I remember learning about top soil erosion during the environmental studies in class 5 in school. But, beyond that i don’t remember having any discussion about soil health or top soil loss in any other forum during classroom education. This is unfortunate, given that our existence is still dependent on us consuming food and not based on human consciousness uploaded to the digital world fuelled by energy from non-living resources.

Moreover, whenever agriculture is discussed now, the first image that forms in people mind’s is that of the mighty tractor, the poster boy of industrial agriculture. The first question i am often asked when i reveal that i own farm land is “Do you drive a tractor?”. As if that is the most important skill needed for farming : Driving! How preposterous!

The way food production is taught and propagated has been largely anthropocentric post the green revolution. Whereas, land is home to a large number species, all of which humans have been trying to drive to extinction, in the quest of growing more and more resource intensive food. Whereas, the web of life, to thrive, is what is needed for long term sustenance for any species. There are barely any species that exist in isolation, least of all mammals like us. Yet, we are trying to create environments that are sterile and devoid of all other life forms.

In ancient and medieval India, fields used to be ploughed only for annual crops by bullocks mostly. Now, across the country, you must have observed that tilling the space between perennial tree crops is also the norm. Which is just absolutely silly, in my opinion. Instead of using the space between trees to intercrop, a multi-ton heavy machinery fuelled by diesel imported from the middle east is run in between rows once every few months to kill all grasses, weeds, fungi and to destroy the houses of millions of microorganisms, rodents, insects who call soil their home. Imagine the amount of import dependence we have created by developing this habit of using the tractor so frequently in our lands because we didn’t know how to design our farms better.

We, at Vaanavil Farm & Food Forest, have decided to fight this prevalent practice tooth and nail. We haven’t ploughed our coconut grove once in 5 years and our top soil is now full of life. The number of holes and mounds created by rodents, reptiles and insects has increased the porosity of the soil, thereby reducing the water requirement. Nutrient recycling from the diverse trees that we had planted among the coconut trees is also at its peak. Biodiversity and zero-tilling reduces the dependence of the farm on precious natural resources viz. water and fertilizer.

This is why we keep boasting about our resolve to sustain the zero tillage. Because if we till even once, it will take a lot of time for life esp. Fungi to establish their networks across the soil. I don’t know if the produce grown in such soils will be more nutritious than the ones grown in life less soils. It is tempting to make this claim, but i am not sure current nutritional science has carried out enough tests in this regard. I can say this for sure though : buying produce from zero till organic farms will boost the climate resilience of Indian agriculture for years to come in the future. 🙂

Fresh produce from this month’s coconut harvest

• Organic Cold Pressed Coconut oil : Rs. 390 per litre + shipping
• Organic Coconut Paruppu Podi : Rs. 190 for 250 gms + shipping
• Cold Pressed Coconut Oil + Coconut Paruppu Podi Combo: Rs. 540 + shipping
• Organic Herbal Hair Oil : Rs. 190 for 200 ml + shipping

Regards

Sudhakar