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