The Healing Power of Forest, the book written by Prof. (Dr) Akira Miyawaki, gave me an idea about eco restoration. I had read the books of Masanobu Fukuoka and Subash Palekar before reading this book but they didn’t give the idea of eco restoration. It is my mistake that I didn’t go to its philosophy. The meeting with Mr Abraham Chacko made me rethink. The agricultural experiments conducted by this gentleman in Udumbanchola, around 40 km from Munnar, deserve worldwide attention. The problems that plague agricultural activities in places like Kerala are heavy use of pesticides as well as chemical fertilizers and the over-utilization of labour. Mr Abraham Chacko has proved that we can do farming successfully with just one tenth of the resources we usually use. But his initiatives are still not popular among general public. Let us listen to him.
After completing B. Sc. (Agriculture) at Allahabad Agricultural Institute, I got a job as Junior Field Officer at Cardamom Board (later it became Spices Board). There, I learned about agricultural activities done with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In the beginning of my career, I used to persuade farmers to use chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, etc. Then I started farming here. One day I noticed an agricultural labourer vomiting after applying a strong pesticide (I think it was Forate) in the farm. Till then, my thought was that use of pesticides is part of advanced farming technology. But his vomiting persuaded me to start thinking in a different way. Pesticides can be dangerous.
I started reading articles on that and observing Nature. I noticed birds and butterflies falling dead on the days following the application of pesticides. I felt this was not right. I got the book The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka around that time. Thereafter, I switched over to organic farming. Initially, there was hope in farming with the use of compost and bio-fertilizers because after a few years, the soil became hard, the cost of farming went up, and I felt the quality of soil going down. At that juncture, I happened to attend a camp organized by Sri Subhash Palekar, and then I turned to his way of natural farming, realizing that it was the real, natural farming technique.
I too tried organic farming with indigenous cows but that was not very successful. Here I find it is very successful. I am tempted to go back to it. Could you please explain your experiments with indigenous cows?
How does soil work? What I did in the beginning was organic farming. In modern farming, we think about Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium or NPK. Every kind of farming uses these elements. But how does it happen naturally? I could make natural farming a success thanks to the knowledge acquired by observing Nature and from the works of great people like Subhash Palekar and Dr Christine Jones. It is the ‘life’ in soil that makes everything possible. To make natural farming successful, you need to take the whole ecosystem into consideration. It is the life in soil that makes it healthy. Only healthy soil can provide us the elements – Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. The rice that we eat is actually a form of solar energy. There are billions of microbes in the soil. They get energy from the sun. Solar energy cannot be directly absorbed. Our skin or stones do not absorb but only radiate solar energy. But green leaves convert solar energy to biochemical energy through photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the basis of life on earth. I realized it only very late.
The initial learning was that leaves grow with photosynthesis and share it others when they fall. But in 2000, a British scientist Dr Sarah F. Wright discovered that plants deposit almost one-third of the carbohydrate produced through photosynthesis in soil. In the next decade, scientists realized that this was for the purpose of giving energy to their microbial partners. It is these microbial partners that make nitrogen from atmosphere and NPK from soil available to plants. With that revelation, attempt to increase the efficiency of photosynthesis started. For that, you need plant diversity. Both tapioca and carrot are tubers. But the carbohydrates produced by both the plants are different. In this manner, different plants produce different types of carbohydrates that help different microbes survive. If you want a particular element in soil, it needs the presence of a particular microbe. Only the presence of a plant which produces that particular carbohydrate required for that particular microbe, can ensure it.
The fundamental issue is sustaining the biodiversity of earth, isn’t, it?
Diversity is the basis of everything.
As you rightly said, the book The One-Straw Revolution was translated into Malayalam immediately after its publication. The organic farmers here promoted it pretty well. What Palekar introduced was a refined form of natural farming. Permaculture and Bill Mollison came later. Prof. Miyawaki was not known to Keralites very much. His model was rapid afforestation and conservation of indigenous biodiversity. All these are interrelated. I heard the name of Dr Christine Jones from you. Then I visited her website Amazing carbon. All her research papers are available there. How did you come to Christine Jones? How did you start applying her theories ?
I got the basic lessons of natural farming from a workshop conducted by Subhash Palekar, one decade ago. Palekar talked about soil structure and advocated diversity. But how does biodiversity help? This knowledge was not available in the world – the knowledge that plants pour a portion of the carbohydrates they produce into the soil through their roots! Sarah F. Wright discovered it and it was accepted worldwide by around 2010. I visited various farms of South India with Subhash Palekar. The so-called ‘weeds’ were retained in all successful farm models. But there was no answer for the question ‘Why?’ Christine Jones pointed out that photosynthesis is the basis of everything, and diverse plants produce different types of carbohydrates with photosynthesis.
Bill Mollison, Miyawaki, Fukuoka . . . all these great men worked in temperate zones. There is a difference between temperate zone and tropical zone. Hence we can’t accept all that they say. I learned about the difference in tropical zone from Subhash Palekar. In tropical zone, the falling leaves decompose immediately. That means they become carbon dioxide. In temperate zone, leaves fall in winter. They will not get decomposed immediately because of snow. The decomposing process is slow in the temperate zone, fast in the tropical zone. Therefore, here carbon is lost fast. Carbon is the essence of life in soil.
Let’s think of the biomass of our body. The ratio of carbon to nitrogen is 10:1. Carbon is very important in soil health too. To make carbon component stable in soil, we need carbohydrates in soil. Here the falling leaves decompose fast. We have to supplement soil with carbon coming through the roots. Miyawaki, Bill Mollison, everyone is for the conservation of life. Natural farming believes in the nature of land type.
This point is made in the works of Miyawaki but it is not very evident. According to him, there is only one producer in this world and that is, the plant kingdom. All others are either consumers or decomposers. Christine Jones pinpoints and elaborates this point. Here the specialty of your farm is that you produce zero-pesticide farm products. Secondly, the application of pesticides in the neighbouring farms does not affect your farm. And thirdly, labour. The standard of living of labourers is much higher in Kerala and hence the wages are high. It cannot be reduced. But you can reduce the quantum of work. We do a lot of work which are not actually required, and that makes agriculture not viable. An ordinary farmer and family can cultivate in 10-20 acres of land without any external help. You developed that model. Can you please elaborate?
Let us take urea. As much as 78% of the atmosphere is nitrogen. But it needs to be converted into solid form. That process is a very high energy consuming one. And very expensive too. It survives only because of huge subsidies from the government. Same is the case with labour for weeding. What do weeds do? They store solar energy for us, that is so essential for life in the soil and enriches the soil. But we destroy it. When the carbon component in soil is reduced, the amount of water that is absorbed goes down. Then we will need to do irrigation, thus using up electricity, and causing loss of energy. Even the organic farming practised today with vermicomposting is not hundred percent energy efficient.
Even the earthworms used in vermicomposting are not indigenous ones. They are brought from the temperate zone, where a climate suitable for decomposing fallen leaves lasts only for 3-4 months. That time is not enough for decomposing everything, and will naturally precipitate an environmental issue. Vermicomposting is a solution to the problem. But applying it here is not a solution. Similarly, there is a difference between the indigenous cattle of temperate zone and our (tropical) zone. There are two families of cows. Bos taurus and Bos indicus. Bos taurus comprises Jersey, Holstein, Swiss Brown and the like. Bob indicus comprises our Sindhi, Gir, Vechur, Kasaragod, etc. There are about 26 differences between these two species. The pure breeds of these two species may not even mate with each other. They are as different as humans and monkeys or cats and tigers.
The number of microbes in the dung of Bos indicus is very high. Our cows eat the fibre-rich grass of our land. Their system is capable of digesting that grass and keeping them healthy. On the other hand, the grass in temperate zones is not fibre rich. If we dry them, our grass will yield more hay. The other one is full of water.
Can you please elaborate the changes on the labour front?
It’s huge. In fact, in the earlier times, there was a huge rift between us and our labourers. The labourers became really tried after applying chemical fertilizers. And if we made them do heavy jobs after that, it antagonized them. Now they work more, even if we don’t ask them to.
It’s because of the good environment that has a lot of oxygen. The number of labourers has also come down, hasn’t it?
Yes, it came down drastically. Ninety percent of the work done earlier no longer needs to be done.
That is the main reason behind profitability in agriculture.
There is no use of pesticide, no need for irrigation. There is higher nutrient-density. No such expenses are necessary because of increased carbon component in soil, as a result of which water is stored automatically. One kilogram humus absorbs up to six kilograms of hygroscopic water (moisture from air) within a single night. During summer, dry leaves get powdered if you walk over them at noon. But they will be moist in the morning. The hygroscopic water is collected during the night. We think that plants take water only through roots. They collect water through stomata on the leaves. For that, water should be there in the air. But if there are no weeds, the atmosphere will be dry. Now we have weeds and humus. As a result, water is collected. Sometimes we can see the leaves dripping water in the morning.
Sir, how many cows do you have in this farm?
Fifteen cows.
You have 15 cows for 30 acres of land. Are they enough for natural farming?
It’s more than enough. I learned the technique of making Jeevamritham from Subhash Palekar. There are 30-50 crores of different types of microbes in one gram of dung from indigenous cows whereas there are only 3 to 7 crore types in the dung of the cows from outside. Jeevamritham (of Subhash Palekar) is a technique to multiply the number of microbes in the dung of indigenous cows by 5000 times. We do this by adding brown sugar (Jaggery) and powdered pulses to make them multiply faster. What we need are microbes. Not the Nitrogen, Potassium or Phosphorous from dung. Dung, is not for providing Nitrogen. And whatever Nitrogen there is in cow dung, it is only for the microbes in it to grow.
When we speak about dung, many people say there is only 1% Nitrogen in it and that you can substitute 100 kg of dung with just 1 kg of Nitrogen.
Therefore, dung should be seen as the basis of survival of microbes in the soil. Microbes get energy from carbohydrates that come through photosynthesis. When all these things happen, the soil will regain its balance. All components will become favorable for agriculture. Insect diversity will result in balance in their numbers. The leaves may get damaged. But don’t take it seriously. Nature has its own ways of coping. We don’t know what all are there in the excrements of insects.
There are plenty of microbes, even in the excrement of an ant. Seventy percent of the life on earth is invisible. (Even a drop of liquid from our digestive tract may contain more number of microbes than the entire population of the world.) We eliminate them by burning leaves or pouring pesticides and chemical fertilisers. The solution to our health issues and even climate change lies in returning to natural farming.
The nitrogen and other elements required for human body is absorbed from the atmosphere by plants and we get it when we eat plant products. When we do cultivation with chemical fertilisers, we just get two or three of them.
If you eat 30 different vegetables from healthy soil every week, your health is safe, according to a study. But it should be healthy soil with a variety elements. If it works, the present health industry itself will vanish.
Sir, I saw your new experiment of mixed crop of vegetables. If we raise only one type of plant, and if a pest comes on its leaf, we use pesticide heavily. It is often an overreaction. Sometimes the worm or pest may go away after eating one leaf. And a new leaf may sprout. In conventional farming, we do mono crop and the pest will move from one plant to the other. You plant a variety of crops and even the weeds are there. How did you get this idea?
I got it from Subhash Palaker. He asks us to mix smaller plants with taller plants. Birds sitting on the taller ones will easily see the pests on the smaller plants. Natural farming is just in its initial stage. There is a huge possibility ahead. Those who have left agriculture will come back. Life does not mean living in luxury apartments and driving limousines. Nature will give you back everything. Save the soil for future generations.
Cardamom cultivation is one which uses the maximum amount of pesticides, in conventional farming. I too wanted to do it. But many people dissuaded me saying that you can’t do it when your neighbour is spraying pesticides around your land. But Mr Abraham Chacko has proved that he can produce it without using pesticides, and his farm produce is the most sought after one in the international market. Hope you have got a reasonably good idea of his methodology. Please feel free to contact his directly. He can be reached at 9995245552.