"The story of our relationship to the earth is written more truthfully on the land than on the page. It lasts there. The land remembers what we said and what we did." - Robin Wall Kimmerer, 2013 I recently published a chapter titled, 'Our Soils in Peril' in Promoting Biodiversity in Food Systems, a textbook for graduate students on 'biodiversity’s crucial role in food systems, health and well-being, and fate of the natural environment.' Doing research on the state of soils all over the world, made me realize how much I truly love soil and why soil regeneration seems like a cause worth pursuing in my life. I think one of the main point that I make in this short chapter is that soil is the foundation of civilizations and abuse of soil leads to horrific destruction of structures of all kinds - agricultural, economic, social, and political. This conclusion is actually David Montgomery's whose work I researched to write this chapter. I am amazed at how much we have destroyed the ground beneath our feet. And just like with greenhouse gas emissions, agriculture is one of the main reason for the killing of the soil. Paying attention to soil is yet another way we can re-examine our relationship with nature. Re-examine our relationship with the small, the unseen, those that we take for granted but make the world go around.
What makes me so passionate about speaking for the soil is the fact that in the grand hierarchy of human making, soil is probably at the absolute bottom. The hierarchies of man go something like this: White men White women Men of colour Women of colour LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer) QTPOC (Queer and Transgender People of Colour) Indigenous people Animals Plants Soil I know this is a simplistic version of the grand hierarchies and that there are so many complexities and nestling of hierarchies within every single one of those on the list. But I think we might all agree that soil is at the bottom of people's list of priorities. If you don't feel that way, maybe you will change your mind after you read the chapter ;) Soil is the most oppressed and is easily forgotten as being a living system containing 1/3rd of all the biodiversity on earth. Humans with our supremacist ways of thinking, are not good at giving anything non-human and invisible any respect. But I have come to love soil in a deep and sorrowful way. Once we truly acknowledge how little we know about the vastness of life in the soil and all that this web of tiny life does to make our life possible, and once we understand how we are destroying what we don't even know in an irreparable way, it is humbling. And just like so many other communities of the natural world that we are losing everyday, it calls for us to grieve the loss and try our best to know soil through deep connection, Deep connection brings me to how we relate with soil and how even environmentalists are approaching soil conservation in an irreverent way. One example of this is referring to the soil as a 'carbon sink' as if the earth were just here to fix all the mess that we have made. A sink where we throw all our crap and forget about it. Is this how we want to relate to the most basic elements of life that keep us alive - earth, water, air, fire? Our human supremacist attitude of course extends to soil as well which becomes just another thing we can use and abuse however we want without even once questioning our own attitudes and lifestyles. Tom B.K. Goldtooth is an elder from the Navajo tribe in the US. He spoke as the opening keynote speaker at the 'Soil Not Oil' conference this year in San Francisco where there were many proponents of soil carbon sequestering as a solution to reversing climate change. Most environmentalists will propose soil carbon sequestering, a process of using vegetation to pull carbon out of the air and put it into the soil. But this is not what Goldtooth promoted when he came on to speak. In fact he reminded us of how any such programs - soil carbon sequestering, carbon trading and offsetting are all part of the same paradigm of capitalism. He called it 'green capitalism' that usually directly affects poor and disenfranchised people and benefits corporations and big agriculture. His sentence, "the soil, air (carbon), and water are not for sale" really struck a chord in me. Many Native-American worldviews regard everything in nature as being our relatives - sky father, water mother. When your foundational worldview is one where nature is your family, it goes against that value system to say something like soil is a 'carbon sink'. You cannot rape the earth with a plough and call it humankind's greatest invention. I hope that the chapter I wrote helps us acknowledge that before we can even start talking about any kind of solutions to climate change, or soil degradation, or the sixth extinction, we need to grieve for what we have done and continue to do on earth and learn to respect and connect with all that lives beneath the ground and above it in a kind, humble, and joyful way. Most of us don't even know how to quite do that, including myself. But I know there are teachers out there who I can learn from. I seek them out and learn from them at every opportunity that I can get.
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Recently there were 2 people from Britain who made some small films on Grampari and took lots of great photos. I have put a couple of the videos below. They are part of a non-profit organization called 'Security Is...?' Here is a link to their facebook page and their work. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Security-Is/396494513775093 Here is a video of Renie from Grampari, our geologist working on watershed management. http://vimeo.com/60013230 Woman Scarecrow at Grampari in a beautiful sari I joined Grampari as Sustainability Program Co-ordinator in September, 2012. Grampari is a non-profit organization that works for rural people and ecology. As a part of their watershed program, they started an organic vegetable garden on their campus, along with two lemon tree orchards. I hope to be at Grampari for 4 more months. Currently I look after the organic vegetable garden as well as the grounds and in the last 5 months several changes have taken place at Grampari that I wanted to share with all of you. This is also a good way to understand the many practices of organic farming that I have written about in my blog. A good farm comes from a balanced eco-system and by working with local people. Management of the Grounds: I work with two other people on the management of the grounds, garden, and orchards. Both Sujata and Shashikant are from nearby villages with a passion for farming. Post-monsoon days have been 8 hours of weeding! This time we also tried to plant long-term, low nutrient and water requiring, flowering, native medicinal plants and shrubs. Over 150 seedlings were planted of plants such as Adulsa, Mehendi, Tulsi, Citronella, Ticoma, Peppermint, Chitrak, Tagar, Vetiver etc. Landscaping the grounds with these plants will ensure lower weeding after the following monsoon. Planting natives and medicinal plants is extremely important for creating a balanced eco-system allowing for arrival of beneficial insects and birds. The lemon/lime orchard below the organic garden was cleared of its tall grass by 4 women employed from Godavali. It was a huge change that gave us access to endless limes and lemons. The most productive part of Grampari is definitely the citrus orchard. Dead lemon trees were replaced by new ones and 4 Amla trees have also been planted in empty spaces. The next steps involve landscaping the orchard in order to have a ground cover going before the monsoon in order to prevent the return of the tall elephant grass. Organic Vegetable Garden: Apart from organic lemons we had a wonderful harvest of 20 pumpkins that had grown over the monsoon. After more than a month of weeding and re-creating our raised beds, we began our planting in September and October. We also began cultivating a small section on the upper part of the garden which is an experimental section for organic wheat. Including the upper and lower areas we have planted about 25 different vegetables. On a regular basis we are harvesting lettuce, coriander, methi, spinach, bananas, mint, lemon grass and lemons. We have now started also harvesting radish, capsicum, cauliflower, cabbage and chillies. Some of the techniques being applied are composting, vermicomposting, mulching, intercropping, and water conservation through drip irrigation. For mulching we have managed to find rice husk after a long search. Our three compost pits are almost full and undergoing decomposition. We have re-done our vermicompost system to ensure it functions properly and to accommodate more food waste that will be produced from month-long residential training programs. Drip Irrigation System: Our newest project which has been a success is setting up of the drip irrigation system. After doing surveys, and calculations we projected a cost of about Rs.6500 for the drip irrigation material required in the organic vegetable garden as well as the border plantation. We bought about 480 metres of drip pipe and other parts. At one of our shramdaans (voluntary work) for the students of Symbiosis (SCIT) we put forward this quotation in the hopes of finding a source for this money. To our amazement the students amongst themselves contributed a bit of money each and provided us with Rs.9200! It was more that what we had asked for and we are tremendously grateful to them. The drip irrigation is now set up and the total cost was approximately Rs.7200. Drip irrigation is one of the most effective ways of watering. It has minimal exposure to the atmosphere resulting in least evaporation. The water seeps in slowly and spreads laterally just the way plants like it. Watershed Demonstrations: In the last year several staggered couture trenches have been made to ensure ground water recharge. The last few months have seen the installation of another roof-top rainwater harvesting system done by Jared, Renie, Ankush, and Ankur. It includes a first-flush device to perform basic filtration of the rain water which is then directed into a water tank. The water tank which used to be an old and dysfunctional biogas plant can store up to 28 thousand litres of water. We hope to use the water collected next monsoon for the watering of the garden in the dry months. Ongoing and Future Projects:
Our ongoing projects include watering and maintenance of the grounds. Landscaping and planning of the lemon orchard is a big part of our work. We now hope to also begin reaching out to farmers from nearby villages through short organic farming workshops. Meanwhile we are also working on a farm manual both in English and Marathi to be prepared for future farm managers. Best wishes to everyone for 2013 and do come to Grampari for some fresh vegetables and black tea with lemon grass! In life we have been taught since our childhood to be neat and clean. That means everything should be arranged and orderly. While it may be of value to teach to our children to be neat and orderly, it does not work so well in the context of organic farming. An organic garden can be beautiful and aesthetically extremely pleasing. However it will never look orderly or disciplined like chemical and industrial farms look. Rows and rows, acres and acres of neat rows of one single type of plant, crop, and vegetable. It may seem pleasing to our mind and senses which are conditioned by artificial order, however it is not the rule of nature.
So what is really the problem with mono-cropping (single species plantation)? This question is more easily answered by understanding how intercropping is beneficial. But a short and logical answer is that mono-cropping creates a weak system where one pest, one drought, one unfavourable climatic condition, can wipe out an entire crop resulting in complete loss for the farmer. Once more the forest has a lot to teach us on this topic. The forest is one of the highest biomass producing eco-systems and more precisely tropical and evergreen forests have the highest production amongst types of forests. What we typically see in such forests is that it has the highest biodiversity. Very rarely will you find only one species growing in even a tiny area. Biodiversity is the strength of ecosystems. Won't we have better luck if we learn to imitate the forest system of production? Let us look at some benefits of intercropping in organic farming and gardening. Pest Control If your garden bed has more than three types of plants growing on it, and no same plants are touching each other, it reduces the impact of pests dramatically. There is a very simple explanation for this. Pests usually move from one plant to the other and usually pests like one or two kinds of plants. When there is one straight line of the pests' favourite vegetable it will keep going from one to the other and keep multiplying. If the pest eats one plant and then next it encounters a plant that it doesn't like, then it will think there are no more of its favourite plants and so it may disappear or simply remain in small numbers. Nutrient Control and Optimization Every plant has different nutrient requirements. If you have a monocropping of only vegetables such as cauliflower or sweet corn which are high nutrient consuming plants, then your soil will become depleted very quickly and will require you to keep adding hight amounts of nutrients externally. This is both harmful to nature as well as inefficient. Intercropping high nutrient consuming vegetables with low nutrient extracting and nitrogen fixing plants will give you a diverse and higher yield. This chart below will give you some idea of what are high and low nutrient consuming vegetables. 1. Fruiting Vegetables (e.g Tomato, Brinjal, Cauliflower, Cabbage etc.) High 2. Leafy Vegetables (e.g. Spinach, Latmat, Methi, Corriander etc.) Medium 3. Roots (e.g Carrot, Raddish, Sweet Potato etc.) Low 4. Legumes (e.g Tur dal, Chawli, French Beans, Soya bean etc.) Nitrogen Fixing Nutrient management automatically leads to less requirements of water, fertilizer, and mulching since plants can form their own mini-ecosystem with less needed from the outside. So how can you do it? As I always say don't be afraid to try something out. Trial and error is your best friend because only your context will tell you what can be best intercropped and how. There are several established examples of intercropping and companion planting. Tomato and Marigold Companion Planting: This is a very common example. Companion planting is where the two plants are meant to be with each other because of how beneficial they are to each other and to us. Tomato pests are mostly nematodes which means they come from the soil. Marigold roots have a property that kills these soil nematodes. So they do very well together and at the end of the day you have beautiful tomatoes and marigold flowers to harvest. More information on companion planting and intercropping can be found here. The best part of gardening is planting your babies and watching them grow... This is definitely the fun part. So now that you have understood how to make compost and prepare your soil for planting, it is time to plant. What do we need to know about Tomatoes? Soil: Fertile, deep, and well-drained (however, wild tomatoes can grow easily in tough soil) Water: Frequent watering required but don’t let them get soggy! Nutrients: Compost and Vermicompost Climate: Nice warm and in full sun Okay let us take it step by step. Most vegetables require the following steps. 1. Sourcing Organic Seeds or Seedlings 2. Starting Seeds 3. Transplanting Seedlings/Sowing Seeds 4. Intercropping/Companion Cropping to Avoid Pest Problems 5. Maintenance (Watering, Nutrients, Weeding, Pruning) 6. Harvesting 7. Saving Seeds Sourcing Organic Seeds of Seedling is extremely important for all organic farmers or gardeners. Even if you are growing your tomato in a pot, you want to eat organic. Depending on your location it may be difficult for you to find seeds and seedlings that have not been treated with chemicals. You definitely want to avoid buying hybrid seeds /seedlings. Often if you buy seeds in a shop that are not hybrid, read the fine print. It may say treated with thiram or some other chemical. In the case that you cannot find organic, you can grow those as well but make sure you add no more chemicals to your soil or plant. You are most likely to find organic seeds from someone who grows organic vegetables. Often there are some villagers who grow ‘local’ or ‘gauthi, gauran’ vegetables. You can ask them for their seeds as well. Starting seeds: Once you have the seeds, you can start then in seed starters. Make sure the soil for your seeds is the best soil you have. It needs to be fertile and without stones as much as possible. You can also start seeds in a pot or on a small patch on land in your garden. Sow the seeds only 1 or 2cms deep. If the seeds go in too deep then the chances of germination go down. Even scattering seeds is okay if you do not have birds who might eat your seeds. Depending on the quality of your seeds, 1 out of every 3 seeds will germinate. Keep the soil moist and avoid direct sunlight. However cold weather and cold soil does not suit germination. Transplanting seedlings can take place once your seedlings have grown approximately 5-6 inches tall. If you have bought seedlings from a nursery, then the sooner you transplant the better. Prepare the soil for planting and level it so that there is no slope for water to run off or favor one or two plants more than others. Make 3-4 inch holes at a distance of 20 inches. Often tomatoes need support, so planting then in one line is better if you are planting on the ground. Planting one tomato plant per pot is usually the best. Make sure that the pot is not too small because tomatoes require a lot of nutrition to produce fruits. Transplant the tomatoes with care so as to not damage the root system. The roots and part of the stem should be under the ground. Don’t be too gentle otherwise the plant may not remain erect. So be gentle, but firm. It is good to water the plant immediately after transplanting so as to lessen the shock. Intercropping/Companion Planting: It is important not to plant only tomatoes because they are likely to be attacked by diseases. Every plant has a companion plants that keep these pests away. One of tomatoes’ best companion plant is Marigold. Plant Marigold seedlings alternatively with tomato seedlings. They will grow together and keep your tomatoes happy. Maintenance of tomato plants has two major components. One is building support and the other is adding nutrients. Since tomato plants require fertility to grow, adding compost/manure/vermicompost during flowering helps in the formation of fruits. Tomatoes can be allowed to sprawl however to avoid rotting of tomatoes by their touching the ground, supports can help. There are many different kinds of support. I will mention 3 kinds. 1. Stick Support: It is the most simple method by which you can put one single stick for each plant along the stem of the plant and tie the two together. Make sure the stick is longer than the plant to keep up with its growth. 2. Triangle Support: This is also a method for supporting a single tomato plant. Put three sticks in a triangular formation around the plant and cage the plant within the space of those sticks by tying strings. You can even get ready made cages as seen in the photograph below. 3. Trellis: The trellis method can support more than one tomato plant. Place two 4-5ft thick sticks or bamboos on either end of your tomato plant bed/ line of planted tomato plants. Tie two strings across the two sticks, one at the top and one at the bottom. Between these two horizontal strings tie several vertical strings close to each tomato plant. So when the tomato needs support, all you need to do is wind them along these vertical strings. The photographs below can help (click for bigger picture). Harvesting tomatoes is easy. Eat them when they look red and juicy! If you want to transport and sell them, it is advisable to pick them a bit before they turn red.
Saving seeds for the next season is essential and efficient. It will help you preserve organic seeds of certain tomato varieties, and also save you the trouble of looking for them during the next round of tomato growing. Here is a good website with information on how to save seeds. So you are now ready to start growing some tomatoes. Don’t forget to water regularly, add compost, and mulch, mulch, mulch! Organic farming gives most importance to the soil. Understanding and nurturing the foundation of plants, and trees is extremely important. Learning how to prepare good soil, how to maintain it, and how to replenish it, is the most valuable skill for any gardener. Lets see how we can understand the first step of planting...preparing the soil. If you would ask me what I love most in the process of gardening, it is definitely preparing the soil. Who wouldn't want to play in the mud!? In an ideal situation where the balance of nutrients in and out is maintained, and the soil remains wonderfully soft, moist, and nutritious like in a rainforest, you would not have to touch or disturb the soil. However, most people are not lucky to have such amazing soil to start with. So effort must be made towards reaching a point where preparing the soil becomes a minimal activity. So when I say preparing the soil, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Ploughing? Indeed that is what most people think it is. If you understand how alive the soil and earth is, then you will only be able to look upon the ploughing as raping of earth. Ploughing with machines is worse than with bullocks. But almost all ploughing that is now manual, tills the soil too deeply, thus disturbing the delicate soil structure. Sowing seeds requires only 2-3 inches of lose soil. Technology has unfortunately misunderstood the working of nature. So how can you prepare soil in an organic manner? Loosening the Soil: If you have a garden with quite a bit of space, and the soil looks like it has been compacted, then it might require loosening. The same applies to soil in pots. The process of loosening also involves the removal of stones and breaking down of clumps of earth. This loosening of soil is done for a couple of different reasons. One is to help the seeds or seedlings planted get rooted more quickly instead of struggling with hard soil. The second reason is for easier removal of weeds. It is important to remember that loosening all the soil of your garden or pots should only be done once before planting new seeds or seedlings. Weeding is best done gently by hand once planting has already been done. Making Beds: Once you have loosened the soil, you can make beds by moving the soil into different shapes. Smaller beds are always better than bigger beds because the less you walk on the bed, the better it is for the plant. 1 meter wide beds are a good size. Beds usually are higher than the ground around them and so they are called 'raised' beds. Raising the height of your beds helps in production of bigger vegetables. However it is not necessary for all kinds of vegetables. Roots and tubers may prefer raised beds while ordinary hardy plants such as chillies or leafy vegetables may not require that. Be creative about making beds. Don't believe anybody who says that beds must be rectangular. Have you tried semicircles? It works great! Adding Nutrition: The assumption that I unfortunately have to make these days is that most soil is degraded and requires the addition of nutrients from outside. Once you have decided the shapes and spots of your beds, you can add compost, vermicompost (worm castings), or animal manure (cow, chicken, sheep, goat, horse etc.). Some people prefer to mix the soil and the compost while others prefer to just lay down the compost as a top layer of the soil so that the nutrients can slowly seep into the soil with the water. Any method is fine. Compost can be added in good quantity for example 1/4th of the content of your garden bed or pot can be compost. Vermicompost and animal manure have stronger nutrition and thus must be used in lesser amounts and mostly closer to the plant. Levelling the Soil: Once you have added the compost and/or other nutrition, you need to level the surface of the soil. The reason for this being important is to make sure that every plant on the bed gets adequate water. If the soil around your plant is slopping away from it, then the water will run away from the plant and probably over-water the plant towards the bottom of the slope. The final product of your efforts should be soil that is mostly devoid of rocks, stones, and clumps of earth. If needed just sit down and feel the soil with your hands to know if there are rocks or clumps. Think of it as meditation or just pure fun as you break these clumps of soil with your hands. Once you have accomplished these steps, you are ready to plant! If you leave this wonderfully prepared soil barren for too long, it will result in a loss of all the nutrients that you had put in with all your hard work. So remember to prepare your soil only when you are ready to plant. Tool Tips! Here are some great tools that you can use to prepare your soil. Click on the names to view their photographs. Hand Shovel - For loosening the soil, mixing, weeding, scooping (good for pots) Hand Rake - For Levelling the Soil, mixing (good for pots) Shovel - For loosening the soil, mixing, weeding, scooping (good for gardens) Rake - For Levelling the Soil, mixing, raking leaves and weeds (good for gardens) Straw used as Mulch on a Garden Bed Whenever I take a walk in the forest, what I love most is the sound of the crackling leaves under my feet, the softness of the soil, and the strong and tall forest trees. We may not give a second thought to the leaves under our feet in the jungle, but everything in nature has a role to play. These leaves have not fallen to the earth for no reason. They are nature's mulch! So what is Mulching and Mulch? Mulching is to me, one of the most important techniques followed in organic farming. It serves multiple purposes and you will feel immensely thankful for the outcomes of something so simple. Mulching is an activity that involves using certain kinds of material to cover the soil around the plants and seedlings that you have planted. Therefore, mulch is any type of material that is spread or laid over the surface of the soil as a covering. Mulch Material: In organic farming you can use any thing that is biodegradable as your mulch such as; straw, hay, dry leaves, shredded paper, dried grass, wood chips, stalks or husks of rice, wheat, etc. So what is the purpose of mulching? 1. Mulching on top of your soil around your plants prevents the moisture from escaping from soil due to heat. Mulching when done properly can reduce the required watering by 40-50 percent! 2. A good layer of mulch also helps in keeping the weeds down by making it difficult for them to grow. This reduces the competition for nutrition for your veggies. 3. It is also a great way to do composting in-place! With time the organic mulch begins to decompose and provide nutrition back into the soil. Why does mulching work? Forests are our teachers once again to understand this. In a forest there is a cycle and flow of give and take. The cycle of nutrients is essential for an healthy forest. As plants and trees grow, they take a lot of nutrition out of the soil to do so. The leaves, branches, and even dead trees that fall down to the forest floor, replenish the nutrition of the soil through their decomposition. As much nutrition goes out, just as much goes back in. The forest floor remains moist due to this and has the best soil you can find. However agriculture only seems to keep taking more and more out of the land. So how can it be restored unless we do it ourselves? The secret about the foundation of mulching is that plants love sunlight, but the soil does not. Everything that lives in the soil such as the roots of plants, earthworms, and micro-organisms, thrive in the dark and moist. So mulching works! How and when do you mulch? It is extremely simple. All you have to do is lay out your mulch material in layers out on the soil in your beds or even in your pots. If you put too little mulch, it will not be effective. If you put too much, you may suffocate the soil. If you are using straw or dry leaves, a good layer would be anywhere between 4-6 inches. The soil needs to breathe and so the material you use needs to be breathable like dry leaves and straw. If you use newspaper, you need to shred it, otherwise the soil will not be able to breathe through a plain sheet and this can lead to disease and pest problems. A good time to mulch is when your plants are about 6 inches tall. You can also mulch if your garden, land, or soil is barren for certain months in the year. Providing moisture to the mulch will enable the decomposition. Instead of the moisture and nutrition disappearing from the soil due to heat, the mulch will help to keep it in and replenish the soil at the same time. So when you decide to plant again, you will have beautiful soil. Trial and error is your best friend. But guess what? You have nothing to lose. People are becoming more and more aware of garbage and waste disposal management. We often hope that we could recycle our waste in a more productive way at home rather than sending it away to a land-fill to be burnt or buried. Composting is an easy process that makes a big difference to the recycling and reuse of waste. What can be better than to be able to turn your kitchen garbage into something useful, and most importantly in your own backyard? During my internship at CETDEM (Center for Environment, Technology & Development, Malaysia) I had the opportunity to work with Ms.Tan, an inspiring forerunner for organic farming in Malaysia. Her team at CETDEM has developed a wonderful and easy method of making compost in a plastic garbage bin. Here is how you can do it... Step 1: Find a plastic garbage bin that is not too small. A good size would be 57cm height and radius or bigger. It is important for the bin to be big enough for the composting process to take place effectively. Heat is generated during the process of decomposition which is extremely important. A small bin might not be able to generate the required amount of heat. Step 2: Drill ventilation holes on all sides of the bin as shown on the diagram. Also cut out the entire bottom of the bin. Step 3: Find a good spot for your bin to be placed. If you have a back-yard then it is best to place it directly on soil or land. If you do not have a back-yard, then create a small corner in your terrace or veranda where you can put a layer of soil. Place the bin upside down at this spot. Step 4: Always begin your heap with a 15-20cm layer of dry leaves for aeration and drainage. Step5: Add your cooked and raw kitchen waste (only bio-degradable items: avoid paper) on top of the dry leaves and then cover it with more dry leaves/grass and soil. This helps to keep the flies and odour away and also adds the essential carbon required for decomposition. Step 6: Continue putting your kitchen waste and covering it until the bin is full. If your waste is wet them you most probably will not require to create moisture for the compost. However if you feel the waste is too dry and no decomposition is taking place, add some water. However, it has to be only moist and not wet. Otherwise your garbage will rot. Step 7: Once the bin is full do not add any more waste to it. Now you need to turn or mix your compost. This is very easy. Just lift the entire garbage bin which has been upside down, and put it to the side. Using hand gloves, transfer the entire waste back into the upside down garbage bin. This simple transfer helps to turn the compost. Step 8: Turn the compost once every 2-3 weeks. At the end of 2 months you will have beautiful compost ready for use. See previous blog post. Step 9: You can use the compost for your plants or store the ready compost in plastic bags and keep it out of the rain. Remember not to add any more garbage to your bin once it is full. As the decomposition occurs, the garbage will shrink. However, if you add new waste to it, it will slow down the process and take a long time to give you the good-looking compost that you need.
So keep it simple! Creating Living Soil Chemical-based farming operates on the assumption of dead soil; which means there are no nutrients available in the soil and so they need to be added physically. And after the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, the life in the soil diminishes greatly, thus reducing the productivity of the land. So you end up using even more chemicals the next time which leads to a vicious cycle. The focus of chemical farming is to give all the input to the plant, which is a short-term process. Whereas in organic farming the focus is on creating good and healthy soil so that whatever is planted grows well. It requires patience and dedication to renewing and regenerating the soil naturally which ultimately gives you long term productivity and health benefits. When you look at the soil, it may seem like lifeless clay and rocks. But in fact it is very much alive. Millions of small organisms live in healthy soil which is rich in organic matter. Some of them are big enough to see, such as earthworms and small insects. But, most of them are so small that you can only see them if you use a microscope. These microscopic organisms include nematodes (tiny worms), bacteria, fungi and even some insects which are invisible to the naked eye. These living organisms make soil alive and give it a good structure and texture. A living soil ecosystem nurtures and nourishes plants by providing a healthy medium to take roots and through a steady supply of nutrients. Most of the organic farming techniques focus on building living soil. So lets begin by understanding four basic techniques that everyone can apply, whether it is a garden, farm, or pots in your balcony. 1. Compost 2. Mulch 3. Manure 4. Cropping Methods Compost Compost-making is simply imitating nature's process of natural decomposition as we can witness in the forests. The dark-hummus like substance found on the forest floor is compost. It adds essential nutrition back into the soil which the plants and trees then take in to grow. Just like everything in nature, this is also a cycle of give and take. The amount of nutrition that is taken by a tree or plant to grow is returned to the soil when the dead tree falls to the forest floor and begins decomposing. Therefore, while growing our vegetables in our gardens, we need to put back the nutrition that we are taking out. Compost is a natural fertilizer, and good, mature compost, is one of the best fertilizers that can be found anywhere in the world. To make good compost it is essential that it is an aerobic process that creates compost rather than methane gas as a by-product. For this you need all your bio-degradable kitchen waste (cooked/uncooked food scraps), some dry leaves, grass, or straw (brown matter), soil, and water. If these ingredients are managed in the right order then the result will be great compost that you can add to your soil which will boost the growth of your plants. If growing in pots, it is even more essential to ensure that the soil remains rich in nutrients, since natural cycles of nutrients, soil, and water become restricted in pots. There are several ways of making compost depending on the size of your garden or farm as well as on the urgency and requirements of produce. However the following are some simple steps that are essential for anybody who is making compost. Step 1: Location: Choose your space for making compost. The best space for making compost is on direct soil. If you do not have a garden, create a small space where you can put some soil on the floor. Don't worry about the smell and flies. If done right, you won't have either and you can always cover your compost. Step2: Maintaining Proportions: An important thing to remember about compost-making is maintaining the balance between nitrogen (wet, green, fresh waste) and carbon (dry brown matter). The proportion between the two should be roughly 30% Nitrogen to 70% Carbon. Step 3: Creating Airways: It is essential that air should pass freely through the compost pile. For this ensure that if your cover the compost, that there are holes in the surrounding structure or bin. This is essential for aerobic decomposition. Step 4: Layering: There are many ways of layering. However a simple way to remember how to layer is to remember to alternate between wet and dry layers. So if you have just put in a fresh batch of waste from your kitchen into the compost pile, put a layer of dry grass or leaves on top of that and you can also add some soil as it may quicken the composting process. The dry layer will also keep animals, flies, and bad odour away. Step 5: Maintaining Moisture: The process of decomposition requires moisture. If the compost pile gets too wet it will lead to anaerobic decomposition (rotting) and if the pile is too dry, then it will not decompose quickly. So it is essential to keep the pile moist. Check the pile before adding water to see if it needs any. Step 6: Regular Turning: Once the container in which you are piling your wet waste and dry leaves into is full, then you need to STOP adding new waste into that. You can either create a new pile or just find a another place for your waste. Once the container is full, you need to turn (mix) the compost once every 2 weeks to quicken the decomposition process and to ensure that there is only aerobic decomposition taking place. If you are in a tropical country like India where decomposition is very rapid, you should have a wonderful pile of compost ready in 30-45 days. Once ready you can store it in a dry place and use it liberally on your soil before planting, and after planting.
Next article on how to make compost in a plastic garbage bin. Compost Away! More Information can be found here: A great article on composting for further reading: The Basics of Composting People are often confused about the different techniques of organic farming. What does and does not constitute organic growing methods is unclear to many people. To me it seems the reason for this is the failure to understand organic farming as a lifestyle and philosophy rather than a technique or skill. The way we understand life and nature, and the way we interact with it is what helps us understand organic or natural farming. Organic and natural farming are not the same, but more later on the different kinds of farming. So here let us first understand the principles of organic farming before we try to practice it.
International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM) has been the forum for many agricultural movements throughout the world for the last 30 plus years. It has inspired others and has itself been an agent of social and ecological revolution. According to IFOAM’s Principles, organic agriculture is based on: * The principle of health Organic Agriculture should sustain and enhance the health of soil, plant, animal, human and planet as one and indivisible. * The principle of ecology Organic Agriculture should be based on living ecological systems and cycles, work with them, emulate them and help sustain them. * The principle of fairness Organic Agriculture should build on relationships that ensure fairness with regard to the common environment and life opportunities * The principle of care Organic Agriculture should be managed in a precautionary and responsible manner to protect the health and well-being of current and future generations and the environment. The Principles apply to agriculture in the broadest sense, including the way people tend soils, water, plants and animals in order to produce, prepare and distribute food and other goods. They concern the way people interact with living landscapes, relate to one another and shape the legacy of future generations. I have realized that the forest has so much to teach us about what is the best way to grow food. We can learn many lessons just by observing the forest ecosystem. India is a tropical country and therefore it is blessed with many kinds of wonderful forests. You can grow all the food in the world, with the best fertilizers and produce the highest yield, but you can never beat the productivity of a forest. Productivity of nature is measured by humans through the concepts of biomass and organic matter. Jungles have the highest biomass that is almost impossible for human beings to replicate in agriculture. So what does the forest have to teach us? No Ploughing There is no one who comes into the forest and ploughs it and yet the soil is light, fluffy, and extremely rich in minerals and organic fertilizer. This is because of many reasons such as the presence of earthworms our natural tillers of the soil. Another reason for this is because of the amazing amount of decomposition that takes place on the forest floor. The amount of living growth is matched with an equal amount of dead organic matter lying on the ground, that slowly decomposes and naturally fertilizes the soil. No Mono-Cropping It is very rare to find a natural forest (mind you not a human-created) that has only one kind of tree. The forest is healthy only because it is diverse. Diversity is the root of life, socially and ecologically. Each plant species, animal species, insects, micro-organisms play an important part in the functioning of the forest through their special roles and relationships with each other. When you plant only one thing, you create a weak ecosystem that is susceptible to pests. No Flooding One of the most common misunderstanding about agriculture is that it requires a lot of water. If you have good soil, and diversity, it is very rare for your plants to require a lot of water. Most forests are present on the slopes of mountains. That means that they do not need flooding. But what they really need is moist soil. Not wet, but simply moist. Can you imagine how much water we could stop consuming for our agriculture? I think what the forest teaches us is to be as close to nature's way in our life and our farming. To co-exist rather than dominate and exploit. To give back as much as we take. To exist without manipulating the air, soil, water, plants, animals, and micro-organisms as much as possible. Since we live in a world with 7 billion people, we have to manipulate our land a lot more than is good. But if we all grow just a little bit of food in our backyard the organic way, we can lessen the harm done to a great extent. In the next article we will learn about the basic techniques of growing food nature's way. Reference: IFOAM, Principles of Organic Agriculture, available from, http://www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/principles/index.html 'Organic Farming in Malaysia' by CETDEM (Centre for Environment, Technology & Development, Malaysia) Mansata, Bharat. 'Vision of Natural Farming' |
Principles and Practices of Organic and Natural Farming Archives
November 2018
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