Organic v/s Natural farming

Lot of confusion exists regarding Organic v/s Natural farming. There is also a lot of debate over which is better. There are some extreme views (by people like respected Subhash Palekar ji of Zero Budget Natural Farming - ZBNF - fame) that Organic farming is more harmful than chemical farming! Here is my take on this topic. In my opinion, there is not much difference between the two. I would like to mention the key differences here.

Caveat: I am in the process of converting from chemical farming to organic farming. My knowledge of Natural farming is limited.

- Natural farming is a wonderful method and that is definitely the way to go. But it seems to be a very long term objective. Organic farming can be an intermediate step towards this to keep it financially viable. I am making this claim because my observation with ZBNF is not really "zero-budget" at least in the initial years.
- When we have highly contaminated soil, it takes really long time to condition it to organic. During this period we will get hit financially due to reduced or no yield. Organic farming can salvage this situation to some extent.
- Natural farming advocates no intervention - in terms of tilling, pest control, weed control, etc. This also looks ideal for long term, but will impact in the short term.
- On-ground composting is one of the Natural Farming ways. This is also an ideal scenario, but it becomes difficult to walk around the farm in this condition.
- One of the major issues raised by Natural farmers is getting organic material from outside which is against self-sustainability. Agreed! But given the labor problems around all sectors, how many people can afford to make everything in-house?
- From the market perspective, there is no differentiation (yet) between natural and organic.

Why is organic food expensive?

There is lot of heartburn among many people about Organic food being expensive compared to the normal chemical-based farm products. In general it seems true that there is no reason for it to be expensive. Rather, it should be cheaper! But looking deep into both of them and having experienced both kind of farming, here are my thoughts on the same:

1) Foremost thing is that as per economics, mass market leads to less expensive products. Get more people to buy organic and you will see the prices come down over time!

2) We hardly have any "ogranic"soil left. Most of it is already contaminated with chemicals. This means that it needs to be "converted" back to organic, which is a long, slow process taking 3 to 5 years. During the conversion process the plants go through a "confused" state wherein their response in unpredictable. Most of the farmers take a hit in the productivity/output during this period. However this is inevitable for the long term sustainability cause. Additionally, if we look for organic certification, it is an expensive process.

3) We have lost most of the organic practices and need to reinvent the wheel. We need to experiment, discuss with knowledgeable people, visit the practitioners' farms, read books, etc. - each of which is an investment and time-consuming.

4) Regular chemical-farming has something called "Package of Practices(PoP)", which, if followed religiously, can ensure a minimum yield unless in case of natural disasters. This more or less works independent of the soil, climate, etc. And the products (like fertilizers, pesticides, etc), are available off-the-shelf. In case of organic farming, there is no PoP. Even if there is some information similar to this is available, it needs to be tailored to suit the soil and climate elsewhere. Not many organic input  products are not available off-the-shelf although more such products have started cropping up of late, which is a good sign. So we need to either prepare the input material in-house or buy and experiment with those available in the market. Even these materials are not available everywhere and therefore many times they involve long travel and transportation cost, which itself is against sustainability. Preparing in-house means more labor which is always in shortage.

5) Organic crops are more pest-prone whereas the organic pesticides are not as deadly as the chemical pesticides. This means that it is not easy to kill the pests organically, resulting in more crop-loss. Case in point is mangoes. We have already experienced that the organic mangoes will get more worm-attacks leading to spoilt fruits.

6) Cows are an integral part of organic farming. Maintaining cows and cowsheds has become an expensive proposition over the years.

7) New entry to the list: When you are the only organic farm around and everybody else surrounding your farm is into conventional/chemical farming. it means that your farm can become a safe heaven/asylum for pests/insects.

Given these issues, I think it is justified to pay more for organic products. But beware of fakes! As long as you know your farmer and the source of your purchase, it is worth the extra money.

Organic practices being followed in Chiguru Farm

- Applying Jeevarmrutha on the soil as well as spraying.

- Spraying Navamrutha and Samrudhdhi as fertilizers and pesticides

- DNP (Dynamic Nutrient Provider) as fertilizer

- Phermone traps and solar light traps to control insects like fruit-flies in mango, coconuts and other fruits.

- Humipos to rejuvenate arecanut plants

- In-house vermicomposting and applying the vermicompost to plants
- Rearing Desi cows and using their output as manure and pesticides

- Farm-Yard-Manure(FYM) for plants

- Live mulching

- Growing marigold for pest control

- Neem cakes/oil for pest control
- Composting in percolation pits
- Honeybees for pollination

What do I do when I am not in the farm?

When I say that I visit the farm 2-3 times a week, lot of people ask me what I do at home on rest of the days. I think time has come to answer these questions. It is difficult for anybody to think that farm work can be done remotely! Of course the times have changed and the traditional farming can only lead farmers to suicide. Farming also should run like a business, which includes accounting, sales, marketing, shopping, etc.

Although I come from an agriculture family, tools and technology and procedures have changed over the time and my knowledge is outdated by at least 25 years. The structure and composition of the soil also makes the difference and there is a need to unlearn and relearn a lot of things that are applicable locally. Lot of useful resources are available on the internet and there are lot of resource persons too who are happy to share their knowledge online. Field visits (i.e. visiting different farms) and interaction with practitioners also helps in many ways. Using this newly acquired knowledge and implementing them on the ground is only a small - but important - part of this.

Account keeping and processing it is a very important thing in order to understand where money goes and where money comes from and how to improve the situation. It assumes more significance when you are running it in a partnership.

For the conventional chemical-based farming there are predefined procedures (Package of Practice - PoP) available and there are standard set of fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides available off-the-shelf. Such things are either non-existent or non-documented in Organic farming. There is lot to study and experiment with and be prepared to fail. The conversion phase from Chemical farming to Organic Farming adds to the complexity.

Shopping part is not that fun as you have to do it in places like KRMarket! Buying fertilizers, pesticides, tools, spare parts, input material, fodder, etc. is a big activity in itself. If these things are not available on time, it is going to result in loss of time (and money). When you are still experimenting, finding out where to buy what leads to extra effort.

Selling the farm produce is a major challenge to any farmer. Despite having taken some precaution, we ended up having banana bunches which nobody was there to buy! It shows the importance of timing what you produce, which in turn implies the importance of timing the sowing. It also indicates that we should tap different sales routes - multiple buyers, online, direct selling, contract selling, etc. Each of these have their own advantages and disadvantages and we have to learn to deal with them. Many of the buyers may not even be prompt in making the payments, which leads to a different set of problems to address.

Farm work needs constant monitoring and planning ahead - upto 5-10 years down the line. Or else you will see the income going down quickly and it takes many more years to be back on track. You also need to assess what would be the demand for your produce x years later and whether there is any better substitute for it. You also need to plan for the crops that would give you returns after several years and plant them now.

When the farm is being setup as an agri-tourism center, it comes with its own set of jobs like planning, legal/governmental handling, sales and marketing, etc. each of which taking huge amount of time.