The problem of degraded soils, insects and weeds

Degraded soils are a major problem in many developing countries and the Bangalore conference heard practising experts explain how organic techniques can be employed for restoration.

Claude Alvares

Restoring degraded farmlands

AT the Bangalore conference on 'Outstanding Organic Agriculture Techniques', M Revathi of the Tamil Nadu Organic Farmers' Movement spoke of her involvement in using organic techniques for the rehabilitation and revival of lands affected by salt water after the tsunami disaster of 2004. These methods were tried out successfully by her association in Nagapattinam, India; Banda Aceh, Indonesia; Ampara, Sri Lanka and in the Sundarbans of West Bengal, India.

Revathi explained how they first ploughed the salt-affected lands thoroughly. Trenches were created along the fields. These were packed with coarse material to absorb saline water and to encourage an increase in the microbial population. On the ploughed land daincha seed was broadcast to provide the required biomass and to initiate soil activity. Farmers were shown how to prepare panchagavya (a popular recipe for dramatically increasing the population of beneficial microorganisms). Large numbers of vermicomposting units were also set up to produce additional organic manure to save on input costs. Through these methods, in less than a year, fields were replanted with paddy successfully to the absolute amazement of government officials and international agencies who had earlier thought of solving the problem by simply dumping huge quantities of gypsum in them. 

Deepika Kundaji, an organic farmer from Auroville (on India's east coast), made a beautiful presentation on how one could grow food on severely eroded lands. She told the story of a 6-acre plot at Auroville which Bernard deClercq and she had taken up for rehabilitation several years ago with the aim of turning it into a natural forest and wilderness. When they first took up the land it had no topsoil, and was a compact mass of only pebbles and laterite.

The main challenge was how to build soil, as cultivated plants need a minimum of 6 inches of good soil. Their ecological rules forbade them from bringing soil from outside, or even purchasing compost or manure. All biomass had to be grown at the site and all resources would come only from the home and surroundings. No paid workers were taken as Deepika and Bernard worked without grants.

Their process of soil building included immediate measures to protect the land from further assault by the elements, creating water bodies and contour bunds, establishing pioneer vegetation to produce biomass at site, creating raised beds and then building up and maintaining organic matter by creative use of local resources. Deepika’s slides showed how this was done and how it could be replicated anywhere, provided the principles of ecological restoration of soil were strictly followed. Once the soil was restored, the next stage of working with the land was to ensure that no more soil was turned.

Deepak Suchde, another expert organic farming teacher from Madhya Pradesh state, made an elaborate presentation on the principles of ‘natueco farming’ based on the theories of Prof. Dabholkar, a popular scientist from Maharashtra state who worked with farmers to produce miracle crops without having to use chemicals and poisons. Suchde said the two problems farms faced were decline in soil carbon and reduction in the soil's water-holding capacity, both sourced to Green Revolution techniques. Constant tilling of the soil was itself disruptive, but farmers knew little else.

Suchde spoke of his work at his Krushi Teerth farm on which a quarter-acre plot had 150 varieties of crops and it generated food for a family of five. He showed the audience how to manufacture amrut pani (water elixir) and amrut mitti (soil elixir) that would meet all the problems faced with current-day soils rendered sterile and ruined by chemical farming.

Dr A Thimmaiah made a slideshow on the growth of organic agriculture in Bhutan where he works presently as adviser to the Bhutanese government. Ten organic farmers had come from Bhutan and they stood by with recognisable pride as Dr Thimmaiah showed pictures of successful organic vegetable growing, composting and other organic farming techniques (including preparation of biodynamic compost) and microbial recipes like panchagavya that are now a way of life among organic farmers in Bhutan as well.

Facing insects, disease and weeds

One major problem facing all farmers, organic or conventional, is the appearance of troublesome insects, weeds and plant disease. SR Sundararaman, a highly respected and knowledgeable organic farmer from Tamil Nadu, made the main presentation on techniques farmers can use to solve most of their plant disease problems and any difficulties with insects.

The interesting thing about Sundararaman is that he not only functions as a knowledge centre, but his knowledge and expertise keep growing. Universities find it hard to keep up with him. Having been a chemical farmer two decades ago, he knows what he went through and why chemical methods failed.

Sundararaman has worked with interested colleagues and engineers to create microorganism-enriched mixtures (which he calls MEM) for the control of soil-borne diseases, nematodes and root grubs. He also has a large number of recipes made from leaf extracts, buttermilk, waste fish and egg extracts, panchagavya and some unique other solutions which he calls 'fruit gaudi' and 'archae'. While some of these are bacterial preparations, others deal effectively with unwelcome visitors to his soils, including grubs. All his recipes and techniques today are freely available to other farmers.

Sundararaman was followed by Joseph John, another organic farmer, who presented a wide range of non-chemical-based bioremedies for plant illness and disease.

On behalf of herself, her husband Dr Anurag Goel and their daughter Maya (a family of organic farmers from Coorg), Sujata Goel shared 10 years of rich insights on their organic farm which grows largely coffee and spices. Goel told her attentive audience that plants have their own natural defence mechanisms and it is far more effective to work in tandem with the plant's own defence strategy than to attempt to bypass it with deadly chemicals. Unless we understand these natural defence mechanisms, she said, we would continue to make costly and unnecessary mistakes. Using deadly sprays of chemical poisons not only suppressed these defence mechanisms, they ruined the product as well since pesticide residues are bound to remain after the harvest as most pesticides are non-biodegradable. The Goels are trained microbiologists and lab technicians who deserted Delhi to move to Coorg in south India where they took over an existing spice farm and turned it completely organic over a 10-year period.

One of the youngest and most dynamic presenters was BN Nandish, who started farming after he intentionally discontinued his pre-university studies. Nandish started natural farming in 2000. His main proposal at the conference was about using green manuring plants. He said he was using over 100 different species. His fields look like forests, but his yields were above average. His presentation fairly electrified and astonished the audience.

Conventional agriculture, said Nandish, is obsessed with being clean. This means all organic matter is removed, and the farmer is in a state of constant warfare with weeds. The exposure of the soil (after cleaning) encourages loss of moisture and soil erosion. Nandish calls this ‘do-everything culture’, where the farmer is constantly doing unnecessary things and eventually loses out.

His solution: use the family of plants that will fix atmospheric nitrogen free of cost. Nandish said there were over 12,000 species of such plants in the world and they were all available freely to farmers. There were annuals, bi-annuals and perennials and they included herbs, shrubs, twines, creepers, bushes and trees. They also produced a bewildering range of useful goods for human beings, from fibre to gum.

He dubbed weeds as 'misunderstood' plants. In fact, weeds are an index of the quality of the soil, of diversity. Conventional farming comes equipped with powerful herbicides or weedicides and patented seeds resistant to certain corporate-controlled weedicides. Destroying weeds (like grasses) is impossible and nonsensical. Farmers can, by selective introduction of certain species of green manuring plants, gain full control over what we call weeds.

An ideal organic farm, Nandish related, should be able to feed human beings and provide food for birds and animals. Its income should meet all expenses. The principal crop should be harvested with a minimum of labour and time. One should be able to feel cool air, the aroma of soil, flowers and fruits, see colourful creatures, have varieties of seeds, vegetables and fruits to taste, together with the pleasant noise of bees, insects, birds and animals, just like in a forest.

Just as Nandish trashed public perceptions about weeds, Dr Mahadeo R Pachegaoncar, an organic farmer from Maharashtra, upset several popular notions of the activity of termites. He said termites should be used on organic farms. They would only help the soil function better. Termites are known to chop any form of lignocellulose (paper, wood, jute, cotton) into pieces. However, just like with the cow, it's what happens in the rumen of the termite that is of great importance: the bellies of these tiny beasts have a goldmine of microbes that are rich sources of enzymes for converting lignocellulose into organic manure and biofuel. In fact, this is exactly how termites assist forests to survive, by helping in the recycling of dead materials.

Salma Jaferali from Kerala state made a presentation on the techniques of applying herbal repellants. Organic standards prohibit organic farmers from using chemical sprays that kill insects. ‘Killing’ is a prohibited word in such agriculture. In fact, organic farmers do not refer to insects as 'pests'. The term ‘pest’ is an entirely human construct. In nature we find only insects, not ‘pests’. The only activity that is permitted in organic agriculture is the repelling of insects that compete with us for crops. Those organic farmers who are still not able to achieve balance in insect populations rely on insect repellants. These drive away but do not kill problem insects.

Of the biological forms of control, noted Jaferali, that by natural predators is the most effective, so populations of lizards, frogs, spiders, insects and birds should never be disturbed. In the intervening period, till these populations are stabilised, one can rely on effective herbal repellants. For the preparation of these, select those plants which are not eaten by cows or goats; plants that yield a milky sap; plants that have a bitter taste (neem); plants that give off a bad odour and plants that are poisonous.

*Third World Resurgence No. 230, October 2009, pp 18-19