Imagine that you’re a farmer and you own a small plot of land. it’s about half an acre, maybe even less and you’ve decided to make your living off of it. Your income comes mainly from paddy, milley, and maybe maize. The seeds you purchase are hybrid varieties and come from a seed shop. The fertilizers and pesticides you feed to the crops are chemical-based. You may even rent a tractor to plough your soil. And because you live in a rainfed area, you depend on the rain to water your crops. Your purchases and rentals initially seem to work. The yield is good and the income earned is decent. You notice over time, however, that the crop’s quality decreases. You try adding more chemicals and ploughing deeper to help your crops absorb water and nutrients. But now the soil is further disturbed and it’s losing its porosity. The soil hardens, leading to flooding in the monsoon season and droughts in peak summers. Crops catch disease faster, experience unexpected sex changes, and become unharvestable. You end up losing a lot of money from increased spending and a dwindling income.
For farmers in the Boipariguda block, this is not uncommon. In fact, many of the sites I visited in Odisha reflected this. Crops were mostly grown using monocropping. Usually a mix of manure and pesticides is used, with major crops such as paddy receiving only chemical treatments for a better harvest. Water scarcity was also a huge problem for communities and, in one instance, water had to be sourced via a solar pump, which was courteously installed by an NGO called Harsha Trust. Farmers I spoke to would explain the losses they suffered from unexpected climate events, and would lament the amount of money spent on farm implements and inputs needed to sustain their farms.
Pivoting to drive a few kilometers down the road, we see a different picture being painted altogether. You could see a number of beautiful fruit trees, flowers, and other horticulture plants. Goats were roaming the fields to forage for weeds, and chickens scramble to eat from tiny hills of corn. This is Tapas Roy’s multi-layer farm, a personal project of Boipariguda’s Scheme Officer for the Special Programme for the Promotion of Integrated Farming (SPPIF) and the Odisha Millet Mission (OMM). A multi-layer farm is an efficiently utilized plot of land that grows multiple crops in ascending layers of height, conserves water through water management practices and uses no chemicals to support the process. Animals are integrated into this plot as well, and their manure is used to feed the soil nutrient cycle and strengthen its microbiome.
Tapas-ji very kindly invited me in to observe the farm progress, and the vision I saw was nothing short of spectacular. I saw rows of papaya, guava, mangosteen, and banana interspersed with turmeric and ginger plants. Spaced between them were taller trees – drumstick and papaya. The perimeter was also outlined with trees including silver oak, which serves as a canopy for the shorter crops and provides support to climber plants. The varied crops create symbiotic relationships and form an ecosystem. They also make the soil more resilient, resulting in stronger crops. Water is sourced from the nearby river in the summers and is stored for future use in a tank. Sheds are made to house farm animals who are taken care of by farm workers (I saw a little kid very determinedly carrying a bottle to feed a baby goat and it melted my heart). Using the manure from these animals to feed the microbiome ensures that water is properly absorbed and stored to be utilized by the plants. Moreover, there is very little disturbance to the soil – not even weeds are pulled out! Instead, he lets the goats and chickens he owns roam the farm to forage for grass and pests. He supplements this with dried corn and azolla, and purchases feed for the two cows on the farm. The dung produced from these animals is then used as manure in the farm. The produce from the farm is primarily used for consumption but the excess is sold at the market as natural farm products.
Tapas-ji’s farm is a model for how natural farming can be implemented in Odisha’s landscape. But he also worked on his farm and funded it independently. How can such a model be promoted and implemented across a larger scale?
Stay tuned for how my host organization, WASSAN, and I are rising to the challenge.
