Posts Tagged ‘organic farming’
IDEX Executive Director, Rajasvini Bhansali, is currently traveling in India on evaluation field visits with IDEX partners, and potential catalyst grantees.
Heeralal explains the benefits of vermicomposting
With its gooseberry trees, guavas, mangoes and lemons flowering along with traditional crops such as maize and vegetables, Veni Ram’s horticultural garden looks more like an orchard. This beautiful farm in Godaghati also occasionally hosts gatherings of local farmers who consult with each other about their crops and share strategies to increase yields.
Veni Ram has been applying vermicomposting techniques to his farm since 2007, and during the meeting he spoke compellingly of how lemon trees made with traditional “khaad” or, compost are yielding shiny, ripe and delicious lemons that get grabbed up the minute he gets them to the market. On the other hand, the “urea” lemons—those grown with more industrial fertilizers—appear to be losing favor with the local market. Although the prices are the same, he noted, people seem to prefer organic.
Another farmer at the meeting shared a telling story from his own household. He had built his vermicomposting structure and had started composting more than enough for his farm. However, his son had yet to grasp the concept of vemicomposting and added a trough full of chemical fertilizer to the vermicomposting bin, believing that perhaps it would help the compost.
Although funny, the story gave a nod to the myth perpetuated by the Ministry of Agriculture and large agribusiness that chemical fertilizers such as “urea” are actually good for crops and soil. There are even training workshops aimed at small-scale farmers that tout the benefits of chemical fertilizers. However, the farmers have learned from personal experience that overuse of chemical fertilizers causes soil to harden over time, resulting in a decline in productivity. The farmers are choosing instead to utilize organic agricultural methods to, as one farmer noted, “restore life and living organisms to the soil.”
As Heeralal Sharma, a founding member and current director of Sahyog Sansthan reminded me, the future of the real India is in the hands of the rural poor. Rather than an India based on superpower supremacy and upper middle class luxuries in the midst of growing class disparities, this is the India that our freedom fighters envisioned more than 64 years ago. This is the India that people like Himmati Devi and Veni Ram are creating together with their families and communities, where individual dignity, social relations, communal ecology and indigenous culture are all celebrated and utilized as the basis for creating conditions for liberation.
During my visit, Heeralal remarked that grassroots projects should aspire not only to provide social services, but social transformation and liberation. At Sahyog Sansthan, I was happy to see this in action.
IDEX Program Officer, Katherine Zavala recently traveled to Mexico on field visits to our grantees there.
This morning I got up early, to commute for 2 hours on public transportation. I was traveling from my family’s home, in northern Mexico City to Iztapalapa, which is at the southern point of the city to visit El Molino. Thank goodness for the subway, which at least cuts out the road traffic.
El Molino started an urban agriculture project last year to grow affordable organic produce for their neighborhoods to create self-sufficiency and better health. When I arrived the group had just finished harvesting tomatoes and string beans. It was amazing how big and beautiful this produce was in comparison to what I usually see in the supermarkets.
8 community members showed up today to harvest. They then buy the produce for their homes and to sell to their neighbors. Silvia, who is the cashier of the group, explained that all the money from selling the produce is invested back into this project.
The goal of the communal agricultural garden, where the group learns urban agriculture, is to be a training site and inspiration for the community to learn about how they can grow these vegetables in their own backyards and be inspired and motivated to actually do it.
El Molino has also just started publishing a monthly newsletter. The newsletter informs the community of the value of organic agriculture through tips and shared experiences. Community members describe what worked for them when growing vegetables in their backyards. It’s also a way to promote organic food and demonstrate how accessible and affordable it can be when you’re growing it yourself.
The trainer of the group, Gerardo Castro, is a farmer. He gives monthly workshops to the group of El Molino, teaching them how to grow vegetables using a polyculture method and how to care for the vegetables to ensure a good harvest. They’re also learning the different composts they can make such as Bocashi, liquid fertilizer and worm composting.
It was an incredible learning experience for me. And in a city where the word “organic” is not commonly used, it was great to see that the group of El Molino has found organic agriculture to be the best option both for food security and improved nutrition and health in their communities.
El Molino was the last group I was to visit in Mexico. Time to return to San Francisco. After eating so many tacos, I’m ready for a different cuisine. After visiting El Molino’s project, I feel inspired to take up the task of starting my own urban garden in my backyard!
IDEX Program Officers, Kat and Vini recently went on field visits in South Africa to research groups IDEX could support through our catalyst grants program. This blog post comes from Kat, who visited Rainman Landcare at the end of April.
Today I’m in the Valley of 1,000 Hills, a long stretch of hills between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. Years ago the Zulus would have their huts on each of the hills and call out to each other, or so I was told. I’m here to visit Rainman Landcare Foundation in an area called Peacevale.
Raymond Auerbach is the director and founder of Rainman Landcare Foundation. He used to be a university professor at Pietermaritzburg but saw the academic field of organic farming lacked a way of teaching practical skills. He was inspired to found Rainman Landcare to provide the services such as:
1) Vocational skill training in organic farming,
2) Organic farming facilitator course following the train the trainer model, and
3) Policy work in terms of lobbying for more support for the organic movement in South Africa.
Today is the first day back from Easter break for 23 students and they are eager to see the progress their green beans have made. They come here to become accredited as an organic farmer, and the training takes 8 months. The students are all community members who want to learn about organic farming so they can grow their own food gardens.
Before the break, the students had put mulch on the land to maintain moisture in the soil, and to protect their beans from pests during their absence. Now they observed the differences in bean growth between those students who had mulched properly and those who hadn’t.
Raymond then took me to visit a community in Cliffdale. One of his graduates from the course had trained other members in his community to farm organically. 16 community members are managing the land quite successfully. But even though they’ve been able to farm good organic crops they haven’t been able to transport any of their products to sell at the bigger stores, such as Woolworth’s or Pick and Pay, as no one owns a car.
They’ve also grown indigenous plants to encourage the preservation of their culture. The crops that are grown on this field go first to the members working on the garden and then the food is distributed for those who can’t work the land, such as young orphans or the sick. The rest is then sold to the community.
Building on their success they have started to raise free-range chickens. The group hopes to access government resources to repair their chicken coop so the chickens feel comfortable in laying their eggs.
Although Rainman Landcare organic farming skills were taught to just one person in Cliffdale, 16 people can now farm in an organic way. They continue to find ways to use the skills and training to improve their community. They are even involving the local school and want persuade the school to allow them to develop an organic garden in their backyard for the student to learn about their vegetables and food.
