Seed Saver par excellence! Seed wizard?

The beauty of Himalayas is yet to sink and even before that the soft spoken smiling Vijay Jardhari and his works inundates me.
Firstly the nature, its beauty and my travails..
Oh man! A 2 hour bus ride from Rishikesh to this upper Nagini (enroute to uttar kashi in the Tehri part of shivalik Himalayas)..was such a scenic one! If it was so beautiful now at this part of the year - off season for farming..what a sight it shud be after rains or in the peak season or around harvest..one can imagine..this is all the Tehri Garhwal region of the Uttarkhand.
It’s a photographers delight..(be warned..i aint one..and i make do with my mobile only!)
I am dumped at a wrong stop by the bus inspite of me reminding that conductor so many times:-( and after all these years of travel, I haven’t learnt to travel light..next bus? forget it..one wud rather walk if its less than 5 kms..so I had to lug another 1 km with the baggage on my back..
But there - all that pain is so easily diverted by the hero standing, welcoming smiling!
He is a real hero..what then? To be a part of Chipko movement in the 70s (in his prime youth then!) Vijay Jardhari went on to accomplish so much in life and still stay so rooted and simple and never exaggerate one word..infact he says it so matter of factly as though it was just another task like eating, sleeping..
After Chipko movement won- yes the Govt had to ban any tree cutting above 1000 meters. (jardhari village is huge collection of some 17 hamlets across a vast area at some 1500 meters!)
VJ with some of his chipko friends in the village fights the mining lobby in 1984-87 and wins again. Stops mining in the Hemvalghati and dhoongahati regions!
So after two successive campaigns, for lack of anything else, he starts to work in his farm. Its then that the hybrid seeds and fertilizers land up in his village and he tries them..and the 1st year he is happy with the output too! There was an yield increase in the 1st year but he is a quick learner..immediately sees that the soil is decreasing the 2nd year itself and find out that this is a high intensive farming and the input cost can only go up.also in the 3rd year he finds that when he saved that seed and grew he just got so low output that it could only be his seed quantity.
So he stops chemical farming immediately..its then that he starts talking to his father and some elders in the village and they admonish the new hybrid seeds and state that there were so many varieties of paddy and others, where as now slowly its all the same hybrid rice.
Its then he starts going around in this whole region chasing and collecting traditional seeds.
This pioneer seed saver and one of its only kind in India has managed to save some 600 varieties, single handedly, till date! Seed saving king, eh?
His deeds and unique seed saving movement is a big hit by then in this region called the Beej Bachao Andolan (seed savers movement!). BBA does so much to reclaim the himalaya’s diversity.

Bara Naja!
It is then he comes out with the old tradition in the Himalayas- Bara naja (some where I have seen this being mentioned as bara anaaj too)..meaning 12 grains/seeds! There are 12 different seeds grown- few grains, some dals, some fibres, some millets, oil seeds, amaranth, buck wheat,a traditional variety of soya called bhaat, even bhang- not the nashaa variety he said:-)
Any 12 of these around 20 seeds are taken..infact this also means there is a nice crop rotation..after these 12 naja are grown, fallow follows and then its rice..then 12 naja follows and wheat or other rabi crop like masoor, barley are grown! He says ragi (finger millet) is the king of this! Such wide bio diversity also means only one or two will effectively fall(fail) for pest or disease. In case of severe rains or flood or drought the ones those are resistant to these vagaries survive..so they dont go without harvest, ever!

His display of seeds is such a visual treat..he wud display and talk about the various varieties without any drama or ‘I-have-accomplished’ feeling but with a small smile that conveys the pride! One gets to see so many varieties of paddy, 15 types of Rajma alone, hosts of dals. The highlight is the navrang dal which is such a colorful sight! So many colours of dal which is also so healthy and local!. The same crop gives out dals of 9 different colours!
This Bara Naja is one helluva discovery and has revamped the agriculture in this part and has done so much good for the community..in the initial days people used to be shy in doing this and wud hide these grains when guests came home..today it’s a matter of pride!

This didn’t come so easily..the modern agri cartel in garb of science, university, scientist and what not pushed for mono crop..in these parts they pushed for Soya – cash. Oil and protein crop! As is the trick these days these soya seeds came free with free fertilizer kits..
So Beej Bachao Andolan had to jump in again to the rescue of farming and farmers.. BBA campaigned and fought hard..they asked the govt who will process the soya bean in to oil or milk? And for whom was the rich protein and cash they were drumming about..the very fact that these were obviously meant for big industries, MNCs and that the farmers after selling these to the rich had to go to the market to buy cheap poor quality ones. So BBA’s save our seed campaign caught up and farmers and farming was saved..old traditional seeds and practices returning..including this Bara anaj!

He not only changed the mindset of people in Tehri Garhwal area but also of the Govt. Today the Uttar Khand state agri dept talks and professes about his bara naaja (12 grain/seeds) system, that he is a very famous name. even more is the fact that this system is being fully spread and practiced all over!
He is also the reason for a cordial relationship with the forest authorities and so there is such a nice give and take happening unlike most other places where each treats the other as sworn enemies..

Its such a fortunate thing for the society and me ofcourse that I could meet him. Thanks to KSY I met him 1st then and now could follow up and it was such an experience..
To stay in his house and keep eating and when not eating gobbling up the scenic beauty allround – I sure am lucky!

What a person and what a feat! Such gems are the hopes for the future.
Thanks VJ!

see here for Photos!

Pune – organic farms, distribution of organic produce

Pune – organic farms, distribution of organic produce
Pune is in many ways similar to Bangalore – climate, people, easy and quick access to naturally beautiful places, and more importantly has some close friends and hence inviting. Probably it was the right time of the year (September'11), all around Pune was beautifully lush and green. If one were to go a few kilometers away from the city it was even more attractive with an undulating landscape and waterfalls and green hills everywhere.
It was not friends, food and chitchat but also peeked into a couple of good organic farms and more importantly a closer look at collection (from multiple small organic farmers) and distribution of organic produce – especially perishables .
GORUS – Gomukh centre for rural sustainability
This is a small organic collective which branched off from their main interest of watershed management and soil conservation. Ashwin Paranjpe and his friends were appalled at the fact that these hilly areas of western Maharashtra had acute water shortage from jan to June inspite of heavy rainfall from June to jan! This was the need for the watershed management and soil conservation in a scientific and organized manner. These efforts of Gomukh were fruitful in the short run, increased the water availability and with it came sugarcane cultivation. This cash crop which is both water and chemical intensive replaced paddy. So the same story – common across India, cash economy, industrial, commercial and intensive agriculture, not growing for self consumption, killing bio-diversity, moving away from food crops resulted in a economical and ecological disaster. So instead of the water shortage being resolved, a new set of issues cropped up. Increased use of chemical inputs was a source of false pride and one was only responding to constant threats and challenges. It was only natural to go the organic way to not only respect and maintain nature but also to safeguard the farmers livelihood and food security!
So they started an organic farm in a rented 2 acre field- model farm of sorts in a village in the beautiful Kolwan valley, in 2007! This demo field show cased raised bed, vermin composting, drip irrigation and slowly the results attracted some small an d marginal farmers. Today it’s a good group of them growing various crops- vegetables and fruits mainly for the 700 families who are their customers in Pune! Of this 120 are regulars I was told.
Today they have 8 full time employees (3W, 5M) working to fetch from various farmers, clean and segregate all the collected organic produce and sort and pack for each of their customers in a separate tray, with the bill. Then these are all home delivered and cash collected instantly. The demand is growing though as Ashwin observes, the collecting and distributing of org produce/perishables is a nightmare. The logistics is very tuff and demanding. He feels retailing is better than this delivery model but having pioneered this they are forced to carry this on, now. Their prices are also attractive – fixed price for whole season for a range of vegetables. They pay the farmers too uniform pricing for all vegetables. On prices he has lots of observation to make- being an agri and Marketing student! He claims the agri university system places the cost of production of tomato at 1.75/kg! economics, social, environment should be the order of concern for sustainability and he shared how they collect and store various stuff for deliveries in the later months!

GORUS also organizes cooking work shop, field day (when customers come and work in the farm a full day and eat fully org lunch!)..
A very nice social effort by an youngster – motivating and heartening! Way to go Aswin! And Gorus!!

--
Vasudha Sardar!
For someone who saw her partner suffer and depart due to cancer going organic was not a choice or an option! It was the only way..
So she not only goes organic but trains many farmers around too. She has a solid room and hall to conduct regular trainings for farmers..runs regular courses too!
These organic harvests are then sold at Bazars at 2 different venues in the city! One is an exotic place on top a hill outside a temple- where many locals come for their morning walk..tap the conscious aint? Those who walk will obviously be wary of health and so sure to listen to the health benefits of organic produce.
When we walked around their farm, we could see how healthy their plants were and what profuse yield tomatoes, chillies, guavas were all offering.
She had an interesting math to offer..requirement of veggies per family is only 300gms and this shouldn't cost beyond Rs.1500 per month! Why cant one spend on this amount for their health and for the sake of farmers livelihood she question. She is indeed strong in numbers, I shud say..she even reduces the land requirement to numbers. Going by her order and sale of veggies in each bazaar she says she just has to plan(t) 5 kuntas..and plan it in cycles – in 4 plots (totaling to 20 kuntas) from which she can cater to one Bazaar each year. Today she runs 3 such bazaars at different locations in Pune!
She, the typical enterprising lady, also has lotsa value additions especially out of unsold veggies..they are sun dried, packed and sold..some are made in to pickles..many sold as cut vegetables too! Smart, eh?
It was great to see the efforts of her team but what lingers around in my mind is why only partial conversion of her large chunk of land? What ever the reason be (lack of labour, maintenance, large extent) it doesnt gel with the serious reason that pushed her organic! Still a laudable and appreciable effort.

Brooklyn John

Most of you regulars know me personally and how much (sense of) humour weighs a vital part..I enjoy anything toasted with humour- even sad stories;-)

One of the rare times when Iam found in splits and ROFLing..This man John and his wife Nimmy did that..the way they wud pull each other and bring out matter-of-factly incidents or info in their typical style had me & w in splits..we also saw lots of similarity..lotsa serious issues coming out as pulling each other..at some point when the conversation drifted to upkeep, orderliness etc (W & N were gaga about it!) N went on to say how things will be left all over and how she will have to place everything back in place 'always', etc..John wud let her finish and slowly look at me with a smile and say - now u know why it took ages for me to fetch that book for u? thats bcos it wasnt where i had kept but she had 'cleaned' that place and 'hid' the book inside some shelf:-)

This was one of the best meets for us in recent times..lots of info got exchanged..and its only about how there were many occasions during this tons of info exchange we ended up having lighter moments..

Firstly we visited Brooklyn John of Kodai (thanks to HOK karthik) to see their organic farm and see if we could source any stuff for restore..it ended up being beyond all that..not only about organic farm, their organic life style but about naturopathy, healthy ways and their forth coming naturopathy sanatorium in Kodai hills.

J & N turned organic some 30 years back..they were one of the first in Kodai..they also have the ‘disease’ of curing all ills of the society.so one wud see them in the lake cleaning committee, waste management efforts, Sewage treatment plan(t)s, organic produce sales..just about all honourable and noble deeds.

Till date they sell organic vegetables once a week in Kodai out of their house..infact their passion has led them turn their house in to half a farm.they grow so many varieties of lettuce and vegetables in their home garden itself..add to that their 100 acre farm in poondi- 40 kms from Kodai..This is where their naturopathy health centre will come up by sep end..it will be a 20 bed hospital which shall have fully organic food served for the patients! That itself is a big great step IMO..for in most naturopathy clinics and doctors that i see organic food is not rated as high..That shud be a big contradiction bcos - if the food (& habits around that) can be the cure, then it better be rid of the major ill- poison of chemicals. ok thats a digression for another day.

I should confess here that we ended up talking about all else other than organic farming and veggies for restore..They are a data bank..of naturopathy and most other issues I mentioned above..But since naturopathy (health and natural medication) being my recent attractions, so much was on that..I could not have thought of any one better than this couple inundating me with so much info..

Some excerpts:

-'Dis-ease' is just a discomfort and its just a symptom that our body is working..only business mind can make a case out of it by ‘treating’ it

-All diseases are treatable..only some patients are not!

-It takes 17 hours to digest food by our intestines..esp in the small intestine the food stays longer.

-So ideally any intended fast starts after 17 hours of last meal

-Supper can be the best food but to be taken around sun set..

-The regular hunger pangs we all feel are false hunger he says and that’s due to acidity!

-Alkaline food is the best way to bring about balance in our body

-Best alkaline juices are banana pith/stem, ash gourd, carrots. Almost anything that can be eaten raw is alkaline. (as a rule : Anything not processed)

-All processed foods(?) like chips, packaged long shelf life products, sugar are all heavily acidic. Causing most harms

-One who eats once a day is Yogi, twice is Bogi, thrice is Rogi and 4 times is Dhrohi!

-Allopathy is the alternate medicine..’allo’ is alternate..it came in and suddenly displaced our traditional as ‘alternative’!

-Fever is the best treatment..even Hippocrates said “ give me fever and I will treat anything”

-Rubbing, wet packs, fasting etc are easy ways of removing toxins..

-Wet pack is the basic treatment in naturopathy

-Wet pack in a sprain or pain area will become warm in 5 minutes..which means blood circulation and which means ‘action’.

-Blood is the main doctor in our body..it removes toxins continuously..

-When u put a wet cloth on the face/temple of a fever patient after a while this white cloth becomes black..a prof of removal of toxins..

Actually I insist again that none better than them could have given me this insight bcos they even put their 1st son (when he was very young) thru their naturopathy lea(r)nings 2.5 decades back! They survived torrid 7 days when their kid was suffering from very high fever and the whole family including allopathy doctors in the family being anxious and putting pressure on them..They just left nature (ok, read fever) to take care and his body to fight naturally..It did and he came out strong..so did they! Their 2nd son was not given any vaccine nor any allopathy treatment and needless to say he was more fitter.

Needless to mention here that They are young strong men now!

That was one fantastic conversation and knowledge share..I shall go to their naturopathy clinic once its ready and post more here..meanwhile restore shall also benefit i would hope.

Fukuoka’s dream: Do nothing Natural Farm on the outskirts of Bangalore!

N R Shetty, one of the founders of Sahaja Samrudda (a grassroot organization working to convert farmers to organic farming, help them sell thru their outlet and also establish seed banks) lives his dream! In the outskirts of Bangalore, in nelamangala..A fantastic 1.25 acres farm called Nava Nandana, this is a heaven created with nothing but nature and efforts of Shetty and his wife.

It’s a ‘do- nothing” farm like we all hear and read, often quoting Masunobu Fukuoka, that is being practiced here with ease.
This land/grove is only rainfed. There is no bore well or electricity (for farming purpose!)..so no irrigation or watering plans..its all taken care of by the rains/nature. Even for their drinking and washing purposes, rain water is harvested! A 20000 litres capacity sump collects all the rain water and that is the only water source for their living! This is to serve them between rains which could at worst be 3-4 months!

This is more of horticulture farm, obviously.
Do-nothing-farming does involve a lot of initial work and patience. Of course they did water (using ingenious drip technics like placing earthen pots neck deep in soil next to the roots zone or by burying small pipes vertically and pour very little water thru them directly to the roots zone!) in the initial days. All this only for the first 2 years of planting and only in the 3 summer months. That was a full 6 years ago!

Now this is a green heaven (not a square inch of soil exposed to the sky – lots of perennial legumes aka nitrogen fixers), with so many fantastic trees, plants and more useful green manure usually called the weeds by the ‘educated’ and universitywalas! Most of the trees one gets to see here is planted..of course some by birds!
In all some 35 fruit varieties, some timber trees, lotsa shorter duration plants, fence tress, fodder ones like Glyrecedia, greens, creepers, vegetables, are all there. Amazing number of diverse tree species in 1.25 acres.
They also grow some pulses and grains like ragi. So only some items like rice, oils come from outside world.

There are varieties of small cute ideas implemented to enable various beneficial activities in the farm. Simple inverted coconut shells to attract and house wasps, intelligent mixing of plants like castor to attract the pests towards itself, casurina trees that act as wind breakers and are home to fungi etc. The outer periphery had various trees to act as wind breakers and a trench to trap rain water and prevent erosion.

The sapota we plucked and had from the trees were one of the sweetest I have had in my life. As they say the fruits from rainfed wud be the sweetest! How true!!
There was the tree (creeper) potato to satiate the exotic’s thirst!

Shetty cutely says “ if you provide shelter and food (for other organisms like in a fence crop etc) our shelter and food shall not be disturbed or touched”. How prophetic and true!
Simple philosophy is to let nature ‘be’ and he says its so easy and u can never go wrong.

By far, one of the best natural farms visited in all these years. The catch is the number of species and the green cover one sees here.

Way to go Shettyji! Fukuoka will be happy.

For fotos see here!

Pushpa Bhargava on Satya Sai baba!

fantastic piece..
amazing clarity..
i always rated this man Dr.Pushpa Bhargava very high esp seeing his views on GM and BT..now he goes even higher..

pick: Sai Baba's death was not a national tragedy. The national tragedy was his being given a state funeral, a state of official mourning being declared, and the country's political leaders — cutting across parties, including the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the NAC — spending precious time and resources to have his last darshan, relegating to the background the nation's constitutional commitment to a scientific temper.

http://www.hindu.com/op/2011/05/15/stories/2011051558501900.htm

As the dust after the death of Satya Sai Baba has largely settled, it is time to evaluate him, his work and its implications, objectively and unemotionally, for there is a good deal to be learnt from his life and death.

His rise to fame from an ordinary, even humble background, was based on (i ) his claim that he was the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba ; (ii) his claim that he represented divinity, that is, God himself ; (iii) that, consequently, he had powers that no mortal man had ; (iv) that he could provide succour and mental peace to people who came to him with problems of various kinds ; and (v) that he engaged himself in charitable works like opening hospitals and providing potable water to villagers.

Let us examine his above claims and actions one by one. There is not a shred of evidence of rebirth; the very idea of rebirth goes against all of science. Every claimed case of rebirth that has been investigated has been shown to be fake.

As regards his being a reincarnation of God, the only proof he provided was that of performing miracles or miraculous acts. The fact is that he never performed a miracle. In fact, no miracle has ever been performed by any one. All miracles attributed to religious leaders are inventions of the clergy. An example would be that of Mother Teresa whom I met and who never claimed to have performed a miracle in her lifetime. But for her to be canonized after her death two miracles had to be — and were — invented and attributed to her. Every single act of Sai Baba that was a miracle in the public eye could be performed by ordinary magicians.

My colleague at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology at Hyderabad, Dr. M. W. Pandit, performed them publicly. So did the well-known rationalist, the late Premanand. Invite Dr. Narendra Nayak by sending an e.mail to and he will come and perform for you every miracle that Sai Baba ever claimed to have performed — be it producing a ring or a Japanese watch or sacred ash from nowhere, or his photograph shedding sacred ash.

As regards the miraculous cures he claimed to have performed, we never heard of his failures. A distant cousin of mine had her young son suffering from an incurable disease. Sai Baba who blessed him said he would be cured. When she went back to him after the child's death, Sai Baba told her that he felt it was best for the child to come to him and that is what he caused to happen; so there was no reason for worry.

The cures that may have been effected were never established to be directly on account of Sai Baba's 'divine' intervention. They were probably natural or psychosomatic, of which numerous examples are known. After all, what do neuropsychologists or psychiatrists do? That is why he never allowed rationalists like Professor Narasimhaiah, former Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University, or Premanand, to come anywhere near him. It is believed that it were his men who actually once beat up Narasimhaiah.

The late Dr. Y. Nayudamma, the former Director-General of CSIR, who died in an Air India crash near Canada years ago, told me of his visit to Sai Baba with a once ardent follower, Dr. S. Bhagavantam, a former Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister. Nayudamma stood in front of Sai Baba with folded hands and most respectfully, requested him to produce a blade of grass between his palms. That would have been a miracle. But, instead, Nayudamma had to leave.

As regards his acts of charity, there are innumerable people in the country who engage in such acts to avoid undue attention focussed on their ill-gotten wealth. Accounting of his enormous wealth has never been transparent.

Sai Baba's unusual accomplishment was to recruit such a large number of the rich and the powerful, politicians and bureaucrats, law-makers, law-keepers, and law dispensers, amongst his followers. Perhaps this is more of a reflection on his followers than him!

Sai Baba's death was not a national tragedy. The national tragedy was his being given a state funeral, a state of official mourning being declared, and the country's political leaders — cutting across parties, including the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the NAC — spending precious time and resources to have his last darshan, relegating to the background the nation's constitutional commitment to a scientific temper.

(The writer is a former Vice-Chairman, National Knowledge Commission, former member, National Security Advisory Board and former founder and Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad. His email is: bhargava.pm @gmail.com)

Tea- organic, hand made and hand rolled!

Tea is the largest consumed beverage on this planet, after water ofcourse! Tea is not just a beverage but more than that, as the Swiss would vouch for. There are so many versions of tea that a swiss would consume and sincerely believe it addresses most ailments. (ok, confession, I have believed it too and been a part of it;-))

Tea plants live for at least a 100 years and are hardly propagated naturally any more. BTW, it was a news for me to hear that tea is a tree and not a herb or shrub as one would imagine. This grows over 10 metres in to a big tree, if let free. . It could have come from China but there are so many million hectares covered by this..yes, a dreadful monoculture after all!
We not only abuse it with mono culture practice, but just don’t let it grow to its natural height either. There was a story that I heard which adds to the woes of agriculture, monoculture especially. In the Nilgiris from the time tea was propagated (earliest ones being brought in 1820), the lovely land of grassland and various trees was lost to all but one crop. Nilgiris’ bio diversity being the main sufferer. In effect the huge trees that mingled with the clouds above Nilgiris and helped condensation and hence rain, no more was the scene and so the lesser rains. The other fall out being soil. The grassland arrested the soil erosion and also helped in some water retention before it rolled down from the hills. whereas tea has led to water and soil depletion. And let us forget the ramification of chemicals – fertilizers, pesticides, weedicides, etc. for now that is.

So what was essentially a visit to look at tea, organic at that and especially hand made and hand rolled Organic tea in the Nilgiris, ended up in such ecological awareness.

Kothagiri is a beautiful place in the Nilgiris – away from touritsy ooty. Tea plants probably planted a century back is what is seen as far as the eye can see interspersed with Silver oaks to provide shade. Tea, as said before, is actually a tree (not a shrub) which is pruned regularly (once in four years or so) to make plucking easier and to maintain quality of the tea leaves.

Tea plants can be propagated by seeds or cuttings. Seeds are rare, hybrid saplings are the norm -a variety unimaginatively labeled B661 is what is prevalent.
This is what Nilgiris is full of! A clone from one particular farm is what found all over Nilgiris. The clone from one particular plant - the 61st shrub in the 6th row of a farm called Brooklands or such like!. want to talk of monoculture here? Hmm..

There is, like every where else, a big shortage of labour and tea which is such labour intensive faces it even more pronounced. So as a way of escaping the shortage, mainly thanks to NREGA and other industry/urban run, weedicides are used excessively. Since labour is a must for harvest (there is very minimal mechanization in harvest front ) weedicides are used to avoid labour employment in de-weeding. So Round up and cancer are increasing phenomenon here now.
Small and large farmers alike use weedicides to kill whatever else dares to grow between their precious tea shrubs and pesticides are also sprayed in abundance esp for the red spider “pests” which is prevalent. Ofcourse these red spiders are less in organic farms and easily controlled with bio-methods.
Essentially the teas are either China or Assam variety. Assam ones have broader leaves. Assam has more liquor (strength?) as they call it and grows in low lying areas too. World wide Darjeeling tea is rated the best. The altitude out there is just right it seems.
The tea leaves are harvested every 15 days- the top 2 leaves and the bud is what is harvested. When I tasted it, I found so much similarity to neem leaf. Seriously! On average a kilo of leaves fetches Rs11/-.
These green leaves then are withered, heated, rolled, then ready!
Green tea- is not withered but steamed or pan roasted and sold. This is supposedly more healthy with anti-oxidant property being the steal.
CTC is crush tear and Curled and Orthodox is the old process.
But what we get in market Blended! The last quality and blended will ofcourse be blended not with best for customer but best for business economics.

Now to Organic! SLOE is a 10 acre organic farm owned by our courteous hosts Ramesh babu and Susheela. There is a strong belief (myth?) that tea can be organic only in huge acreage and not in small holdings. To break this and to ensure many small planters can and should venture organic Ramesh Babu is trying to set an example- economical and ecological.
Theirs is a fantastic 10 acre land beautifully surrounded by reserve forest on 3 sides and a deep ravine on one end. So not even the run off from neighbouring lands add chemical unmindfully in to theirs. Their farm looks very different because it has a variety of trees and lots of plants (weeds?) grown and also has grass in-between. This grass was cited as a reason to reject subsidy for them by the Tea board! (oh! The ‘educated’ and ‘university specialists’ can only encourage ‘fast forward’ practices, not eco-friendly ones). BTW the subsidies for tea is a big story that has to be reserved for another post.

Before machines were invented for tea processing, tea was rolled by hand for centuries in China, Japan etc. At SLOE they hand roll their tea, and this is a very laborious, exacting and highly time consuming process. Tea rolled at body temperature gives the best quality, as opposed to machine rolled teas which generate high temperatures, due to the high volume of tea and the high speed of the machine. The high temperature interferes with the enzyme activity in the tea. Modern tea factories produce thousands of kilos of tea daily. Small organic ones can only make around One kilogram of handrolled tea daily.(Scaling up production of this product is not an easy affair, if QUALITY has to be maintained). One character of this tea, is that the Leaf regains its original shape and size, and greenish colour after steeping. Thus Organic hand rolled Tea is a speciality. And if you value quality, organic, traditional methods- consuming organic hand rolled is the way.
Once you taste organic tea you will realise that all this colour, fragrance, strength that are advertised by the industry,are all external characters (obviously more chemicals and unhealthy entrants)

Did you know adding MILK is a NO NO for Tea! The right way is to just pouring hot water in to tea leaves, then cover it and let it steep. In the process witness the leaves unfurl. From now on drink tea like Tea connoisseurs – without sugar or milk and prepared as said above.

Now where do you get it? For Organic hand rolled tea or hand made tea which is made without any mechanization but hand rolled and hand processed, go to restore. We at restore get them from SLOE, Kothagiri, from Ramesh babus organic farm all processed by manually by him and his wife.

King Hazare

Anna Hazare, the living Gandhi, one of the greatest examples of ‘be the change’ is on an indefinite fast in his fight against corruption.
Anna has been a great personality who changed the face of a whole area in Maharastra by employing water harvesting and many disciplines. Thus changing the whole area water sufficient from water starving and also the livelihoods from labours to self contained farmers!He is an unparalleled social reformer.
(Iam ashamed that I have not done one long post in my series of ‘interesting folks’ about Anna, bcos I was never happy with my half done piece on him. Will do soon. My experience of meeting him and spending 2 days out there is one of the highlights of my life!).

Now he is on a fast and I urge all of you to participate in any which way you can. Go and participate in the various cities where there are many solidarity fasts and events held by locals (in Bangalore go to Freedom park).. Spread the word..make as many forwards as you can and popularize it..He is ably supported by great stalwarts like Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and such like..
This is one chance we get…
IMHO this is the best shy at corruption in India ever and we all have aa big responsibility of pitching in, not just showing solidarity.

I am so thrilled with the media coverage and the response he has evoked this time..I see lots of activities in support all over India. The MSM is covering this heavily (now that even tendulkar's maid and Dhoni's dog have all been interviewed exhaustively) and that’s a welcome move..
Please make a lot of noise..This is our only chance..
Else theres no point in us all talking in private parties about corruption being such a big evil..
Go do something! Asap..

See here:
For actions at various locations here
To write to the PM and for more info see here!

If theres any one who hates sharad pawar more than me, its him..and I really love it when ever he takes a dig at Pawar.Even now the first wicket has fallen:-) Pawar has shied away from the GOM on corruption.
Way to go Anna and co..we are all with you.

Farmer's fighter

Kavitha Kuruganti!
Yes, That’s what the agri tamizh magazine, Pasumai Vikatan called her- ‘vivasaiyigalin poralli’ meaning the farmer's fighter..combatant..warrior!
If you had followed the BT brinjal issue, the consultations and the moratorium, u sure heard about her. And you sure accept that post fix.
She was a driving force and was one of the main players who took the fight in to the corporates’ and GM camp.
I first met her 2+ years back at a restore organized meet, when she had come to talk on GM food. It was an impressive talk and one could make out that she was a driven activist and the passion was really high and obvious. The way she articulated and the content was all fantastic.
Then our paths didn’t cross much until the recent Kisan Swaraj Yatra. When I got one of the mails circulated about the yatra, its objectives,agenda, schedule, I was thrilled to see them and was ready to join it. But before that, the striking thing for me was the thought and effort that had gone in to the whole planning of this mammoth yatra. Then I came to know that she was behind most of it and when I called her to get some further info, I must admit I was way impressed.
But I never knew that all this was to become under statement. Once I joined the KSY, I noticed the amount of thoughts and planning that went in and most of it was credited to her. She was there everywhere. She had saw thru all the requirements inside the bus for the 75 days- like an UPS, immersion heater for the distant winter of north India, buckets, dharris, blankets, banners, extension boxes, water keg, stickers n posters, print materials, hand held mike, big amplifier mike set and what not. So as I slowly watch all this in awe, I get to see more. The planning of each state, route, every event to the last detail and the involvement impressed me. Then the striking feature was deliverance- whether there are others to take responsibility or not, if the ones who took the responsibility were standing up to deliver it or not..phew, incredible.
That small impatience hanging almost always, just wanting tasks and issues to be done with, eagerness to deliver perfectly, the 'second driving', consistently chasing people to accomplish their resps, being very wary of time commitments, all those reminding me of a young me..and so the impression increases multifold,naturally:-)
Its not just in planning or the OCD level discipline or the seriousness but also being able to play all the roles effortlessly and efficiently, that steals. She was also our star speaker.Talk of diverse roles!
She is the one the whole KSY wud look up to whenever there was a debate with scientists. IMHO, those were instances she wud freak out and stand out as the super star of the whole campaign. sample: once to a group of scientists who were crying hoarse that GM and biotech was after all science -she just said “ yes, its science but do you all get the point that science comprises physics, Biology esp micro biology too apart from chemistry..” and at another instant where a scientist was heavily gasing about pesticide problems and how GM technology wud do away with pesticide usage, bla bla..she just asked pointedly “if pest was their problem or pesticide was their problem..if its pest, we have lotsa traditional ways and if its pesticide why don’t u ask urself why is it there at the first place?..” I for one was sold to her talks at each of the agri universities and can keep reeling statements about how the scientists were countered factually, statistically, historically and scientifically too..
Then comes the rare side- dare devilry:-0
This was at Jalna, where we were protesting outside the Mahyco (Monsanto’s Indian arm/distri) head quarters. There was heavy police deployment bcos they were obviously getting calls from the ‘whos who’..Then after sometime the police comes up to us and asks us to wind up and when folks point hands towards KK , the police goes up to her. She just ‘shoos’ him away saying she is quite busy and that we had permission for this protest and we had 3 more speakers to talk and only when its all over we would think of winding..when the police persisted again she coolly points out that if he disturbs now, it wud only delay the proceedings and carries on. Cool, eh?
The amazing and incredible part above all is the fact that she has vertigo problem and hence cannot take bus travel easily. The only way she can take a road travel is by being on the 1st seat so that she has a clear view of the road on front, failing which her head wud spin and she wud have a bout of giddiness. So for such a person to plan and dream of a 75 day yatra and with half the travel thru ghat roads..add to that a bakhwas bus that we had..I wud shudder to go thru this..and here she was ‘driving’ the whole scene- the crew, the yatra, yatris and all..
Add to all these woes, her itch to finish any open task irrespective of the so many difficulties, she wud also take her laptop and type her way to glory bcos an update for the website or a press release wud be needed as soon as we reach the next venue.
Yes, that was this small wonder called Kavitha, who was there to get the press releases ready on time always, fantastic reports done immaculately, coordinate the next programs, fast on her feet with alternate plans and place of stay in case of any problems, plan and execute accounts, prepare for speeches (for demanding ones like at univs and special events), the long term policy document – u name it and she had to have a hand. All this meant her average sleep thru the Yatra was a sheer 2 hours a day! Still she had this infectious workaholic nature that spread to me so fast.
It was a pleasure to watch such a smart devil at work from such a close quarter and to see that one could accomplish so much with such perspiration, but getting it all executed so effortlessly was a treat.
So it was no wonder that there were so many stalwarts to support this massive yatra and that lots of interesting folks participating and pitching in with so much enthu all over India. yes, her enthu, seriousness and hardwork is infectious.
Add to all this the knowledge fountainhead that she can be, the information glut that she can present, superfluous confidence she can ooze and all that with the passion and sincerity that she showed, it was no wonder what she has achieved this much in such a short time.
Glory to her. Long live her commitment and let the number of people influenced and guided by her increase and let her 'just' cause prevail.

Energy kid

Sanjeev Rao- u r gonna hear this name in the coming years for some very interesting products or awesome projects, am sure.
I heard about this guy thru a friend who stated that this maverick had designed and implemented a wind turbine (generator?) to harvest the wind for electricity in his house in Bangalore and that he was also doubling it up by designing a hybrid version that will make use of the solar energy too!
Hmm, sounds really interesting..so I couldn’t wait to visit Blore..
When I did last week, his house was one of the main agendas.

Meanwhile I happened to see his tamil blog. So when I enquired him ‘how come a Blore Rao had a tamil blog’ he said he was from Neyveli! Oh! Now I know why all this genius and green ideas..
(ahem, am from neyveli too as u all know)
So more reason to visit.

His room has all signs of a genius at work. Spares all around! Open(ed) circuits, half broken/dismantled toys and equipments, hanging wires, meters reading..
Then when we get to see his equipment, am even more baffled. It just has PVC pipes cut across (in to threes) that make up the horizontal wind mill! There were many reused parts and the whole thing was amazing. This design itself was to avoid any questions if a standard typical fan like wind mill was installed. Now, to enhance the harvest and to get the most, he has mounted this on a circular plate which itself is isolated with another one. To ease friction I thought, but this guy had more grey matter. He had opposite pole magnets on each of the plates and so for every small rotation the magnetic levitation would aid more revolutions! Stroke of genius, eh?

So this is helping him with 600 watts- at a cost of around 25k! He is trying many ways to improve the efficiency and to better the cost.

I thought the idea of using solar to trigger the wind turbine and to to have a hybrid device is sooper! The wind alone will need a good wind speed (9mts per sec) and so the hybrid can be a great model for urban users. see video here and more here

Magnets- I mentioned their use already right? But did u know China dominates that too? He needs quite some good quantity of them and they were pricey it seems. The Chinese dominate that area inspite of them having to import iron ore! So if you do have some good contacts, do pass to me/him. He needs some 64 magnets for one turbine and the Chinese ones cost 450 INR, where as in India the same costs 1350!

He is in the process of designing a bigger wind turbine as a special case in pollachi and wud supply to the grid. (that’s for another day)

Ever thought about the wind throw behind every vehicle when it whizzes past on the road? Our man did and so he took this small horizontal model and installed it on the median of the highway near Krishnagiri. On an 8 hour stretch with 9600 of the 4/6 wheelers passing by, he says he could harvest so much that the numbers point to 1Mega watt a day!
Its so simple and easy and if the govt were to do that at say 400 places, u don’t need the recent nuclear project at koodangulam that is making so much noise! (its ofcourse an ecological disaster) .
Then he goes on to show how with just a small strip of solar panel(costing Rs.20 a piece) on the car roof and a rejected (re-used) CPU fan from a PC he circulates the air in small cars to increase the efficiency of the AC. He says this can be bettered and implemented in the buses in Chennai so easily (regulating the air by better circulation) and even could make it work like an air cooler, thus doing away with the AC vehicles and so save fuel and the environment!

What more – he also had made some useful gadgets from used/rejected parts, like a torch from an used up mobile phone battery. There are some other items that he had made but not in any commercial scale or even replication in mind, but just to overcome any shortcomings he wud face. (like while cycling he felt light was an issue so he made one). Even the wind turbines shall be open source. He just plans to share his ideas/experience and help people build cheap ones and generate their own power. Just reduce our dependency on the grid/government he says.

He has accepted to design a cycle operated washing machine for me. He has also offered to work on trying to harvest energy from such cycles to run standard equipments like TV, fridge, washing machine etc. Here again he is contemplating using Magnetic levitation so that more revolutions happen. This, he says, if incorporated in to our genric cycles can help with minimal energy!

There is so much this energykid can do that makes me feel so good that he is not one of those who was merited way high in our academic system. So much for our education system as Sriram rightly points here.

Extraordinary couple!

How would u like it if some one or other comes
-to charge a battery
-to get some medical attention (one days medicine and attending cost is Rs2/- yes, two rupees!)
-Asking for some local/nattu medication for some ailment
-to take some traditional farm equipments on rent (ofcourse nominal rent)
-to get some seeds
-to get some advise on value additions or to plan next crop etc
-to get some electrical or electronic repairs
-to get some minimal lathe work (like welding or minor repairs) done for free or low cost
-to ‘buy’ some value added products like bringraj thel, tooth powder, herbal golis, etc
-some kids come regularly asking for the free notebook, pens, pencils?

Reading all this what do u make of this place?
By any chance an organic farm??

That’s Dhirendra Soneji’s and Smita Soneji’s fabulous farm!
This is one extraordinary couple who were professors in an Engineering college at Ahmedabad. When they were in their early 30s (25 years back) they asked themselves this great question ‘whats important for/in life?’.
They quickly arrived at ‘health’ and so the question of ‘what are we doing here in a city then’ came up.
They decided there was no sense in making money as that could’nt get them the required health nor satisfaction. The city or the urban life style will not help it too. So they decided to take it in to their hands, literally.
So they decide to buy a piece of land in some rural corner and practice agriculture and to take care of their health. So all in one shot. Health, simple living, controlling own destiny, healthy n tasty food, happy living.
Man! They are having all that now and its only increasing:-)
This 2.5 acre land that they bought from their total savings (actually they had to postpone their decision of moving by an year to save that much funds) was near Rajpipla, a quaint village called Saakwa with some 100 households (total population 500 in this predominantly adi vaasis village). From there on their journey is so interesting. They build their house with minimal stuff but beautifully, use Humanure and Gobar for cooking and lighting,
Some solar was added later and in the recent past one point electricity connection is taken to support the sons’ computer requirements. Their acumen and learning help them plan everything they wud need for their food and so make a great sustainable plan. All the prudent multi and mixed cropping and half acre of fruit trees is only for self consumption. They don’t even sell milk.
Many organic farms are sustainable and out of the grid, but this one has stretched that beyond all imagination. They even grew cotton and hand weaved and made their own clothes too. That’s why they are rated so high. They reached 60% self sufficiency in the 1st year and now they are at 90%. In a place with 14 inch rainfall they harvest 8 grains, 8 pulses, 25 types of veg n fruits, 5 tubers and spices (like turmeric, Dhaniya, methi, ajwain). 200 flora species in all that invite some 70 brid species. All this in a 2.5 acre farm!
But Wait! There are more facets that make them soar even higher.

The fact that such a decision was taken when they were just 30 years old is incredible.
They also decided not to send their kids to school but educated them, themselves. Every thing that the kids wanted was given. Plus these 2 were always there to teach them farming, other basics and languages. The kids are now grown in to well groomed adults who not only have mastered farming but are also well equipped in to many facets like computers (ofcourse social networking too), alternate energy and lots of other skills. I could meet only Vishven who in my opinion is gearing for future articles to be written on him!
Dhirendraji, as I told earlier, is a maverick who is muliti talented. He not only learnt agriculture but also was a king of many other skills like lathe, machining, design, all round knowledge. Smita ben would not only freak out with her cooking but in many other areas lke traditional medicine, preparation of many new/traditional stuff, preserving seeds and ofcourse participates in farming activities too. So between them they cater to a village! Talk of being self sufficient, within a family!
Dhirenji would also make lotsa implements, tools useful for farming and hence many farmers who cant afford buying or making, rent it from them. Yes, they do plough their land bcos there is more Calcium in the soil and hence hardens and doesn’t allow water to seep in. the roots do not get to grow well, he said and hence they need to plough. So more areas for him to innovate and design tools and implements!
While there are many things he has designed and made (manufactured) himself, the unbeatable stuff IMO is his handy oil mill!
It’s an amazing machine which has an efficiency of 35% for the seeds like Till, Groundnut etc (meaning if u mill 1kg, u get 350ml of oil where as the industry norm will be 400-450ml!). so whats amazing, eh? The normal output apart from oil is the oil cake (punnakku in tamil) but in his case u get the seed -a bit crushed- but can be used as a grain (for cooking ofcourse not as seed!). I was lucky to try 1 kg of till (sesame) and we got 350ml with our hand power and the till that was got after the process was very much in shape and Smitaben stored it. (will be used for chutney powder and in some dishes!)

Dhirendra soneji and Smita ben are so cool about all this and only think any one who admires them only has to try it and thnk it’s the right way ahead.
Dhirenji infact asked me in all seriousness “ if u think so high of what we do and of organic farming, why are u going around and not doing it yourself? Don’t u think the farmers will feel, why this fella who is not practising it himself is telling us? Don’t u think there are enough NGOs to spread this awareness”. Right! That’s the best thing to do and that’s where W & me wud head finally..but for now, I wish to use my networking skill and energy to popularize it and spread the awareness. Like how I changed for good and realized the benefits of organic/natural farming, health aspects, traditional practises, etc I wish I can help some more convert.

some fotos here!

Jayesh Bhai - unparalleled Hero!

When Sri told me about Jayesh Bhai my antenna didn’t go up that much. I was still a bit skeptical about how one man can so easily spread love n affection ( as sri says) and lead/guide people of different walks of life to do something extraordinary. Ofcourse all of that very useful to society.
I have met many people who have spoken about love, compassion etc earlier, but have been shallow. They have been delivering such words for the heck of it, without any deeds on the floor. Its easy to just sound empty rhetorics and steal the lime light (for a short while) or genuinely sound them thinking for one’s self that they are doing wonders, where as the reality wud be silly.

Here with this back ground I go and meet Jayesh Bhai and with my own skepticism about love conquering people/deeds etc.
What a pleasant surprise. What a man he is!
I don’t think I can enumerate his association in various fantastic projects. I cant get a hang of the number of people he has influenced and guided, no. of projects he is associated with and the ease with which he just throws info/ideas and coolly carries on 24x7.
His eyes and body conveys so much love (I have never believed that cud happen) and he is so casual about all his feats. Infact he hides his part in almost all the projects and acts like they are happening by themselves and its just a coincidence he is there.
Its just unbelievable.
After all, his father has been there from Gandhi’s days and has dedicated the last 6 decades on his pet area- sanitation. I was told about the passionate way Ishwar Bhai patel has been doing this for years and the story goes that when jayesh bhai was in teens and said he wanted to take part in community service (its in the blood u see), the first thing his father told nay gave him was a broom and asked him to go clean toilets! Since that initiation Jayesh Bhai has gone miles. But not without his school and college mates ragging him of being a toilet cleaner. Iam sure he stands tall amongst all of them.
One has to listen to him talk about sanitation. The father and son combo have toilet museum in the Sabarmati ashram as well as in the new campus of Environment Sanitation Institute, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Their research has resulted in various types of toilet, various workable models and most importantly various villages and public schools with eco-friendly toilets.

Its no wonder Jayesh Bhai had a big role in Seva Café. The ESI campus is fully designed and built by him (again he wud never refer that. u get to hear that only if u talk to others out there). He is on top of most good projects, passionate efforts and almost all people around by name. I naively asked him if he was involved with some schools, then I reframed my question if he was involved with the Govt (rural) school children. NO! Manav sadhna and hence JB runs so many schools which is like parallel governance. He is a major influence for some 1000s of slum children by involving directly in the rural schools.
Amidst all this he played a terrific host, always seeing to it that we had breakfast or lunch on time where ever we were in Ahmedabad and also of our transportation. The royal steal was he took us around the Sabarmati Ashram explaining every bit of it, strewn with so many anecdotes and spent so much time. I have no words to express how fortunate we were to have been taken around By JB himself . Manav sadhna runs out of the same campus and he also runs an orphanage out there. Some 70 kids of varied ages live and school there. Ofcourse the toilet is his design and the waste is recycled. The gas is captured in a gas chamber and used for cooking (60% of the cooking needs of the orphanage’s kitchen is met with from this!) and then composted. But u wudnt find his name in that website. Infact not much about him can u find in the internet. So much for humility and under play. He is all of that and just doesn’t publicise not spells out big about all his work.
For more on him see here. (I know sri beat me to it, not only by time but by class too. Still my posts goes to print here.)
So all of us who complain about lack of time- laugh at (o)urself.
I was put to deep shame and severe inferiority complex. Not that I have done anything to even compare but the very fact that some one has done so much and coolly talks to us and spends so much time and doesn’t take a slight cognisance of his achievements is incredible. As he took us around the Sabarmati ashram, when ever some group of kids (mostly slum kids who come as a part of their school program) he is in full swing. Brushing their hair, making fun, showing them his nails and asking them to compare, talking about sanitation and cleanliness with such an ease, giving high-fives to the whole group..amazing man he is.

Sriram had this to say: when sri was working with slum kids’ education in Bombay, one visit to Jayesh Bhai by those students and they wud be totally transformed. I thoroughly believe this for I have seen so many puddings of Jayesh Bhai.

Long live Jayesh Bhai. I wish he trains a couple (or even better clones) and send south. We need many such JBs here

Seva Café

How would you like when some pleasant figure approaches you and says ‘Iam so-so, a senior executive at ABCD and I shall be the volunteer to serve you this evening”.
Volunteers like him serve, clean and cook at seva café.
After you have had your food, you get a list of what you ate but no value out there. (or was zero mentioned in it. I forget. I don’t remember seeing any value. I was so overwhelmed, I didn’t see the bill properly. Che, silly me)
You are informed that your meal has been paid for by someone already and you can choose to pay (it) forward or leave even without paying.
That’s seva café for you! This is at Ahmedabad.Humble giving, joy of sharing and selfless service is the essence.It’s the gift economy in full flow. It means your bill has been paid for already and you can choose to pay it forward for someone else, how much ever you feel like. That’s the crux.
The food was really good. If not for any of the other special features I would still have gone here for food another day.
The kitchen is clean, manned by volunteers. There is also a shelf full of books, where one can just pick any book and go or leave back a book for circulation. It’s a just about giving everywhere.
They also have their accounts very transparent. The monthly accounts statement is displayed on the notice board.
Very interesting! So didnt they have any problems with people of wrong intentions? Yes they did, but overcame all that in style. The very same persons wud have a change of mind and choose to volunteer at Seva café.some fotos here.

Another interesting feature is there is a donation box kept out there. Wait b4 u mumble ‘so whats new?’. Here one can not only contribute by giving any amount, one could also take money for a good cause. (ofcourse u need to tell them, the reason for taking). Hozzatt?
see this video for more!

my 2 bits: IMHO, such a place shud host organic stuff. Very simply, a place that overflows with love, joy of giving, service and Gandhi has got to be organic. I was told they tried but couldn’t get consistent supply, since they need to have fixed menu for operational reasons. I did talk to them why its imperative that this place is organic and have assured them to give the coordinates of organic farmers that I know (& have visited) and offered to liaise. ofcourse they were very receptive. Then it shall be a deadly combo- selfless service, good food and organic:-)

Bhaskar Save – a legend!

He is 89 and still active. One of the oldest (organic) farmers in India, most revered and a fountainhead of knowledge. He has been practising organic farming since 1956. He is a must see for any one taking to farming and his farm kalpavruksha should be visited- likened to pilgrimage.
Another person influenced by Gandhiji! This list of people across many fields influenced by Gandhiji amazes me.

Saveji was an exemplary chemical farmer in the early 1950s. When there were not many who took to chemical farming in those days, his farm was a ‘sample farm’ the fertilizer industry would bring people to. He was a ‘progressive farmer then:-0 but the point is he was always outstanding.
Suddenly he happened to read some points of gandhiji and the turn around (as well as reasoning) happened. From then till date kalpavruksha is an amazing natural farm. From water conservation to mulching to using weeds to the unique way of using crotons to identify the water needs of plants around to intelligent pest management thru mixed cropping – it’s a delight. A farm even the great Fukuoka said was better than his own, when he visited Kalpavruksha!
Saveji has numerous suggestions to make from his vast experience. He backs them all with heavy interesting statistics that one cant ignore what he says. One can fill this whole space with so much of info.
So here I go, only with some of the fabulous quotes of his.
- gandhijis 4 diktats about non violence, no right to kill other creatures, respect to mother earth, adopting traditional practices was the reason for his turn around.
- prakruti hi parameshwar
- When there is lack of knowledge, ignorance masquerades as ‘science’
- Weeding, Chemicals, cultivation expenses like tractor, etc and pesticides constitute 20% of the expenses each.
- Trees/plants donot take anything from the soil unlike the general wisdom. He went on to prove this by taking a pot with 9kg of soil and grew water melon. This grew and gave 2 fruits – 3& 5 kg (8 kg totally). Then he took the full plant and weighed it, which was 600gms. The soil after drying weighed 9kg again!
- Evaporation of water is like distillation and it leaves behind concentrated salt on the soil which was the main factor for loss of soil fertility.
- During and just after the I world war, British (and the farming community) didn’t bother about agriculture and so there was a sudden dip in production. This gave way to Chemical fever.
- Fruits and seeds comprise only 10-15% the rest is all designed to be given back to mother earth!
- vikas nahi vinash! (It aint development but destruction! While talking on the supposed development)
- if farmer becomes bikari the nation wud become bikari too
- we have no right to tamper with nature, it will take care of itself well if we don’t mess
- sarvodaya Vs Sarvanash
- With all this abundant use of pesticide have the pests vanished? Why isn’t any one asking??
- Soil took lakhs of years to form and how can we have short term plans for it?
- Except Humans all live their life, don’t disturb nor affect themselves or other creatures. and they don’t trade either.
- Earth worm is a great being, that works 24X 7. In a day it comes up to the surface 10-12 times to get O2 and to excrete.While it eats on the soil and all wastes that we put, it nourishes the soil so well. There can be up to 4 lakhs earthworm per acre. Each time it comes out it digs 2 holes (tilling any body?) so 2holes x 10 times x 4 lakhs!! 72 crores holes in a crop cycle on average per acre.
- Earthworms during their action do not disturb any of the fibrous roots but tilling would.
- BTW compost is NOT food for forest. Its food for the micro organisms of the soil.
- Trees need moisture not water! More water actually arrests aeration.
- Just like us, the roots also need to breathe and so excess water is unproductive. Prolonged flooding lets the roots to rot and it takes so much time to recoup even after the water drains or dries. Rice being the only exception.
- The water used to irrigate one acre of chemically grown sugarcane can provide the needs of atleast 25 acres of jowar, bajra or maize. Add to this the consumption at the sugar factories. 1 kg of refined sugar would need 3 tons of water. With this water 250 kg of millets can be grown.
- bcos of dams, theertha shetras became Naraga shetras.
- 40% of microbes and earthworms die in the 1st year of chemical farming. Due to this inadvertent introduction of organic (dead) matter on to the soil, the yield increases, in the 1st year. 3rd to 4th year on it reduces. So the introduction of ‘fiddled ‘ seeds, more chemicals, more water, more of everything and so more debts too!
- Of all the creatures 99% are non-vegetarians and the rest 1% is vegetarian. To avoid this 1% we spray so much of harmful chemicals where as the 99% wud have had enough predators to finish them off naturally.
- Instead we killed these helpful non-veg insects and so the vegetarians are freaking out on our crops.
- Chikkoo (sapota) lives for 3000-4000 years! One such 4000 years tree planted by the portugese is seen at silvassa!
- A very insightful, practical and amazing plan to reap the best out of mixed cropping by him is to mix the alpa jeevi (short duration crops, 2-6 months), Madhyama jeevi (medium duration, 2-12 years) and deerga jeevi (long term, 50-1000years) in such a way that the long term are on the outer periphery and as u go inside towards the centre u have the madhya and alpa jeevis.
Something important: When he shifted from chemical to organic way back in 1956, he had 50% yield only but expenses was a meager 10% of the prev year’s. In 5th year he had achieved 100% and from then it only increased.
His recipe for a sujalam suphalam India is to throw 3 things away; namely Agri university, Agri ministry and cricket.

Savejis open letter to M.S.Swaminathan, the great architect of “green revolution” is very [popular and is floating around all over the internet.
For the 1st letter to MSSwaminathan, see here:
Ofcourse he got a typical bureaucratic, diplomatic (read silly) reply from MSS!
For the 3rd letter see here:

Note: I do have lotsa photos including the great Fukuoka's pictorial comments in his visitor's book. But it can only happen later when I reach home.

Note2: for a cute write up and some photos on the same, check out here. Its with Sriram and Karpagam that i visited this farm and Ahmedabad.

Ideal couple- raghu and Nisha!

This has been happening in the recent past. I hear of good folks, great projects, sooper farms, etc. Many times such people/project/farm is already in my to-do list or I have heard and been mulling going over..
And suddenly some friend, like Arya Bhaskar did that day, will make a call and put me through.
So this happened few days back when I was in Coimbatore. So this is a new ‘back to the land’ couple..ok 1.5 years can be new still aint?
As I talk to them I feel comfy and have a feeling that they remind me of the inimitable couple at point return- Sriram & Karpagam and the mention of a low cost eco friendly house in the lines of laurie baker style I decide to go there the very next day.
As expected we gel as friends at the very sight and casually talk about various stuff..so more common friends fall in line and common idea(l)s also come out..
They have been very closely associated with charityfocus.
Raghu in his inimitable style narrates how charity focus evolved and its founder Nipun’s master strokes..he also touches up on how they both got involved and get sold by the ‘gift economy’ and ‘pay-it-forward’ philosophies.Ragu is the brain behind smile cards. A little more time and we discuss seva café, karma kitchen and some more common friends. They are also big fans of DV of Point return, like me. more brownie points to them.
(correction/update: Nisha says raghu is not the brain behind 'smile cards; but a lead volunteer. So I stand corrected even if they were trying to be modest)
So these two now have chosen a beautiful location – in the outskirts of Coimbatore and are practicing natural farming. So more reason for us to be in touch and visit too!
Their knowledge is amazing..their passion fabulous..involvement absolute..conviction simply great! An amazing couple..full of knowledge and assimilation..great ideas, cool outlook. Time flies when we are with them..so many topics touched..so much shared..
Be it soil or a bore pump or wood or architecture or raised beds or native trees or water conservation or what not?
There are so many quotes one can collect in the process. The best for the day for me was (what his agri contact- a traditional local farmer told him apparently) : This is Agri-culture not agri- business! So it has to be like our culture and tradition. So stop thinking of it as business all along! prophetic words, eh?

another stand out for me was they actually planted tree saplings in the trenches. right in the pits.Normally we see the saplings on the ridges of the trenches, on the piles of soil on the sides. Here they plant them inside. This way they say moisture retention is higher, wind affecting the saplings is lesser and more importantly the saplings that have come from the comforts of nursery cant take sudden torrid sun for long hours. Since the saplings shall be in the pit, for most part of the day the plant isnt exposed to direct sun. another advantage being routing water.That was a Revelation.

Since there shall be more to come from them, for now do with browsing their blog here.
There are some photos, but they come once I download from my mobile.so thats for another day.

one question lingers on though- why is it that the women of these organic couples are far more intelligent and well informed?

update: No post about Ragu and Nisha can be complete without mentioning Om, their cute son. But I had plans to write later about Om, their plans of his education (unconventional style) like many other organic farmers are doing. Though that shall happen later, lemme not be blamed for leaving out Om. He is already freaking out and I can only imagine what he shall become with their plans of educating him in their farm and not sending him to school. N said 'if our training him fails, the alternative is not school but different teacher or mode'. am looking forward.

Go play god!

Joss Brooks!
Have you heard this name?
Haven’t I mentioned it before??
If you remember this you can give yourself “the cutest reader award for 2009”.
Pass me a beer coupon too as a note of celebration.

Ok now to more interesting stuff..

I had more luck coming my way to spend more time with this genius of a man..who incidentally wouldn’t even take claims for mammoth achievements (more on that will come as sidelines soon)
In the Adyar Poonga itself am amazed each time on the details that he has concentrated, time n energy he spends, the knowledge that oozes in various forms, patently Joss & co style of granite arts and so on..

Then one day I go with him to Ooteri, a sad suburb of North Madras, where again in another dirty dump site infested with all possible grimy activities, he converts a 5 acre to a magical forest. Now he intends converting that to a satellite of Adyar Poonga so that students of that part should be able to go there for environmental initiation/education.
Hmm.. to see how a dirty dump (part of the surrounding is still that!) has been converted to such a pleasant forest is bliss!

So am even more interested to visit his other earlier creations- PFC and nadukuppam. see here too!

That’s an amazing turn around for a dingy non-performing school to become such a model school..they even have an organic garden from which they get veggies for their midday meal which is otherwise a pathetic govt sponsored rubbish served as food. They even add spirulina from their own farm which is a high protein nutrition! The students there have eco clubs, environment programs, youth parliaments, awareness programs, a fantastic sewage treatment for their toilets, 150 species of trees in what was a barren land school, garbage group, etc. ya, I can keep bla blah-ing but since I hope to do more with them in the coming days lets keep that for another post.

If you think that’s too much for a single post, am yet to start on PFC.
So this genie called joss came out of some lamp somewhere in 1973 and suddenly had this urge to create a forest out of nowhere..


see this pic on left?
The same place now is as below:


actually more than this. (will link the fotos here soon)It’s a fantastic forest which is so much of an ethno medicinal forest as much as a bio resource centre or a tropical dry ever green forest with native flora & fauna or conservation forest or…hey, there is no end to it all..This is a great effort to be portrayed here in a few sentences. IMHO its not even possible for one man to achieve so much; or is it possible? Yes, if you are Joss Brooks.
This 60 acre heaven that he has created out of nowhere is today having almost 800 species of plants..many medicinal! ofcourse all native! Add to that the local birds that have (re)surfaced and the insects that have shown up.
So I ask this gman, if he started it all alone or as a team..BTW he never used the word “I” during my interaction in those 3 days..he wud never take claims to all that he has done..(believe me am just scratching the surface and chronicling the tip of the ice berg) he wud coolly mumble ‘those days most projects here at auroville were individual efforts’ which shud actually mean “like hell its my bloody work..” but JB wudnt say that u know. So Adyar poonga, PFC, the nadukuppam school or otteri forest or the new 30 acres eco forestation project at nadukuppam is all by his team..ok, I understand there is a big team motivated and well lead by this genie er genius but not to take personal credit and in these days is a bit too much, isn’t?
Oh yeah! I said I wud give some more quotes rit? Here it is before i forget..
('Seeds are the biggest wealth of this place')
('I cant pretend to be everywhere and doing things; need more able people to carry out stuff like this')
('I need to be here at PFC often..as u see its my duty to prune the thorny shrubs on the walking paths here')
('replication at more places; atleast small satellite parks with environment education centres at different parts of the city is the way to go')
am so glad to rub shoulders with this hell of a man..hope to spend some meaningful time and ofcourse add value..but for that I shud first come out of my awe.
Finally for u guys- if u have access to some place (1 acre or a few acres), take a leaf out of JB- Go play god!! Yes, go create forest /park like him and add value as Joss would, by adding fantastic features like education centre, resource centre, seed resource bank and so on.
Hats off Joss brooks! Thanks for all your efforts!!

Stand up and applaud!

Sunitha Krishnan! what a lady!
There was a link in the comments of my prev post..nothing relevant to my post..
But a great information..a great person..and what a work she is doing..
(thanks anon! wud have wished u had input ur name too here! Anon had linked youtube, I chose the direct Ted link bcos anyday Ted.com is my fav and I wud rather they get the hits.)
She was gang raped but refused to be victimized..but rose to dedicate her life to help women & children who were victims of human trafficking, sex trade and such like crimes..incredible..
What will u do when u are such a victim?
Go around and save 100s of such victims? Open scores of schools for such children? Create lives & livelihood?
hats off to her..
Ted follow up interview is here and if you want check her blog u can do so here.
did u read them all?
Now read the title of the post..do that..

More Coimbatore farms..

There seem to be many farmers who have taken to Palekar’s school here at CBE than anywhere else in TN! They were all very enthusiastic and convinced practioners. They wudnt stand any small deviation and so would be highly opinionated on many other popular farmers. Any body who doesnot have an indigenous cow doesnot feature in their books at all:-)
Prabhuram of Kuniyamuthur is an amazing character..a very enterprising farmer..has his own unique ways to market his produce..while we were talking he gets a phone call asking for organic milk (ofcourse from his ind cow) and he fixes the rate and calls his kid and says “ from 2moro start 10 minutes early bcos appa has to deliver milk too to another house on the way..(he already delivers veggies to some parents who come to drop their kids at the same school!)
Thangavel is not only an organic farmer but an organic person to the boot.his ways of talking and going out of the way to help people..his demeanor & advises to any body..his interest in organizing any farmers event or just enthusiastically driving me from one farm to another..I just had to mention that a friend of mine wanted alfalfa seeds and he wud drive a few kms out of the way to fetch that..His farm is a beauty and similar to Ashok’s but even more green manure and earthworms..He is a proud man who makes his own jeevamirtham and asked me to smell his hand and was proudly voicing that the jeevamirtham that he mixed in the morning was still in his hands..
All of them prepare all inputs and donot buy anything from market.
The feather in the CBE cap was rajasekar!
A voracious reader, a passionate farmer, great organizer, fantastic worker..
When I asked him if he buys organic produce himself, he said he buys occasionally..when I wanted to ask him why (thinking why is he not being a consumer first) he coolly said that in the adjoining few cents of land he plants his veggies, even toor and some grains! Very enterprising..
So whats his livelihood/business? He has a petrol bunk on the Trichy road!
The statement of the tour comes from him! “only when Crude gets over, rather- only when my business dies, our planet has chances of revival..so indirectly Iam waiting for my business to go phut..”
He is already planning a cooperative community of natural farmers to live and farm collectively.. he wants life not revenue (in chaste tamil he tells me he wants to plan agri as Vazhvu, varumanam illai!) very nice person and well informed..
Such people infuse so much hope, u can start limping back in your path..
So do I now…

Amazing Ashok!

Long back when I received a call from this gman stating he wanted to talk to me on organic farming, I was stunned..He said he got my number from his brother who was my school mate..firstly I never thought any of my school mate wud take me seriously and pass my contact..so to receive a call in this context was a stunner!
Then when I asked him his reason, he said ‘ u know I was born brought up in Neyveli- very close to nature..’ hey I see some similarity and my antenna went up..This fella apparently had a thriving business, some slip and slowly he loses interest in business..so is just about carrying it on to satisfy his bare needs and is devoting more time in agriculture..that too natural farming! Following palekar’s school..hmm, sounds really interesting..another youngster, back to land, bla bla..
So wanted to meet him..
That happened during my visit last week to Coimbatore.. CBE brings lots of memories for me including my college days when we used to visit for TIES (inter engg sports) or some culturals..then when I was working in palghat we used to travel once a month atleast to have ‘good plate meals’.. the greenery and nice hospitable people with their respect toasted tamizh was always very novel to me..
again to CBE after long and i get to see hosts of nice courteous typical people..
It was really so nice to hear and see what Ashok is doing..He has just leased out a land and has turned that whole property in to a great piece..
What was a dying and non-performing coconut grove at Seerapalyam has been turned by his natural zero budget ways..he had so many insightful statements to make..(damn my memory)
This 10 acres of coconut farm got its Naatu maadu (indeginous cow) first..then he started cutting trenches between the trees (9” away from the trees)..then filled the trenches with the falling coconut branches, used shells and any green manure..then on the bunds of the trenches and inbetween tress he planted dicots (like toor, till, horse gram,etc) which fixes Nitrogen in the soil and enriches the soil. He could immediately see that the leaves of the coconut turned greener in 6 months! There were Glyricedia too- serving as fodder & green manure.
Termites were welcome here in this farm. He said termites don’t eat green living trees..when they go up such trees they only seek out dead parts and prey on them, so again helping. The biggest advantage of termites is they dig deep in to the soil thus aerating upto 6 metres or more underground.
There was abundant inter cropping that he has planned..in few cents it is plantains, then its onion, groundnut, chilly, cowpea, radish etc.. The general rule being big tree, medium, plant, shrub and a creeper! A nice 5 layer that helps the land, coexists and is fruitful too!
There is so much of humus he has managed in the last year..again a stat that he mouthed : 1 kg of humus retains 6 litres of water..so imagine the water retention and how much gap one can give between watering cycle.
Castor was planted too and that was bcos it wud attract all pests that wud have otherwise attacked the intercrop!
There were some Moringa (drumstick) too.. that helps improve pollination I was told..It attracts lotsa bees, pests and that is welcome in natural farming..
He said the number of birds and butterflies have visibly increased in the last few months..hmm, nature returning to its old best..
He is also plan(t)ing various greens, brinjal, tomato, radish etc as intercrop in other parts..fantastic experiment..I see dividends coming..
Very insightful..very satisfying..am impressed and glad..
I asked him what if the friend (owner)from whom he has leased this land wants to sell this land..he coolly said its already in the process..the prospective buyer has not executed it fully and so he continues..what if that buyer doesn’t practice agriculture or doesn’t allow you to continue..he says ascetically that its ok..’then I will move on and look at other options..but it will be natural farming for sure..’
He also has developed a good network of organic/natural farmers and along with a few friends organizes farmers’ events and training programs.
Good luck buddy..wish you get returns in all forms soon..
very few fotos here..poor me..had only my mobile and so poor quality as well as quantity:-(

Anna Hazare on fast..

Heard of Anna Hazare? Pl see here .
He is an amazing person who transformed a village (a failing one at that) in to a model village. Brought about lotsa change and improved livelihoods. There was a detailed serial on him in pasumai vikatan (a tamil agri mag from the vikatan house).
His deeds are so impressive. The most striking for me is his work on watershed management. Later on he also became a big champion of RTI (Right to information Act) and has many achievements to his credit in that facet too. See here and here for more info. He, with his ingenious ways and ideas, transformed a barren & desolate village and uplifted so many rural lives. The village became self sufficient infusing all his idea(l)s touching ecology, environment, self sufficiency, upliftment of downtrodden, getting rid of drinking problem in the community, micro financing, local market n coop, community irrigation and what not! What impressed me the most is water conservation as the first point of his ventures and I always feel that water conservation shud be the moot point to any eco restoration or for any livelihood question.
A cricketer, ex-service man and a big social activist! What a resume!!

BTW what bothers me now is he is to go on a fasting from Oct 2nd. Pl see here ! He is fighting against corruption- yes, one of the rare champions against corruption today.
With elections due in Maharashtra will politicos play some tricks and hush him up?
I wish more people recognize his work and help him in Maharashtra. And he gets to have a say in maha-politics.
Pl follow this development closely and wish for his success folks!

Tribals, development and humanity!

or Roy II:
I promised here to post about the theft that happened to Roy & other trivia! so this post!!
The Roy neighbourhood is full of the tribals. These are people who are not “developed” and live in the forests and now bcos of our “progress” they are also used as daily labours for many jobs including farm labours. These ‘illiterates’ ‘under developed’ can actually live longer if we were to have any man made or natural disaster, for they(even a small child) know what are edible and non-poisonous ones among the whole flora in the forests. They also know of the medical ones. So the ones who can lead a life as we were meant to have been deemed ‘illiterate’ tribals’ ‘uncouth’ what not! Hmmm..
They are a great people, with no big affinity to material possessions.
Though our govts and media might push us to believe that these tribals are poor..actually if you move close or talk to people who have studied them closely, you shall understand that they are actually being spoilt now bcos of the excess money they get as compensation for all the sundry ‘jobs’ they do.
These are people who hardly have needs for stuff or the unnecessary possessions we all crave & live for. They just don’t save! Yes!! They don’t save! Or is it hoard? they don’t live for 2moro. So the big(!?) money that they get for the labour at agri farms & odd jobs that they perform goes straight to the (state run) wine shops. For want of anything to do with money these tribals have all taken to alcohol. Alcoholism is the biggest menace. What a shame. The first step of commercial/ economic exposure has pushed them to such a sorry state. Another very striking feature is they are a sharing community. Anything & everything is so easily shared across. But alcoholism is ruining all that is a sad story now.
2 incidents stand out from Roy’s experience with them.
Once, Roy had locked his small house (remember that foto?) and gone else where for a few days. On his arrival he found his house was broken in (ok, what if it’s a nice mud & bamboo structure, you still call it broken if the lock is broken, aint?). Then he found out that all that was missing was only one blanket. There were quite some (going by the tribals’ standards and Roy’s too!) stuff and all that they took was a blanket. Infact Roy had 3 of them to provide for friends like us who go and stay with him once a while.
Do you really call this theft after all? Amazing! They have just matter of factly taken one (presumably excess lying wastefully, unused!) blanket that was needed.
The next one is when one of the families comes to Roy’s house and gives him one clay pot and one radio (used old ones). Roy is stunned and when he posed some questions, he gets an answer that they were going out ( I didn’t get where, etc so no further explanation here) and so had given him these 2 stuff. Roy keeps wondering why these 2 alone, of all the things. Then later on, long after they returned he found out that these 2 were their only possessions. How nice! How simple!!
I wish the humanity didn’t evolve to what we are today, che.
But I need to mention this before I wind up. Bcos its these things that give us hopes..
Roy’s parents visited him recently and he had to take a bigger place (for obvious reasons- NRI parents, cush life, bug fear, leaking roof, etc) close by. So he moves out of this house. (actually Roy is not far from their life style. He hardly has stuff!) Then he hears of a problem with one particular tribal family whose hut was burnt down in an drunken brawl. So he coolly hands over his hut/ house to them and now this tribal family lives there! How cool and magnanimous!
I asked Roy if that family thanked him. He said the just took over possession of the house matter of factly and no big fan fare or expression of thanks. But once they gave him some special fruit from the forest, which according to Roy is a way of thanking:-)
Now, Roy plans to move to a bigger place with some more friends to explore more and bring about a sustainable community instead of one man moving everything. So soon we might have to visit a slightly bigger place that Roy might move to.
Note: We also visited the kanavu school that has helped many of the tribal children to learn esp the vocations like Kalari, painting, ayurveda massaging, etc apart from formal education. See here for more info and esp those links there in Wikipedia.
This is mainly to help the kids who are mostly affected by the alcoholism that is rampant in the tribals. These students themselves run this school & hostel now. They perform folk songs & dance to collect donation and sustain this initiative. They even visit cities and perform to collect contributions. See if you can help them.