Mr. C S Grewal, a progressive farmer having his farm in village Kishanpura, Tehsil Derabasi, recently spoke on sustainability to students of the Institute of Social Science Education and Research of Punjab University on their trip to his farm, led by Prof. Sucha Sahota.
Mr Grewal said that as a farmer, one is directly in touch with nature on a daily basis, and is closest to being cognizant of one’s role in helping sustain the natural resources around him. One just has to balance their need vs wants.
As an example, he said that for the past several decades, we have been mining petroleum out of the ground in millions of barrels a day. If we did it for a short period, nature would have time to adjust. But pulling out such vast quantities of an item that takes millions of years to form will obviously leave a large vacant space, leading to all kinds of unforeseen problems.
One may compare the empty space thus created with the total mass of the earth and try to shush the argument, but the point is that we have created this vast empty space and literally burned off the resource. On a more local level, how as a farmer one can approach sustainability, he said you have to break up sustainability into two parts.
One, sustainability of natural resources, in this case air, soil and water; and secondly, sustainability of operations. One cannot hope to try to sustain natural resources in the long run if the operations he is conducting itself is not sustainable.
In sustaining soil, he said one should consider the crops that are native to the area. He said even when considering this, one should try and use desi seeds for this purpose, vs hybridized or genetically modified seeds. This ensures that you are using something that has naturally adapted to the weather, soil and pests of the area. Another aspect he bought out was using green manure to fertilize the fields.
This way the green manure enriched the soil while growing, and later when it is cut and ploughed back into the ground, it slowly decomposes and releases beneficial nutrients to the soil and crop over an extended period. Using natural farm yard manure, decomposing green waste for manure, using vermicomposting, or permaculture and companion planting were some other ways in enriching the soil for greater productivity and sustainability.
Using these desi seeds also helps in managing the water requirement. For example, he said one can look at a wide variety of rain fed crops that do well in the farmer’s local area. Supplementing the water requirement judiciously from a bore will help increase yield. Modern sowing techniques like crop intensification combined with older traditions, like preparing seeds before sowing also reduce the need for irrigation. Creating rain water harvesting ponds to feed borewells will also help.
Avoiding crops in Punjab like paddy, which is not a native crop and has a very high dependence on water should be avoided. Growing certain types of trees that help purify the air, and also are highly remunerative to the farmer can also be considered. For example, the seeds of Moringa, or drumstick tree fetch a good price.
Almost all “khuis” in Punjab have either a neem, shatoot or pipal tree shading the motor. All of these above techniques also reduce the dependence of the farmer on the external market. Using desi seeds, he can keep seed from the harvest for next years crop. By observing nature around him, he can also devise sprays and other applications to control pests. For example, neem, ack and Datura rarely are seen with any insect infestation.
Mr. Grewal demonstrated how using their leaves to make sprays is an effective and popular way to control any insect infestation. Since this is almost free, it greatly reduces the expenses on chemical insecticides, and increases the sustainability of farm operations financially. He said that he believes in the words from the Guru’s bani “Pavan Guru, Pani Pita, Mata Tarth Mahat”.
We have gone so far away from this teaching, that we have put so much chemical poison into the Mother Earth, that it is no longer productive. We are falling into a vicious cycle. The greater the loss of Earth’s natural productivity, the greater one tends to use chemicals for increasing production. Where will it stop? One has to take a step back, and let Nature rejuvenate itself. Yes, it will take a few months, but eventually Nature’s resilience will bring it back – just give it a chance! As regards doing kudrati, or organic, or nanak kheti, or natural kheti, he said don’t apply a tag to what I’m doing. I’m just farming.
Agreed that I follow nature in my operations, and like to see a natural balance in the farm, but at the end of the day, I’m just farming. If you want to put a tag, put it on people who go against nature in their farming. Those who farm with the express intent that only my crop should be alive, everything else around, like insects (both beneficial and harmful) should be killed; that all other types of greenery (both beneficial and harmful), should be zapped with chemicals and exterminated – these are the people who put poison into our foods, and should be tagged accordingly.
Similarly, he said that he was principally against the idea of an organic certification, till such time that other non-organic farmers were required to certify all the poisons they had used in their crops. ‘ He said that in his search for desi seeds, he was sad to see that desi seeds for very few varieties were now available in Punjab – everyone preferred to use seeds from packets! He has acquired some desi seeds from places in Himachal, Rajasthan and Uttrakhand.
His search continues, and he would like to set up a seed bank to help distribute these seeds among farmers who are willing to try. The students, some of whom belonged to agricultural families, learned a lot and one went on to ask why somebody who is earning well farming with chemicals should risk moving away from that and going organic.
To this Mr. Grewal replied that it is a conscience decision to better one’s health, his families’ health as well as that of his immediate ecosystem. Also, one should not bring his entire holding under organic cultivation without first having tried it on a smaller scale with assistance and discussions from those like-minded farmers who are already doing this.
The organic farmers are a small community but are very helpful to those who are interested to convert and share knowledge quite freely. In the end he said that. In Summary, Prof. Sucha Sahota felt that his decision to bring the students on this farm visit was the right decision.
He correlated the experiences of the students on the farm with the theory taught in class. On a parting note, Mr. Grewal said that man should not underestimate the magnanimity of nature nor overestimate our power in controlling it since it is nature that creates and nurtures man.