Asian farmers visit Karnataka’s natural farms- Day 4

Nov 5^th.  Mysore

Tilly Gifford

Stephanie Wang

The day began with each of the represented countries’ feed-back on the Natural Farming programme thus far. Illustrating the critical role of networks such as La Via Campesina, Nepal delegates laid out their journey into Natural Farming.  They first encountered ZBNF at the Sri Lankan Via Campesina congregation in 2010 which Subhash Palekar attended. Since then, as well as supporting Nepali peasant farmers in using such techniques, they have been making progress in having Food Sovereignty inscribed into the actual constitution of the country.  Seldom is there scope to get governments to endorse a system which undercuts agribusiness and corporations, instead giving autonomy to the small farmers. This would be the first country to include such progressive clause in its constitution – a very exciting prospect.

The Nepali delegates came seeking concrete technical information from Karnataka farmers, on pesticide control techniques within ZBNF. They were especially interested in visiting the larger scale natural farms, such as those of Krishnappa and Nandini. The Nepali story illustrates the massive role of networks such as La Via Campesina:  the interest in ZBNF was seeded; a cross-pollination of technical advice occurs; in this fertile and optimistic political landscape might just be sprouting a constitutionally enshrined Food sovereignty.

As the delegates fed-back, questions about transferability of techniques arose, according to natural resources and capacity. Kim Jeongyeol from South Korea proposed to match-up delegates, via the network, not only according to country but according to crop. For example, the rice farmers should be linked up for a more technical and concise exchange.

All the countries have more or less developed presence of Natural Farming.  The critical question is how to re-frame the issue so as to increase the numbers of practitioners?

Many of the world’s smallest and economically marginalized farmers are the one’s least positioned to take the risk of experimenting with new techniques and new crops. However, in Karnataka the price of the two prominent chemical fertilizers has literally doubled in the last 2 and half months, since government subsidies have been cut. Against this economic backdrop, Natural Farming is a critical and timely safety net,  which could be saving small  farmers from debt and bankruptcy, loosening the grip of  agribusinesses - who sell the vicious trap of matching seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. 

In Puttanpura, Nagarajappa walked us through his journey of trial and error on his 4 acres plot of sugarcane, coconut, banana and areca nuts that are under Natural Farming since 4 years now. Having tried the system inspired by Kailash Murthy, it failed because of irrigation issues. He then installed a bore well system and is now back to successful Natural Farming. He explains how profitable his coconut crops have proved to be with these techniques, increasing yearly from Rs 8000 to 10 000 to 12 000 coconuts.

Among the delegates there was some healthy debate about whether ‘zero intervention’ is applicable to all land, or not. One delegate suggested to weed out the Touch Me Not weed, Mimosa Pudica, and use the root for its medicinal purposes. It was also suggested that utilization of Jeevamurta and beejamrutha would increase the crop yield. Nagarajappa replied “Now I have no help from my sons or family, I have had to stop doing jeevamrutha 2 years back. I don’t have the physical capacity. So I simply do irrigation and mulching.” All in good humor, he requested the delegate to send him his son to help him apply the Jeevamrutha.  Indeed Natural farming needs to be adaptable. It must be tailored to the land, as much as to the physical capacity of each farmer.

Jaime Tadeo, a well known farmer activist from the Philippines said “if you criticize as a friend, you polish my person. If you praise me when I’m wrong, you send me to perdition”. It was agreed that this is indeed the purpose and richness of the programme for farmers from all over Asia to come together to criticize, learn and exchange.

In Amrita Bhoomi, the whole caravan was served delicious naturally grown food. Amrita Bhoomi is a People to People center dedicated to the transfer of knowledge, training and development of sustainable agricultural practices.

Before heading to Mysore, the caravan stopped at Chenbasapa’s jaggery production site run by bio-gas. All sugarcane used to make jaggery comes from his farm.

Talking about reclaiming science, a distrust of the scientists so often in the pockets of government and agricultural lobby, who don’t practice and but meddle and preach. Luckily among our delegates we had redeeming scientists, who practice farming and contribute their knowledge to the movement.