Millions of farmers in India (the video says hundreds of thousands) have already stopped using chemicals and GMO crops and have switched to natural farming methods. The movement is growing rapidly. One state in India, Sikkim, has gone 100% organic. They’re starting to kick Monsanto’s butt and the petro-chemical industry’s butt.
“Zero budget farming (i.e. an autonomous agriculture, paying for no exterior inputs such as fertiliser, pesticides, hybrid seeds and much less water), is more and more popular in KRRS. It is basically a return to a traditional Indian form of permaculture, many of its techniques already being described in classical Indian texts. It has been popularised and enriched with modern scientific analyses by a farmer from Maharashtra State, Subhash Palekar, who – after studying agronomy – practised chemical farming for more than a decade. Like thousands, he noticed that his harvests first became more abundant, and then started to implacably decline. However, instead of falling into the trap of ever more intensive (and expensive) treatments, he recalled his youthful experiences with the indigenous tribals of the forest areas, still practising hunting and gathering. How can the forests, with all their fruits, reproduce themselves indefinitely with no pesticides or fertilizers? After 6 years of forest observations and experiments, he elaborated a series of models for zero budget farming. In 2004, KRRS, invited him to present his method to a group of 16 farmers. Only one of them was convinced to try it, but his results were so spectacular that farmers from all over the State started visiting and imitating him. Eight years later, Chukki estimates that there are maybe 50,000 farmers using the method in Karnataka… the method is spreading explosively, as chemical farming is rapidly driving small farmers into bankruptcy.
[skip to pages 6 through 12 in this PDF for the best part]
Kailash tells us that he uses less and less water; because the earth is never exposed to the sun, but also because his land has become an enormous sponge. He says he now has more than a meter of organic earth, and demonstrates the fact by burying an iron bar at one stroke at least that deep.” (Many other very favorable results were reported. Please refer to the PDF linked above for details.)
YouTube
Related: Zero Budget Spiritual Farming
Natural Farming (Zero Farming)
Will natural farmers in India take the next step to natural building???
What a GREAT Seed video… Marvelous !
Yes, a Buddhist would say that was “Right Action” – to grow and save heirloom seeds.
Under severe weather conditions a hybrid seed crop will experience 100% failure rate,(more fragile) while heirloom crop will experience 90% failure (more vitality/strength).
Heirloom Seeds and Plants
Heirloom vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs are varieties that have remained popular with home gardeners because they grow well and taste great. Loosely defined as plant varieties that have been grown for at least three generations (and sometimes for three or more centuries!), heirloom food plants are varieties that have been selected for their flavor, resistance to pests and diseases, and other traits important to home gardeners. Unlike modern hybrids, heirloom seeds are open-pollinated, which means they will breed true and can be saved by the gardener from year to year — an important consideration for food security and self-sufficiency. Also, heirloom seeds are never genetically engineered.
from: http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/heirloom-plants-zl0z0703zswa.aspx
Agree. Use heirloom seeds and save your seeds to grow more next year. No need to keep buying seeds all the time. Also, the plants will gradually adapt to your site and become more vigorous. Save seeds from the strongest and best tasting plants.
Great Post, and an excellent video find by pepe the polyp.
Toward the end of pepe’s video, she mentions seed saving.
Seed saving is an extremely important topic that this blog has not posted about directly before… although a lot of posts have touched on it indirectly. (at least as far as I can tell by using the search function.)
Anyone can participate in growing, perpetuating, saving, and passing on heirloom seeds to others. One can do it in pots on a window sill, in a yard, or in fields of hundreds of acres.
Here is one feature video on the topic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhNavypZFNw
Owen can you correct “deleted” down to “diluted” in my 1st post on this subject please…
Hitler’s WW ll humacids were deleted down
This one post now contains bottom line information on the food subject. Good work.. Jim
If Dr. Geiger goes to India he should go here ..
http://www.navdanya.org/ …. to meet Dr. Shiva. Then we’d have the topics of food and shelter covered!
Navdanya means “nine seeds” (symbolizing protection of biological and cultural diversity) and also the “new gift” (for seed as commons, based on the right to save and share seeds In today’s context of biological and ecological destruction, seed savers are the true givers of seed. This gift or “dana” of Navadhanyas (nine seeds) is the ultimate gift – it is a gift of life, of heritage and continuity. Conserving seed is conserving biodiversity, conserving knowledge of the seed and its utilization, conserving culture, conserving sustainability.
ACRES-USA was a great organic magazine in the past. It still serves a purpose but since its Founder passed on its lost its direction I believe. Our environmental nonprofit is a long standing subscriber and has given out many free year long subscriptions to interest people to this critical subject, organic Ag. Despite our phone calls and emails to ACRES-USA to interview her for the magazine,no response was ever received nor was she contacted.
I mention this because Vandana Shiva, PhD, is perhaps the strongest, clearest voice ringing loudly for the plight of India, for the plight of the planet, in terms of food supply.Shiva’s words are backed by action with her Navdanya organization. Yet perhaps the best known USA organic magazine turns a deaf ear. Why is that?
Farmer suicides in India: part of the problem seems to be a lack of information about natural farming and the hazards of GMO crops among poor farmers. Seems to me a good agriculture extension program could have avoided many of the tragic suicides.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_extension
An excellent update on the elimination of humacide corporate farming practices by the Indian farming community.
Hitler’s WW ll humacids were diluted down by the American chemical corporations and marked as herbicides and pesticides two years after the ending of the war.
Now this little group needs to listen to Vandana Shiva PhD expound a bit further on the subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M3WJQbnHKc
I highly recommend reading pages 6-12 of this PDF if you’re interested in gardening and permaculture. Some of their results have been simply spectacular, almost unbelievable. But I believe what they’re saying. They have numerous videos on YouTube where agriculture experts from local universities are studying them and promoting their work. Search for keywords such as Kailash Murthy, zero farming, natural farming, India, Krishnappa, jiwamruta. The sound quality is often subpar on the amateur videos and sometimes they’re in another language. Still, there’s a lot of good info. I may visit these farmers next winter to learn the details. Imagine: triple the harvests of their neighbors. One meter thick topsoil. No work. Zero budget = no costs for inputs. Able to sell at lower costs, make good profits and pay off debts in an area where thousands of farmers are committing suicide because they can’t pay their debts. Here’s the grizzly result of Monsanto’s system: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av6dx9yNiCA
Bitter Seeds documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZtKB_KuASc
More than 250,000 farmers have killed themselves since 1995.