Sustainable Farming Guide

 

  We love to coin words, most recent being A2 milk, Organic, ZBNF, Biodynamic, Permaculture, Slow food, Hydrophonics , Gluten free etc. etc. enough to get a common man dizzy while making a food decision. Currently, we are experiencing, what can be termed as the second “White Revolution” (read milk) as opposed to Green Revolution (read chemical farming). In past 3 years, we have had many young 30 some things (invariably an IT professional or a fresh agri graduate looking for business opportunity and a close to nature experience as a perk) visiting our Gau Shala and office. Their knowledge of cow starts with GIR and ends there. GIR has become the undisputed queen of the COW world.  How? Well its just the clever marketing. As usual the non suspecting fell for it.  GIR is beautiful, she has the most amazing set of eyes which will melt anyone.  But show me an ugly Cow or an animal. So what is special about this one? She belonged to the Gir forest in Gujarat. Alright. Since the conversation

  Organic Consumers, be self-empowered . Some play is good…The life, young Calf should have…. Remember the sensation when your feet touch the wet soil, the cold sand, a rough rock, and the lush green grass?  The cool breeze run through your hair, the soft whistles of the bamboos when you walk through the forest, the incessant chirping of the morning birds, those pastures in multiple hues of greens spread over the horizon?  The sight of the calf playing rough, nuzzling each other, fighting for food and attention is one of my most favorite sights. The unbridled behavior and play is good. Every body needs a play; young, adult, old …everybody does for it keeps the mind and body healthy. The touch of the soil, the grasses, rocks, water everything activate the senses. The smell of the earth, the wind blowing through the air, the chirping of the birds, the branches brushing off the skin are reassuring and are signs of life all around. Each life pours in energy in each other.  Each one is diff

 

 

 

Environmental Impact Pesticides and Fertilizers Pesticides, Fertilizers, Over watering, hectors of land with crop mono culture, flattening of lands for commercial agricultural purposes. Use of herbicides has caused an irreversible damage to our farms and the environment. One cannot see bees in the farms today due to excessive spraying. That affects the pollination, to the extent that people are hand pollinating and administering more growth hormones to the plants.   The worldwide consumption of pesticides has reached 2.6 million metric tons. Of this 85 percent is used in agriculture. In addition to the increase in quantity of pesticides used, farmers are using  stronger concentrations of pesticides, they have increased the frequency of pesticide applications and increasingly mix several pesticides together to combat pesticide resistance by pests.   Example: The bulk of pesticides used in India  are insecticides which lead to insecticide-resistance by pests and cause most damage to huma

  Click on the link to watch complete video on You Tube:   https://youtu.be/MoVVfqXvEIc The recent fires in australia were caused due to extreme temperature and draught,  11 million hectares (110,000 sq km or 27.2 million acres) of bush, forest and parks across Australia has burned. The  fires  in the  Amazon  region in 2019 were unprecedented in their destruction. Thousands of  fires  had burned more than 7,600 square kilometres by October that year.Yet the degradation of the  Amazon rainforest  has profound consequences from climate change to global health. Forest Fires, are common and rampant during summers. There are many wrong notions and misunderstandings amongst the villagers regarding the fires. Natural forest fires can not occur in India as the temperatures do not go so high. That goes to conclude, all the fires are caused by humans. Many times deliberately and rest of the times due to human negligence. Forests are the lungs of the world, they provide oxygen to humans, besides

  Jal(water) Jungle(forest), Jamin(soil), Janvar(farm animals and wild animals), Jeevan(life) & Jevan(food). These are the 6 Pillars of Sustainable Farming. Sustainable farm needs patience, rather it is an ever evolving dynamic space. It will evolve until it becomes regenerative and not dependent on any external inputs. Like a "Food Forest". Self sufficiency in water is of utmost importance, when one wants to farm. Farming is water intensive and being dependent on ground water, water from rivers/dams will only deplete it . Rain fed agriculture may not be rewarding. . So creating one's water source in the land is necessary. Various ways to retain water in your land are: Farm ponds, Desi tree plantation, bunds and trenches, rotational cropping , keeping the soil covered with crops, trees, weeds through the season. Creating a "Jungle", "Forest" kind of ecosystem by planting trees where birds can nest and eat the fruits from,. Layered farming with big