SEVALAYA’S Mahakavi

Bharathiyar Hr. Sec. School

ORGANIC

FARMING FOR

THE

PROSPEROUS LIFE

Composted manure is better than plough

– Saint Tiruvalluvar

“ஏரினும் நன்றாம் எரு இடுதல்” - திருவள்ளூவர்

Organic Farming

• Farming without any synthetic materials as growth promoters, herbicides and toxic pesticides which spoil the soil health and it’s produces

• Farming without damaging our ecological systems

• should sustain and enhance the health of soil, plant, animal, human and planet as one and indivisible

Farming practices in our Locality

• 99.99% farmers are practicing intensive chemical based farming and horticulture

• Even farmers don’t bother to consume these products inspite of knowing that they have used heavy amount of synthetic materials

• Farmers don’t take necessary safety measurements when they handle highly dangerous pesticides/herbicides

• Farmers buys farm inputs over the counter without consulting concern agricultural experts

Why we need to bring back Organic Farming?

• To have Self-sustenance in farming

• To have Toxin-free food

• To protect living beings

• To have clean and green environment

• To save our foreign exchange on inorganic fertilizers and pesticides

Our initiatives to bring back traditional ways of Organic Farming

• Students from farming family joined as a group to work on this – so that we can practice it in their farms as well as make it easier to spread it to others

• Learning the fundamentals of Organic farming

• Learning to produce organic inputs such as growth promoters, pest repellents, disease controlling mechanism, importance of intercropping, mulching, crop rotation etc from the experts in this field and using it in our farms as well as teaching to others

Learning to prepare Organic Inputs

Panchakavyam

Pest repellent

Enriching

compost

with Bio

fertilizers

Vermi compost

Hands on experience through our model farm

Ridges and

Furrows

Growth promoter and pest

repellent mixtureGreens and

papaya saplings

Spreading to Local Farmers

Interested local farmers take our pest repellent & growth

promoter for their farms

Group members take their own produce for their

parents’ farms

Rally was conducted in 3 villages on 10 Sep, 2011

Few slogans from our Rally

• Leave the Earth for future generations

• Forests are the lungs of our mother Earth

• Soil is as precious as your eyes protect it

• Forests and irrigation lands are our two eyes

• Earthworms are farmers’ friend

• Earthworms – intestine of irrigation lands

DFC members invite Local Farmers for “Meet the Experts”

Door to door

Street to street

Meet the experts

• On 17th Sep, 2011 we have organized a half day session on Fundamentals of “Organic Farming” for the local farmers, parents’ of our group members and for the higher secondary students from agricultural branch

• Around 20 farmers and 40 students participated and benefited

• Many interesting questions were raised and answered by experts

Minutes of the session

• Nature of nature and why we shouldn’t act against nature

• Food chain & Recycling system of natural wastes

• Recipe for various growth promoters as well as pest repellents were taught

• Important of inter cropping in the aspect of pest management

• Role of bio fertilizers in management of soil nutrients and disease control

• Scope for marketing organic produces

• Success stories of Shri. Bharathy, Shri. Murali and sridhar were shared

Continues…….

• Few farmers approached resource person’s individually and took advices for their farms

• Participants took contact details of resource persons’ for further correspondence

• Shri. Bharathy* offered the invitation to participants to visit his farm anytime

• Staff from Institute of Sustainable Developments, an local NGO also attended

• * see the profile

Meet the experts

Profile of Resource persons

• Shri. S.R. Sundararaman, Leading organic farmer cum trainer from Erode, Tamilndau

• http://adisiltrust.blogspot.com/2010/07/sundararaman.html

• http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/04/stories/2007060404050500.htm

• Shri. Bharathy, Leading organic and innovative farmer from Thiruvalankadu, Tamilnadu. Maintaining variety of sheep for both milking as well as to control the weeds in his farm, VIPs from throughout the nation buy his produces for its toxin free nature and for the rich taste and quality

• Shri. Murali, TN Govt. employee in Secretariat who maintains an organic farm near our school and he is trying to spread the system

Visit to Model Organic Farm6th Oct, 2011

• Shri. Murali’s farm at Pakkam, TiruvallurDistrict

• Around 12 Local farmers and 15 students visited the farm

• We have learned about Fruit ghadi, Fish Jaggery mix, Pest Repellent, Egg mix, Azola, Mulching, etc.

• Ill effects of inorganic farming

• Scope of productivity increase through Organic Farming

Visit to Model Organic farm

Demonstration farm at our school campus

We grow the following plants in our demonstration farm using our own inputs which we prepared during learning session

• Manathakkali green

• Pappaya

• Akathi green

• Beans variety

• Gourds (Bottle, Ridge)

Changes• Farmers in our locality got awareness on Organic

farming

• Good number of local farmers shows interest in adopting organic farming and used our organic inputs in their farms

• They were able to control the pests and got the yields equivalent to chemical based farming

• Local farmers are approaching us for their crop related issues and we consult our experts on behalf of farmers and give them solutions

Continues…….• Local farmers and parents of our DFC students

are producing organic inputs for their farms

• Around 8 farmers converted part of their farms into organic farm

• Our team mates are helping their parents in implementing organic farming in their farms

• DFC students spread the techniques to their neighbors in their villages

Changes

Pest repellent by DFC member

Local farmers take Growth promoter & Pest repellents from DFC team

Link to view Video on our initiative

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfAZa_N3_lk

“The End”

But our initiative will keep continuing