'Creative natural farming': Tribal community’s family farm shows the way forward

By Bharat Dogra 

Maali Ram’s small home and farm may appear to be very ordinary to outsiders, but local people who know better are increasingly attracted by what this bheel (tribal community) farmer has achieved with the help of his wife Dulkibai and other family members. This is why they have been visiting this farm in growing numbers and in addition also inviting Maali Ram for training others in natural farming.

When I recently visited this farm located in Kataron Ka Khera village in Pratapgarh district (Rajasthan), what impressed me most was the very high level of creativity and intensity of involvement in his farming. He is all the time thinking of what he has done in any particular part of his farm, whether he could have done something better and what he’ll be doing next. He is so full of his creative ideas that he insists that you come to this nook and that corner of his farm to see and understand what he has been doing and what results he hopes to achieve. While speaking to him and being guided by him around his farm, I was reminded of what the American philosopher-farmer Wendell Berry has written about a good farmer—he wrote that a good farmer is working even when he is physically not on his farm, as he or she is always thinking of creative farming ideas.

On their small 3 bigha farm Maali Ram and Dulkibai have nearly 200 fruit and other trees, including guava, papaya, anvla, lemon, jackfruit and chandan (sandalwood) trees. Multi-layered pattern is used for growing over 15 vegetables. Natural farming methods are used in all this as well as grain, legume, oilseed and spice cultivation. Cows, bullocks, goats and poultry are integral parts of the farm and their excreta as well as other waste are used up while preparing manure and natural pest repellant. Emphasis is on one activity or resource being of assistance to some other activity or resource, and of waste being minimized and instead used as resource. A traditional well is just about able to meet the water needs of the farm, although the farm could make use of some more water if it was available.

Maali Ram’s creativity has come more into play since he started turning his 3 bigha farm into natural farming, one bigha at a time to avoid any sudden disruption. Alongside his shift towards natural farming also came multi-layer vegetable cultivation and fruit trees, making him very busy. But this is the kind of work that gives him more and more satisfaction, and after all the hard work, Maali Ram appears happy, not tired. 

Many of these changes came due to the active presence in this and nearby villages of SRIJAN, a voluntary organization involved in supporting sustainable livelihoods that has been a source of help and encouragement for this enthusiastic farmer. However Maali Ram did not just take what was suggested to him, he also added a lot to this with his own creativity and experimentation.

At national and international levels, there is a lot of discussion on the crisis of farmers. But when we speak of solutions to emerge from this crisis, we can learn a lot from the experience of farmers like Maali Ram who have been able to secure satisfactory livelihood despite having very less land and a very low resource base to start with.

Actually Maali Ram has some additional land which is away from his home and also hilly. He hopes at a later stage to cultivate this land too in the same caring way as he has nurtured the land located closer to his home and hamlet.

Maali Ram says that his aim is to follow a path of farming which protects his and his family’s health, which protects the health of others and the health of soil. Following this path gives him happiness and satisfaction, he adds.

He expresses delight that his brother who lives close by has now agreed to traverse this same path. As though trying to convince me, he points to a path and tries to take me to his brother’s farm too. He is really very happy that his brother too has accepted the need for natural farming. He hopes that more and more farmers will come this way soon.

Although he does not say this specifically, and has probably not heard about this or has thought along these lines, the kind of farming he practices contributes to climate change mitigation as well as adaptation, and this increases its value all the more in these times of climate change and other related serious environmental problems. One can only hope that many more farmers will come the way of Maali Ram, further adding to his happiness and satisfaction.

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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food, Man over Machine, When the Two Streams Met, and A Day in 2071