Issue Popular Kheti

Popular Kheti ISSN:2321-0001 240

Inspiring NoteInspiring NoteInspiring NoteInspiring Note

Now, It’s the Time fNow, It’s the Time fNow, It’s the Time fNow, It’s the Time for or or or Organic Farming Organic Farming Organic Farming Organic Farming …. .…. .…. .…. .””””WithinWithinWithinWithin”””” !!!! Moola RamMoola RamMoola RamMoola Ram

Assistant Professor (Agronomy), Agricultural Research Sub-Station (AUJ), Sumerpur-306902, Pali (Rajasthan), India

Email: Email: Email: Email: [email protected]@[email protected]@gmail.com

“Kindly excuse me from writing story of our organic farming here. I am more focused on

Vipassana meditation now . . . the Organic Farming within! the farm of course continues to

run well” is the reply of Shri Vijay Shah, of NuTech Farm, village – Rayan, about 9 km from

seacoast town Mandavi of Kutch district, Gujarat (India), when I recently asked for success

story of his farm. Shri Shah is one of largest organic producer in Gujarat state of India.

What led him to live more now in meditation where he find perfection of human life.

For that, I introduce Jasons Witmer’s Global Organic Odyssey where he writes about Shri

Vijay Shah “Indian farmer creates an organic oasis in a harsh land”. Here is some excerption

from his writing:

““Vijay Shah started farming with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Production was

exceptional. “In those days of fertile soil and available water we had beautiful dates and

shining red pomegranates. We produced up to six times more than other farms.”

After seven years of synthetic inputs, however, Shah realized what other farmers in

the region are now beginning to understand -- that chemical farming in their harsh

conditions cannot last. Because the chemical fertilizers he used provided nutrients only for

the plant, his soil structure was weakened. He saw he had killed many of the beneficial

organisms that make the soil porous and fertile so it can absorb moisture. The soil lost its true

fertility, becoming dead and hardening when it rained.

During the dry season, wind blew the cracked, dusty topsoil off his land. When the

torrential rains came, they washed loose soil into flash-flood rivers.

To make matters worse, Shah’s neighbors began growing cotton. Their reckless

pesticides use drove insect pests to seek refuge at NuTech Farm. He was at a crossroads. “I had

to make a decision – whether to continue the vicious cycle of using more and more

chemicals, or change my whole way of farming,” he said.

Popular Kheti Volume -1, Issue-4 (October-December), 2013

Available online at www.popularkheti.info © 2013 popularkheti.info

ISSN:2321-0001 1(4) 2013

Special on

Organic Farming

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Ram M (2013), Pop. Kheti, 1(4):240-243

Soon after, Shah entered a Vipassana meditation course that proved to be a turning

point in his life. (Vipassana means “seeing things as they really are”) new insight soon grew

within Shah : “If you’re really looking for peace, then your livelihood should be peaceful."

Shah realized that although he shifted to rural life ... for the relaxing existence he was

looking forward to in the country side, he was experiencing constant anxiety about his new

farming life. He was always trying to kill what he saw as harmful insects – especially the

pesky, resilient termites. He worried continually about timely marketing and his steadily

decreasing production.

“I was very stressed. I had to keep using chemicals but the response was declining, “he

said. “I was scared and asked myself, ‘What will happen if I stop?’”

As he continued with meditation, Shah stopped chemicals on 1 july 1996. “For three

years it was very tough. I didn’t have any information on what to do in the transition period,“

he said. “They said to stop using chemicals... but what are the alternatives? It took me a long

time to understand the phrase, ‘healthy soil for healthy plants’.”

Through production declined during this period, Shah gradually began to figure things

out. He built up the soil, eventually developing a set of eco-friendly inputs. The products he

uses and markets to others to maintain soil and plant health include the local botanicals :

neem, calotropis, euphorbia and whole aloe & from the Gulf of Kutch he harvests brown

seaweed and green algae. He uses nutrient-rich cattle urine through his drip irrigation

system.

Shah also took other steps to protect his soil and shelter plant life. He mulched more

and began leaving low-lying weeds around plants as living mulch. He planted more trees to

lower soil temperature so it would be more conducive to micro-organic activity. He planted

mixed varieties of specialty trees, such as, sesbania, drumstick trees (Moringa oleifera) and

five-leaved chaste tree (Vitex Negundo) & neem as wind breaks for his soil. He abandoned

use of poisonous fumigants to kill pests that attacked trunks of his date trees. Now he pours

boiling water in crevices of trunks in affected trees, killing only harmful insects.

Shah’s new attitude changed the way he looked at termites. Once he stopped trying to

kill them all, he saw they were benefiting him by breaking down dead matter and providing

good aeration to tree roots. “They don’t eat anything green,” he said, admiring their work in

the trunk of a date tree. “Now termites are my best friends.”


Ram M (2013), Pop. Kheti, 1(4):240-243

Shah’s efforts produced results after several years. Plants grew stronger and gave more

fruit. Improved soil held more moisture. Shah estimated that during one 3-inch downpour

his smaller tract of land retained twice the water of his neighbor’s chemically farmed land,

judging from the reservoirs that receive the run-off from the ditch system on each farm.

Shah appreciates most, however, the contentment that he finds by co-operating with

his environment rather than ceaselessly fighting it.

In the violent desert climate, Vijay Shah has created an oasis of peace -- for himself,

his extended family, and his land””.

I hope above excerpt from Jasons’s Global Organic Odyssey has spread a sense of inspiration

among you. There are many examples may be you too, but since I had this one so mentioned

here.

I and team from Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur visited NuTech Farm

of Shri Vijay Shah, in the month of December, 2011. I need not to repeat the things already

well conveyed by Jason Witmer, but one thing I must tell that, it was a surprise to see

Foreigners coming over to NuTech Farm and take real experience of farming by staying

there, working in the field with farm workers, helping in cooking & all the chores (for more

information please visit: www.wwoof.org).

Our team and Shah interacting with Laura

Weitz of U.S. - a wwoofer at NuTech farm. Our team visiting Shah’s farm, Shah leading

our team at his farm


Ram M (2013), Pop. Kheti, 1(4):240-243

Shah is more on Vipassana mediation now, which he says brings him closer to the real

objective of human life. He calls it “Organic farming within one’s own mind!” How to face

the ups & downs of life with deeper Equanimity & How to remain really peaceful,

harmonious & happy & we observed this during the time we spent at NuTech Farm. Shah’s

plants looked happy, his animals looked happy, farm workers looked happy, everyone looked

happy in that peaceful harmonious environment there.

Chemical farming with toxic inputs does not give such internal happiness. Such

things matters a lot to some people, if you are one of those & if your farming does not give

internal happiness . . . you have to think over it.

When we grow organic, we live with harmony, I often remember talkings of

grandfathers they used to say when technologies were low the production was of course low

but people used to be very human, helping each other and sharing their woes. Today’s

advancement no doubt resulted into far more production but simultaneously led to greed of

man, want of more and more, acquiring anything at the cost of anything forgetting moral

rules and roots of human being.

Please practice organic farming from within now, from your heart, from your soul,

from your mind and have internal happiness and move towards perfection of human life.

Reference Reference Reference Reference

Jasons Witmer’s Global Organic Odyssey. Accessed online on 31st December, 2013 at:

http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/columns/Jason/2003/0403/india_aloe.shtml

Organic date palm trees at NuTech Farm Enjoying tea and observing organic aloe

vera products at NuTech Farm

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