{"id":6126,"date":"2016-11-15T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T18:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/?p=6126"},"modified":"2016-11-21T17:06:03","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T11:36:03","slug":"children-in-this-mp-village-are-learning-organic-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/children-in-this-mp-village-are-learning-organic-farming\/","title":{"rendered":"Children in this MP village are learning Organic Farming"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Sikkim becoming the India\u2019s first organic state, a few children in this distant village of Madhya Pradesh are trying to address the rain-fed agricultural problems through organic farming.<\/strong><\/p>\n

15-year-old Anil Singh Teeka shows CASA Team <\/a>how to make vermi-compost out of cow dung, cow urine, vegetable skins and earthworms.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou add dry leaves, organic wastes like fruit and vegetable peels and leftovers, cow dung, collect cow urine and keep adding everyday to the matter, and do not forget to put a shade over the pit as earthworms will not function properly when exposed to direct sunlight,\u201d Anil explains the vermin-compost process.<\/p>\n

Very craftfully, Anil measures the adequate amount of compost and mixes it with a dark muddy matter in a pit. \u201cIt is a natural compost which adds minerals to the soil. The earthworms turn the waste into natural urea. We then filter the earthworms from the compost and use the same organisms in another pit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every school summer holidays Anil spends time at Vigyaan Ashram \u2013 a place where former Council of Scientific and Industrial Research scientist B K Rai and his wife Aradhana Rai teaches agricultural labourers about organic farming practices.<\/p>\n

The couple work towards promoting organic farming in water-scanty and rocky terrain of Mandla district (MP) where chemical farming is not suitable for agriculture and often results in crop failure.<\/p>\n

The ashram is an example of how agricultural land in the arid region of Mandla District can be made cultivable using simple and no-cost scientific techniques. Organic farming increases the moisture retention ability of soil among other added advantages.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI want to learn more and apply the same to my farm, tell my father that he does not have to struggle so hard. My father does not know the techniques; we have been only been using traditional farming methods. Now the pesticides have come in the market, and my father keeps coughing due to the fumes generate from the insecticides,\u201d he says.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"15-year-old

15-year-old Anil Singh Teeka at Vigyaan Ashram in Mandla District, Madhya Pradesh<\/p><\/div>\n

Anil says he wants to change the pattern of agricultural productivity and that\u2019s why he comes to the ashram for 2-3 months to learn all about organic farming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was impressed with the results. I saw my father struggling to arrange water for irrigation purpose. When I came here, I learnt that with minimum water and adequate technique, we can grow healthy plants even during less rainfall,\u201d Anil says.<\/p>\n

Many children from tribal families of Madhya Pradesh are showing interest in organic farming these days.<\/p>\n

Anil says that he will propagate the idea of organic farming among all the people in his village and \u201cstop being dependent on chemicals\u201d.<\/p>\n

But not all children here are the part-time workers. 17-year-old Naresh works at the ashram everyday as he couldn\u2019t afford to continue his formal education, mainly due to poverty and agricultural failure.<\/p>\n

Naresh feels that the ashram has given him a purpose. \u201cI see sir (Mr Rai) overcoming challenges and develop new ways to make land useful for agriculture activities. I like assisting him in his experiments,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"17-year-old

17-year-old Nares at Vigyaan Ashram in Madhya Pradesh<\/p><\/div>\n

At just 17, he narrates how an arid land can be converted into useful patch. \u201cI learnt that a farmer can grow organic products with just 4-inch ploughed land. He need not have to waste energy and time in ploughing the land deeper to gain good crops. Crops like Sugarcane can be easily grown by using vermin-compost,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

23-year-old Sunil Kumar Uikey, who also works in the campus, explains that pest attacks can be easily tackled in a natural way and a farmer does not have to waste his money on pesticides.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing insecticides will ruin the soil and crop health. The crops might grow faster once, but the next season the farmer struggles to bring back the nutrients in the soil. There are weeds, which if grown with the crops, keeps termites and insects at bay. We need to tell this to our people,\u201d Sunil says.<\/p>\n

According to Agriculture scientist Dr Rai, the soil in this particular region is not suitable for chemical farming. \u201cChemical farming needs a lot of water, which meant that every farmer needs to have its own irrigation system, which is impossible in the village.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes that the organic farming is the \u201conly way forward in this region if farmers are looking for a sustainable agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Children and youth like Anil, Naresh and Sunil have been acting as catalysts in propagating organic farming among tribals.<\/p>\n

\"Vigyaan

Vigyaan Ashram in Mandla District, Madhya Pradesh, where its founder scientist Dr B K Rai and his wife give lessons to the tribal farmers on organic farming<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Sikkim becoming the India\u2019s first organic state, a few children in this distant village of Madhya Pradesh are trying to address the rain-fed agricultural problems through organic farming. 15-year-old Anil Singh Teeka shows CASA Team how to make vermi-compost out of cow dung, cow urine, vegetable skins and earthworms. \u201cYou add dry leaves, organic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[121,124,123,122],"class_list":["post-6126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casa-blog","tag-farmersofindia-organicfarming","tag-children-for-change","tag-farmers-of-india","tag-organic-farming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6126"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6245,"href":"https:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126\/revisions\/6245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casa-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}