Shunya, a permaculture farm that started over a decade ago, in Himachal’s Bir village embodies the vision of regenerative farming. Transitioning through many hands, it is now being cared for by farmer Jeewika Bhat and her initiative ‘Seeds and Deeds’, which aims to take it a step further.
Shunya means zero or nothingness. It could also mean all-encompassing. This defines the back-to-basics journey of this farm that started thirteen years ago as an experiment in Upper Bir village by Dr. Spiro, an American homeopath.
The idea was to introduce a permaculture farm in an area dependent on farming and governed by the weather. But would permaculture be accepted by the local community? It was a question the founders initially struggled with.
Shunya is now in the capable hands of Jeewika Bhat, a Kashmiri who was born and raised in Delhi.
“So, Shunya can be called a legacy farm. Over the years, it has transitioned through many hands, inspiring a lot of people who worked here and engaged with the soil for the first time.”
Today, Jeewika dedicates all her time and energy to the farm and has added her initiative ‘Seeds and Deeds’ to the Shunya story. She, along with her partner Aditya, aims to develop an eco consciousness in the people around them by inculcating a holistic idea of living in sync with nature.
“Aditya and I discussed our lifelong goals when we first met. It started as a romantic idea of us living in a village. We read Gandhi, Foucault and other classic writers of the 60s and realised that holistic education is about being hands-on, not classroom education. We also wanted to grow our own food, and that’s how we moved to Bir,” says Jeewika.
Jeewika has dedicated six years to the farm, first as a volunteer getting funds, conducting farm tours and volunteer management to subsequently managing it.
Permaculture as a concept
“Permaculture basically refers to the permanent culture of any place. Moving from seasonal to annual cultivation is our goal essentially. Knowing where the wind comes from, where the water comes from and how we use the energy from the sun is permaculture in simple terms. And then comes natural farming,” she explains.
Jeewika embodies the farm’s philosophy that revolves around nature and keeping ‘human intervention’ to a minimum, she adds
Sowing seeds is an important function that humans perform on the land. If we have sown the seed and mulched, then we can let the land take care of herself.
Too much tilling is also bad, Jeewika points out. Instead, they make tiny rows with hooks and sow seeds without disturbing worms and insects in the soil, so that the biodiversity of the land is not impacted.
The climate of Bir has shifted over the past 13 years. “When we started this farm, winters used to be very cold,” says Matasharan, a local who is one of the initial members of Shunya. Matasharan’s close association with Shunya has made him an important link in its journey, having dedicated much of his adult life to the farm.
Working with the local community
During the COVID lockdown, the people in the village panicked because they had no seeds to sow as they had grown dependent on government seed banks and stopped preserving seeds, which had been an age-old tradition. That was the time many locals turned to the farm for help, says Jeewika.
“We shared seeds with them so they were able to grow their harvests. They were really happy and relieved. They have now started saving seeds,” she says.
Two farmers, Matasharan and Surindra Devi, are engaged daily at the farm, earning their livelihood from it. “They’re part of the core team and help us in maintaining and managing the farm as well as the eco-space we are creating,” adds Jeewika.
Jeewika is careful not to disturb the local community and their way of life. However, she recalls talking to women in the early days about seeds of local crops like ‘pahadi rajma’ and ‘meetha karela’. “They would laugh and wonder why I was interested. I would tell them that I liked the taste. This would make them curious, too, and they would ask me to share the seeds if I found them.”
The locals have now started including rocket and lettuce in their diet too. “And of course, there has been an exchange of seeds and knowledge with people around,” adds Jeewika.
Seeds and deeds – the idea
As a seed lies dormant in the land and grows whenever it finds suitable conditions, the initiative ‘Seeds and Deeds’ also grew with the land. “Shunya is at the heart of Seeds and Deeds,” Jeewika says.
An initiative that aims to ‘cultivate ecological intelligence’, it takes farming wisdom to the people through a system where people can work on the farm, live in their eco-stays, prepare meals with the harvest, practice waste management and learn through workshops.
“How can one have a party without chips and ‘kurkure’, and enjoy it as much? When people come to us and stay with us, they actually realize how easy it is to not take packaged food.”
The inspiration for all this comes from grandmothers everywhere, Jeewika adds. During her travels and stay in rural areas across the country, Jeewika found that older women are carriers of this profound wisdom. She hopes for the emergence of a deep-rooted ecological consciousness that can live in harmony with nature.
The lead image shows Jeewika Bhat in Shunya farm in upper Bir village in Himachal Pradesh.
Reporting and photography by Novita Singh, Associate Director, Video at Village Square.
