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Faith in the long game of natural farming
Battling climate change and financial woes, a tribal farmer puts his faith in organic, natural farming methods – betting that enriching his soil will reap rewards in the long run.
Battling climate change and financial woes, a tribal farmer puts his faith in organic, natural farming methods – betting that enriching his soil will reap rewards in the long run.
Like parents around the world, Dara Jyothi and Dara Prasad worry if their income is enough to ensure their children get a good education. And like many couples, they do not always agree on how this is achieved.
“Chemical farming methods yield more and so we should go back to doing it,” Dara Jyothi says as she prepares mutton pickles at home in Telangana’s Mallaigudem village in the Bhadradri Kothagudem district.
“That’s true. It has given me more yield and money in the past. But,” her husband, Dara Prasad, steadfastly says, “if my soil is enriched it would help the earth and us in the long run. That’s why I started growing crops organically. We can bear some difficulties for now.”
The no-nonsense Koya-tribe farmer began organic farming in 2022. “I’d been thinking about beginning natural farming for a long time, since 2008. High-intensity chemical use has depleted our soil of its natural richness,” he contended.
Also read: How an Andhra woman inspired her village to adopt natural farming
Prasad used to grow cotton and groundnuts. He left cotton farming because it was a water-intensive crop that did not give him the income he desired. Though farming with chemicals bears more yield, input costs are much higher, leaving the margin for profit equal to nothing.
He was firm in his belief that once the earth’s top layer is nutritious and fertile, more bountiful crops will come. “For this, I had started growing crops naturally,” he explained.
So, with the help from the JIVA programme of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, he decided to study his soil. “After testing the soil, I found out that it was deprived of micronutrients,” said Prasad. “JIVA aims to give life to the soil. It did give life to mine at least.”
This motivated him to cultivate groundnuts on his 3.5-acre patch of land – but organically this time. He prepared the soil in the pre-monsoon dry sowing method (PMDS), sowing over a dozen types of seeds, millets, sunflowers and sunhemp. After 45 days of growing all this, he mixed cow urine in the soil. Mulching helped the top layer of the earth regain its strength. PMDS has also increased the soil’s water retention capacity. Because of this, more water has percolated into the soil.
Prasad used natural fertilisers like Ghana Jeevamrutham-II and Panchagavya to help grow his plants and Brahmastra for pest control. He was happy to find the input costs using these methods were reduced.
By 2023 Prasad grew radish, sesame, jawar, bajra, coriander, little millets, maize and leafy vegetables, including gongura. Prasad also grew certain crops on the edges of his field to prevent insects from entering it. “Maize is a natural insect trapper much like marigold and the castor oil plant,” he said to Village Square.
Maize is more than a natural insecticide, it is also part of the Koya tribe’s welcoming rituals.
In our Koya tribe, we follow the tradition of offering our guests healthy maize seeds, grown in our own fields, mixed with hot water, like a soup. Our guests like the flavour very much.
“In our Koya tribe, we follow the tradition of offering our guests healthy maize seeds, grown in our own fields, mixed with hot water, like a soup. Our guests like the flavour very much. I’ve kept a bunch of these seeds aside to use until next season too,” Prasad added.
But shifting to organic farming has not always been easy. Apart from transitional challenges, the effects of climate change are also taking their toll.
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“Yes it’s been difficult, but not only because I shifted to organic farming, but climate change too has been weirdly affecting my crops,” concedes Prasad. Cyclones seem to be increasingly powerful, with winds so strong that Prasad saw a eucalyptus tree bending so much that its topmost branches scraped the ground.
Erratic weather literally knocked him down last year when one of the cyclonic winds flung a dish TV antenna from the rooftop and hit him on his leg while he was getting home.
“It hit me and I fell on the roadside, got dragged to the earth, and was hurt,” he says. “During the next storm, an asbestos sheet from my village was seen flying at a location two kilometres away,” he explained.
While this season there was less rain, it poured down heavily on Prasad’s farm. Then the temperature rose suddenly, almost burning the crop. “What should the farmer do then? We can’t exactly cover our crops, can we?”
But Prasad remains patient, believing that with natural farming the yield comes with time. “For the first season, I got 800 kilograms of groundnuts per acre and in the second one, it increased to 1200 kilograms,” he said.
He sold one quintal for Rs 8000, securing Rs 64,000 in the bargain. In the next season, he received Rs 72,000 selling at Rs 6000 a quintal. Even though the yield tends to be four to six quintals less than what is achieved through chemical farming, the produce is healthy for both soil and people, notes Prasad.
He also likes the smell of the natural crop growth enhancer, which he prepares himself. The stench of chemical fertilisers on the crops never agreed with him. Never mind he had to wear gloves and cover his nose for protection against poisonous fumes, back then. “How can something from which my body needs protection be sought to protect my crop? This realisation left me bewildered,” he admitted.
Now, two years into growing his crops using organic means, farmers from distant parts of the state come to observe his farming practices. This allows Prasad to continue using these techniques for agriculture.
Dara Jyothi has finished preparing mutton pickles in her home. But what of her worries?
She continues to worry about being able to pay for her children’s higher education even though her husband is convinced that natural farming will enable them to do that in the long run.
“Well, that can continue for the time being,” he shrugged, secure in his faith that natural farming is the way forward.
Also read: Reviving traditional red gram in drought-prone Dewas, MP
The lead image on top shows Koya-tribe farmer Dara Prasad on his farm in Telangana’s Mallaigudem village. (Photo by Amir Malik)
Amir Malik is a freelance journalist with over five years of experience. A curious explorer, he focuses on understanding emotions, colours, sound and nature. Guided by grief and grounded by celebrations, he continues his journey. Though he’s still searching for the perfect shoes, he hasn’t stopped walking.