Zero Budget Natural Farming

Grampari is full of activities, workshops and a lot of other events. A lot of learning and sharing happens during such event. With reference to the article on DAY 2, recently on 20th April 2011, Grampari had a workshop for farmers in and around Panchgani on Zero Budget Natural farming. The workshop was taken by Mr Subhas Palekar and attended by around 110 farmers and officials from agricultural department from Wai. He is a farmer by profession and is involved in spreading awareness about Natural farming and disadvantages of chemical and organic farming since 1986. He is a believer of Gandhian philosophy and says that Green Revolution is a pseudo revolution. He made the audience aware of the economics going on behind the scenes in a very lucid manner.

According to him, revolution means creation not destruction. Green Revolution that we are talking about is the transformation process of violence. It is not a creation process. It means destruction of millions of micro-organisms by means of poisonous chemical fertilizers & insecticides, destruction of birds, soil, water, environment & human health also. It is a tool for exploiting the rural economy. He also explained how the MNCs are trying to destroy the rural economy through selling the concept of chemical farming. Chemical farming, he says, is a very dangerous technique. It is also partly responsible for the increase in the number of AIDS cases and Cancers patients. The chemicals used in it are responsible for decreasing the immunity. In addition, some carcinogens are also present in the chemical fertilizers. The audience never knew that there is a train called 'Cancer Train' running between Bhatinda and Bikaner. Today these diseases like cancer and aids are increasing vigorously. According to him, the pseudo green revolution should be held responsible for that. The only output of the Green Revolution is destruction - the destruction of soil, water, environment and human health. And if it is so, then this Green Revolution is not a revolution, he says. It is a worldwide scandal to exploit the farmers and rural economy. The farmers go to the cities to buy the chemicals and the seeds and from the cities the money flows to the multi-national companies. So in a way, they are sucking money out of the rural India.

Mr Palekar then moved to Natural farming. Natural farming is the technique in which the help of nature is taken in growing the crops. How does the forest grow! Does the tree in the forests need any artificial fertilizers or waters to grow? They grow on their own. Zero Budget Natural Farming means for all the crops, the production cost will be zero. In the Zero Budget Natural Farming nothing has to be purchased from the outside. All things required for the growth of the plant are available around the root zone of the plants. There is no need to add anything from outside. Our soil is full of nutrients. How much nutrients the crops takes from the soil? Not more than 1.5 to 2.0 %. Remaining 98 to 98.5% nutrients is taken from air, water & solar energy. Taking this thought further, he explained how natural waste can be turned into good fertilizers and can be utilized to the best. Zero-Budget says that the farmer should grow everything ranging from seed to the crop. In this way, he would not have to borrow for buying the seeds and the fertilizers and would save a lot of money.

A lot of discussion among the authorities, the farmers and the felicitator took place during the whole workshop. The farmers noted down the formulae and other technical things on natural farming. The feedback received from the audience was encouraging.

Further information on subject can be found on site http://palekarzerobudgetnaturalfarming.com