in some detail
later on.
My vegetable yield shot up from 10 to 25 quintals per acre in the year
1995 and my overhead expenditures decreased progressively.
Although my farm yields showed a constant increase and I could take
up to 70 quintals of vegetables. I was not happy enough till the year
2000, even though my yield was 200 quintals per acre. I got the
satisfaction of reaping full benefits of natural farming from the year
2002-2003, when my vegetables yield touched 300 quintals per acre.
I had an abundant and healthy kharif crop in 2003-20014 and my
faith in natural farming was strengthened manifold. I know that my
yield can increase further if I continue to reinvent my method. After
deep thinking. I have adapted myself to contour farming with all its
natural resource and attendant benefits. I am now a full fledged
organic farmer.
My chemical farming won me the ‘Dedicated Farmer’ title way back
in 1983. My total abdication of chemical farming in favour of natural
farming won me yet another laurel. ‘The Pride of Agriculture’ title in
the year 2002, also bestowed by the Government of Maharashtra.
While practicing these divergent methods, the chief source of my
inspiration was: ‘hard work, knowledge and planning!’ the motto of a
true framer, popularized by the state sponsored agricultural magazine
called ‘Baliraja’.
My discovery of the technology of natural farming:
Before I embarked upon organic farming, I decided to meet and
interact with some other organic farmers of the area. I visited Shri
Anandraoji Subhedar, an organic farmer in my vicinity. I saw a heap
of fresh cow dung lying near the main irrigation canal and I saw a
labourer mixing fresh dung with his own hands in the running water
of the canal, which reached the standing crop in the field. I enquired
about the utility of this practice from my host. He explained that
when cow dung was mixed with irrigation water, it became virtually
a life giving (Sanjivak) manure for the crop. This according to him,
increased the growth of organisms necessary for the crop. I studied
this method for some time and then decided to implements it in my
farm.
When I started using this Sanjivak for my crop, I had about 20 cattle
on my farm. I developed a disposal method for their dung and urine
which is like this : I constructed cement tanks of 200 liters capacity in
every two acres of farm land and poured 60 kilos of dung and 5 liters
of cattle urine in each of these tanks. I added 300 grams of jiggery in
each tank and filled it with up to its brink to make it into liquid
organic manure. I allowed this liquid to set for the next six days and
then gave a tank full of this manure to each acre of land. I used this
manure, Gomata Sanjivak, for a crop which had a cycle of 100 to 120
days.
The dose of this organic manure was five tanks per acre per cropping
season. I developed a distribution system for this manure by asking a
woman labourer to take a 15 liters bucket and a one liter tin. I asked
her to fill the 15 liter bucket with Gomata Sanjivak manure and asked
her to pour it in the main irrigation canal through the one liter tin. I
have started using this organic manure since the year 1995 till this
day, and I can say that this has helped me greatly to increase the farm
yield. The manure, as I have already told, encourages the growth of
necessary organisms and helpful parasites like ants, in the soil, if you
continue to add this liquid manure to your soil for every cycle of
crop, you end up by adding about one ton of Gomata Sanjivak to your
soil every year.
It should be remembered that the weeds and grass from the field
should be left untouched in the field. I was taking three cycles of
crops in a year and so, if your account for their stubble and grass
according to the specific crop, then I can say that between 22 to 40
tonnes of this stubble are being added in the from of organic manure
with the help of Gomata Snajivak. This has a regenerative capacity
for the soil. This organic manure underlines the importance of cattle
in farming. I had arrived at the quantum of residual stubble by the
following method:
My first crop was what of pumpkins. I sowed each plant at a distance
of 12 x 4 feet. This makes 770 plants per acre. A fresh pumpkins
plant without a single fruit can weigh about 6 kilos, this makes 4620
kilos, the total weight of plants per acre. Added to this weight is the
weight of stubble which is about 150 kilos per 1000 sq. feet. The total
weight of stubble comes to 6534 kilos per acre. So, the pumpkin crop
gave me stubble of 11154 kilos. This entire residue was recycled as
organic manure for the next crop, which was of cauliflowers.
I planned cauliflower plants at a distance of 45 cm x 30 cm and with
this density, 29040 plants per acre were planted with an average
weight of each plant coming to 300 grams. The total weight of the
plants, per acre, comes to 8712 kilos. Add to this weight, the weight
of stubble and grass which comes to 108 kilos per 1000 sq. feet. The
total weight of stubble comes to 13416 kilos. This organic residue
was added to the soil for the third crop which was of tender onions. I
weighed the weeds and stubble of this crop which come to 204 kilos
per 1000 sq. feet. With this ratio, I could mix organic waste of about
8686 kilos per acre with the following formula: 11,154 + 13416 +
8686 = 33256 kilos of organic manure. This too was added to the
land for the third time in the same year!
I must say that the number of friendly parasites was greatly increased
due to the complete withdrawal of insecticides. This has enabled the
ant population in my farm to grow by crores. This qualitative addition
of ants to the soil has the following three advantages:
1) Ants act as predators upon the larvae and eggs of insects thereby
acting as effective insecticidal agents;
2) Ants continue to bore in the soil which has something like a tilling
effect for it. The air below the soil surface circulates well in such a
porous soil;
3) When the ants die, they make the soil rich with their protein rich
bodies.
Weeding occupies a special place in organic farming and if you
calculate the labour cost for weeding, it comes to 20 to 25 rupees per
1000 sq feet. But when the same weed is converted into organic
manure, it could fetch rupees 50 per kilo according to market rates.
This is an invisible profit which, when merged with soil, helps the
next crop grow even better. This method gives more than what it
receives from the soil and hence proves to be very beneficial to the
soil with every crop, your get green stubble cover converted into rich
organic matter.
Suppose you take a mixed crop of tur, mung and soyabeans, then the
mung crop has a 60 days’ cycly, the soyabean, 100 to 110 days, and
tur between 180 to 200 days. The distance between each of these
three plants would be between 7 to 10 cm considering their periodic
cycle; the weeds of the one could be used as manure for the other,
thereby making the overall soil richer. The weeds of mung can be
used as a cover and manure for tur. This will help the soil retain its
moisture and will prove a special boon in an arid and dry climate.
Most vegetable crops can be taken with enhanced productivity by
employing this method.
Punctuality is the essence of organic farming. One has to maintain the
rhythm of each crop to keep away the diseases and ensure high
yields. It also reduces overhead costs of various farming operations.
For instance, nature has ordained the the cauliflower and allied crops
will grow beter in winger season, but if the same crop is taken during
summer, it becomes vulnerable to attack from various diseases. This
out-of-the season cropping pattern for monetary profits will
ultimately reduce the productivity of that crop.
The revenue from organic farming is distributed among the local
labourers and farmers in the forms of labour charges, etc. This is
good for the local market economy and encourages the growth of
local commerce. Since the seeds for natural farming come from the
local stock, the money spent on them is not siphoned off to
multinational corporations. This, therefore, must be treated as a
substantial saying on the cost of seeds. The labour cost also
appreciates considerably in organic farming as the demand for the
labour in the local area is increased. This is one more good reason for
going organic!!
Subhash Sharma,
Choti Gujri, Yavatmal- 445001
Tel. No. (07232) 240956
Mobile : 9422869620