Conservation Agriculture

Pleading for a Plentiful India

Johan Dhulster
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Preface
It asks for a lot of courage and insight to review agriculture without prejudices in the light of a
holistic ecological and sustainable strategy, in which the farmer can do his primary job: produce
enough safe and vital food as a manager of the natural potential.

This is a quote by Johan DHulster hereafter in this concise publication. From this point of view and
starting from his experience as a organic farmer he wrote this booklet about conservation agriculture.
Technically spoken conservation agriculture is the integrated approach of minimal tillage, rotation of
crops and permanent ground cover. But most of all conservation agriculture is a vision of agriculture
that offers building stones for the renewal of agriculture whilst maintaining its basis.

Johan intertwines his technical knowledge of agriculture with an overall vision of the position farming
occupies in society. He explains meticulously what sustainability in farming is all about. He examines
the current options a farmer has in the technical and mechanical area and describes how farmers can
deal with climate change and biodiversity.

Furthermore Johan writes about agriculture as a social carrier all over the world. He situates the farm in
its surroundings and emphasises the relation between them as a part of a sustainable overall strategy. It
is a story that combines Johans many years standing experience with Belgian soil with his enriching
visits to India and to the project The Lost Gardens of Khauraho that he supports.

What has all this to do with Vredeseilanden?

Both in the North and in the South Vredeseilanden supports farmer families and their organisations in
the knowledge that agriculture is vital for a sustainable social development. Moreover agriculture plays a
central role in surpassing the challenges the world community faces: overcoming the food crises, main-
taining biodiversity, climate change,

Over the past years the conviction grew that we have to deal our agriculture in a different way if we
want it to fulfil all its functions. But the gap of knowledge between theory and practice remains large.
How to realise this reversal in the field? That is why it is an honour for us to be able to share this expla-
nation with you. No one but a farmer is more suitable to tell us this story.

Luuk Zonneveld
Director Vredeseilanden
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Content
Introduction - 5

1. Can We Agree on the Following Premises? - 6

1.1 Agriculture Bears Society
1.2 Agriculture versus Industry
1.3 Sustainable Agriculture

2. A Different Look On Agriculture 8

2.1 Cycles of Materials and Powers
2.1.1 Root Growth
2.1.2 Photosynthesis
2.1.3 Fruits and Seed
2.1.4 The Carbon Cycle
2.1.5 The Nitrogen Cycle
2.1.6 Nutrients and Micronutrients
2.1.7 The Earths Vegetal Cover
2.3 The Landscape Organism
2.4 Ecological and Economic Farm Organization
2.5 Farm Individuality

3. The Tools 15
3.1 Soil Fertility
3.1.1 The Soil
3.1.2 Soil Life and Humus
3.1.3 Quality of Soil Life and Humus
3.1.4 The Interdependency of Soil, Air and Water
3.1.5 You Can Test Soil Quality Yourself
3.1.5 The Tillage of the Soil
3.1.6 Manuring
3.1.7 Compost
3.2 Closing Cycles
3.3 Crop Rotation and Green Manure Crops
3.4 The Leguminosae
3.5 Conservation Agriculture

4. Further Considerations and Choices to Be Made 26

4.1 Seed Autonomy and Seed Selection
4.2 The Impact of Technology on Seed Selection
4.3 Genetic Manipulation
4.4 Beyond Genetic Manipulation
4.5 Technique and Mechanization
4.6 Biodiversity and Agroforestry
4.7 The New Peasantries

5. Case study The Lost Gardens of Khajuraho 32

5.1 The Setting
5.2 Model of Society
5.3 Good Soil
5.4 Water, Water, Water
5.5. Kushawaha Caste
5.6 Agroforestry
5.7 Compost and Tools
5.8 Local Chapter
5.9 Whats Needed for the Future?
5.10 The Ecological Holistic Vision, the Working with Farmers
5.11 Navdanya, Building a Movement
5.12 Seed Bank
5.13 Vedic Agriculture
5.14 The Lost Gardens of Khajuraho
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Introduction
Agriculture and food production count amongst the oldest activities of mankind. As a vector of
civilization, they contain since times of yore the transmitted tradition, knowledge, wisdom, and,
above all, the daily skills of the farmers around the globe. Although the agricultural knowledge
paradigms are grounded in the natural situation and limitations of soil, landscape, water supply,
etc. and they are consequently not very keen on change - they have been subject to a continuous
series of radical changes during the last decades.

The scientific dissection of living nature has influenced almost all aspects of agriculture. It has enabled
an impressive growth of the possibilities for mass food production on a global scale, but it has equally
caused a tremendous disruption as a result of the overuse and the limitless consumption of our ecologi-
cal planetary resources.

2010 AD, we are forced to recognise that the global challenges to secure our essential life conditions
(such as healthy food and drinking water) for everyone of us are gigantic. Increasing climate change,
desertification, soil erosion, chemical pollution and related problems demand our urgent attention and a
creative new approach.

Agriculture is caught in a complex paradox. The technical knowledge and possibilities to provide enough
food for mankind have been developed in an almost limitless way, but the structural famine in large
parts of the world is increasing. Strangely enough, those who constitute the very basis of this produc-
tion process (the farmers), are most severely hit by invisibility, famine and powerlessness. Considered
from this angle, it seems that modern agriculture sometimes counteracts its own objectives.
It asks for a lot of courage and insight to review agriculture without prejudices in the light of a holistic
ecological and sustainable strategy, in which the farmer can do his primary job: produce enough safe
and vital food as a manager of the natural potential.

For this, living heritage and tradition are extremely important as well as rich resources that are con-
tained in every action of a farmers hand, in the collective memory and in the praxis of the living agrar-
ian classes. We have to treasure this wealth, not as a relict of ancient times, but as a lasting apprecia-
tion for agriculture as an integral part of our time and society. This wealth is the basis for a future in
which sustainable food production is secured, thanks to the experience and biodiversity it has created
and that has been passed on to us as a living heritage by generations of farmers.

Moreover, the present-day needs demand that we make sound use of the scientific and modern insights,
even though they have had predominantly dire consequences. However, negative experiences can also
be turned into new cohesions. Thus, the new (and at the same time the old) task for agriculture is to
respect the cohesion of the ecological capacity of soil, landscape, water, vegetal and animal biodiver-
sity, man and technique.

This study wants to offer the materials to help agriculture innovate in such a way that its very founda-
tion is preserved. One could see this as the essential meaning of conservation agriculture.
Furthermore, conservation agriculture is also the name for an integrated approach with a minimal culti-
vation of the soil, crop rotation and permanent soil cover. Such approach contains an important poten-
tial for all kinds of agricultural systems, small and big alike, to create a surplus value, both in produc-
tion and in sustainable ecology. It guarantees the basic conditions for the creation and development of
healthy farm organisms. This process asks for balanced choices and for a critical social tackling of pol-
icy, production and consumption behaviour. Worldwide, conservation agriculture is growing in popular-
ity. Moreover, in the demanding climate conditions of the southern hemisphere, it is clearly a must,
because here the agricultural techniques are put in the service of the ecological cohesion.

India has shown the world many centuries of rich and deep insights. Also in the field of agriculture,
India can boast an immense rich know-how in the healthy handling of the natural resources and the
limitless biodiversity. Let us try not to loose this wealth, but to revalidate it and to enlarge it at the
service of a still increasing population, using all modern scientific knowledge. Today, the best guarantee
for the future of a plentiful India is a wise and respectful choice for the natural soil fertility as a pre-
cious gem, recognized and utilized for ages.
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1. Can We Agree on the Following

Premises?
1.1 Agriculture Bears Society
60% of the Indian population is more or less dependent on
agriculture as the source of living.1 Today, this is an immense
group of 700 million farmers. The eyes of the world look at
Indias spectacular growth in industry and services, but lets Tertiary
sector
agree: the importance of agriculture for Indian society can-
not be overestimated.
It seems logical to say that a society can only develop its Industry
industry and tertiary sector when it has a solid agricultural
fundament as a primary sector. Everyone needs safe and
healthy food, drinking water and clean air to breathe on a
Agriculture
daily basis. In a soundly developed social model, enough bears
socio-economic appreciation has to go to the agrarian society
classes. These classes are the guards and managers of the
biggest part of the open space and they fulfil our primary
necessities of life.

The presence of farmers in a nation has everything to do with the quality of life in the countryside, with
the quality of the food, and with the need for an efficient use of energy, water and soil. A good social
development policy has to invest a priori in the size and the quality of its agrarian classes.
Sadly enough, we see in almost all continents that the survival of the agrarian business as well as the
countryside are endangered by increasing environmental problems, migration from the countryside and
the explosive growth of cities. The integrity of food, the craftsmanship of the farmer as well as natures
ecological cohesion are at stake.

On the one hand farmers are trapped in a struggle for autonomy and freedom; on the other hand they
are victim of multiple ways of dependency, exploitation and exclusion. This struggle has always existed,
but today, under the pretext of progress, it has taken many hidden faces.

1.2 Agriculture versus Industry

For a good comprehension of agriculture, it is necessary to define its laws in contrast to the laws of
industry.

Agriculture has always worked with the living nature; since the times of yore, agriculture is the cultiva-
tor and caretaker of life and fertility on earth. This life is mostly characterised in the large diversity it
shows. Living nature knows no standard products. Life is rhythm and continuous development.
Agriculture is an adding, replenishing economy: it takes, makes, uses and gives back. It is the manage-
ment of the earth as a source of fertility, where love and affection are given back in proportion to what
was taken.

Some agricultural fields have been used continuously since four or five thousand years. Thanks to good
maintenance, these fields continue to give a high produce for their users.
In most cases, industrial production stands for a heavily mechanised and more and more automated
handling of (mostly dead) materials resulting in a standardized, uniform product with a fixed, pre-
defined quality. This allows a relatively low price setting for a relatively high-grade product, under con-
ditions of availability of homogeneous, uniform materials. Industry mostly lasts only for a limited time
period; it is an extractive, exhausting activity. It takes, makes, uses, and discards. It mostly evolves
from exhaustion to pollution.

1
http://india.gov.in/sectors/agriculture/index.php
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One of the most essential differences between farmers and factory workers or managers is the fact that
farmers do not go to their job they live there. Farms are living places as well as working places. Time
and time again, experience proves that the motivation of a farm labourer is not sufficient to farm.

The motives of agriculture are fundamentally different from the motives of industry. It is important to
be aware of this.
During the past hundred years we have seen the grafting of industrial laws on agriculture, e.g. stan-
dardisation, dead mineral manure, chemical deployment, Very often this has been destructive and
disruptive to life. This does not exclude the fact that productivity, efficiency and mechanisation are
necessary tools to get a reasonable living from agriculture.
But it is essential that agriculture remains the guard of the life processes, to guarantee the future of
our children and grandchildren.

1.3 Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is an agriculture that lasts, that respects the living entity with which it works.
It is an agriculture that manages its most important capital, the living nature, in a sound way and
hence remains profitable in the long run.
The farmer in the sustainable agriculture works from a vision on the soil, plant, animal and man; a vi-
sion on life and death; a vision on plant selection, manuring, commerce, and often even a spiritually
enlarged vision on his/her own existence and environment.

This is why a healthy, sustainable agriculture has always been on all continents the basis for a sustain-
able, flourishing society.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN (FAO), defines sustainable agriculture and landscape
development in the following way:

Sustainable development is the management and conservation of the natural resource base and
the orientation of technological and institutional change in such a manner as to ensure the attain-
ment and continued satisfaction of human needs for present and future generations. Such sustain-
able development (in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors) conserves land, water, plant
and animal genetic resources, is environmentally non degrading, technically appropriate, economi-
cally viable and socially acceptable 2

2
http://www.fao.org/docrep/W7541E/w7541e04.htm
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2. A Different Look On Agriculture

2.1 Cycles of Materials and Powers
By the nature of his job, every farmer needs to learn to handle and to keenly observe the materials and
powers that circulate on his farm. A handful of soil can be seen as a material, because it contains ob-
servable qualities like weight, density and colour. But, there is a lot more. In the combined action be-
tween that soil and a rooting plant, powers exist that are more difficult to define and that are more
derived from their results, e.g. the sprouting of a series of different leaf forms on a stem.
In the biosphere of the earth, growth only comes into being through processes of interacting materials
and powers in a defined area. This area is roughly situated in-between the root system under the sur-
face of the earth and the crowns of the trees above the surface. For a better understanding, we have to
change our perspective and see the earth as a planet with an important paper-thin layer of the earth
crust in which new substances originate (e.g. humus in the soil, proteins in a plant) as a result of the
transforming energy of sun, light, warmth, rhythm, etc.

Lets have a look at a few examples from the cyclic world of materials and powers to see the living real-
ity of agriculture in a fresh way.

2.1.1 Root Growth

It is a pity that we do not look more often at the root system of a plant, and that we cannot see what
happens under the surface of the earth. It is marvellous how intensively a plant can root. In principle,
there are only two types of roots: the tap root that sometimes thickens into a tuber, and the side roots
that can develop into a widely ramified root system. In both cases, the nature and the intensity of the
connection with the soil determines what happens in the formation of the plant above the surface. In
general, the more intensely a plant is connected with soil life, the more vigorous it is. The condition
for this not only lies in the plant, but as much in the nature of soil life, micro-organisms, oxygen, hu-
mus, structure etc. These soil conditions will be elaborated below.
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2.1.2 Photosynthesis
In the green leaf of the plant, sunlight transforms the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air and the water
from the soil into sugar and amylum. These subsequently transform into proteins and many other nutri-
ents and enzymes. This photosynthesis in the chlorophyll is the primary process for the creation of all
organic substances on earth. This is the origin from which roots, flowers and fruit/seeds are fed.
The rhythms of light and temperature are active at every facet of this transformation process. It is im-
portant to realise that the essential creation of humus in the soil, as a stable form of organic substance,
is a consequence of the creation of chlorophyll. Without chlorophyll, there can be no creation of soil
fertility.

2.1.3 Fruits and Seed

In the formation of fruits and seed, the qualitative substances increase in proportion to the formation
of root and leaves. Colourings and flavourings are created; the oils and fats that only appear in this part
of the plant have the highest energy of all parts of the plant.
However, fruits and seed also contain the ultimate information that is a representation of the primary
prototype of the plant. As a result, from this representation, a new cycle can start in the formation of a
plant towards a defined plant image. From the seed of a Neem tree, only a Neem tree can grow, never a
Banyan tree.

New science (research in the bio-physics3) teaches us that every living cell in a growing process retains
and stores information and expresses it in a certain degree of order. In a plant cell, this information
can, for example, be its fertilisation, the origin of the seed breeding, the weather conditions, and the
vision of the farmer. From the experience of its life cycle, a plant can show the stored information in a
better or lesser order or in a consistent vital energy. New scientific methods are being developed that
will be able to show this process.

Chroma grass sillage German farmer

Fruits and seeds are also the synthesis of the cycles of materials and powers that lead to the fulfilment
of a complete cycle in the plant. And even when the seed is stored on the plant in preparation of return
to the earth, even in this state of apparent rest, a movement of powers is at work. Therefore, seeds de-
serve the highest attention and respect and who better to answer for this than the farmer who has care-
fully assisted the plant cycle?

3
www.lifescientists.de
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2.1.4 The Carbon Cycle

Carbon plays a key role in the soil processes that determine the general soil fertility. Carbon is the main
element in organic material, which can be distinguished in fresh organic material and effective organic
material. Fresh organic material (in the form of crop rests, leaves, kitchen waste) primarily delivers di-
rectly available minerals to soil and plant. Effective organic material is the result of a transformation
process in the soil, in which organic material as an old power slowly becomes available to the plant,
which takes time (e.g. one year).

Thanks to sunlight, chlorophyll is created from the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and water. The
nutrients that are made by this photosynthesis serve man and animal. The crop rests and animal manure
are mostly for the benefit of the soil, where it is degraded again to carbon. Part of this carbon is stored
(temporarily) in the soil. Humus balance is a good indicator for the amount of carbon stored in the soil.
This is the balance between humus composition and humus decomposition.
Humus composition is mostly driven by local environmental factors such as temperature, rainfall, soil
texture. Also the knowledge of the farmer plays an important role. The quantity and quality of the car-
bon input via manure, green manure and plant rests, and the way in which it is done, are important
factors to achieve a stable humus composition.

Humus composition is a slow process of many years, which asks for a long-term strategy. Sadly, humus
decomposition on the contrary can occur very quickly.
An intensive crop strategy, with intensive soil cultivation and exhausting monocultures, cause the de-
composition of humus, with a major loss of carbon into the atmosphere.
This humus balance is an important element in the debate on the question whether agriculture has a
positive or negative contribution in global climate change. It seems that agriculture is responsible for
10 to 12% of the emission of the greenhouse gasses4, including CO2, mostly from cattle, deforestation
and decreasing humus storage in the soil.

Knowing that good soil management with a positive humus balance creates a storage capacity of 1 to 2
ton C/ha/year (which could offer a real contribution to a solution for the climate problems); the impor-
tance of soil fertility management becomes crystal clear.

4
www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_ipcc_fourth_assessment_report_wg3_report
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A remarkable example of the sustainable importance of carbon in the soil is the Terra Preta de Indio
soils in South-America5. These carbon-rich soils were probably created by the Pre-Columbian Indians in
a period of some thousands of years and have shown very high fertility till today. These black soils are
the result of slash-and-char systems, in contrast to slash-and-burn. In these systems, carbonised (and
not burnt) organic material is added to the soil, resulting in high humus stability till a great depth (1 to
2 m). Carbonised (or charred) organic material has very many small pores (see e.g. a carbon filter),
which creates an enormous surface in which water, soil life and nutrients can be held with minimum
loss. Hence, the soil productivity increases.

2.1.5 The Nitrogen Cycle

The carbon balance is closely related to the nitrogen balance. Nitrogen, originating from the air, is one
of the most important nutrients that circulate between the leafy area and the humus-containing soil
underneath it. The supply and absorbency of nitrogen are of great importance for an economically viable
agriculture. Nitrogen guarantees volume and growth. Nitrogen can, so to say, blow up a plant. Remem-
ber the explosive force of nitrogen bombs in the past world wars.
Now, it comes to how a farmer views this nitrogen.

If you view nitrogen as a mineral nutrient, to be added directly to the plant in the form of salts that
can be quickly absorbed, a plant barely needs to connect with the soil. Under such conditions, a plant
does not need a strongly developed root system. It will be watery, energetically weak and sensitive to
affliction by fungi, insects and diseases.

However, if you consider nitrogen as a nutrient that is part of a life process, the aim will be to feed the
soil, rather than the plant. When the soil is enriched with good quality organic material, a balanced and
healthy soil life develops, that in its activity frees up nitrogen for the plant. The plant then needs to
connect intensively with the soil by developing a strong root system, thereby guaranteeing a healthy
growth and immunity against parasites causing weakness.
The switch from directly absorbable nitrogen (artificial fertilizer) to the release of nitrogen from soil life
through an organic process takes some years to take effect and requires an intelligent soil management.

5
www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/research/terra%20preta/terrapretamain.html
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2.1.6 Nutrients and Micro-Nutrients

The incredible complexity of the life forms, powers and processes that occur in the upper layer of the
soil, is a field in science that is still very much in development.

A handful of fertile soil contains more micro-organisms than people living on the earth. One soil bacte-
ria can in just one day produce 300 million of its sort by splitting and multiplying. Talk about life!
A change occurs in the characteristics of the soil in the root zone of a plant, through amongst others-
micro-organisms activity, so that plants can admit nutrients. It is a process similar to the one that oc-
curs in the digestion organs of an animal.

The many nutrients (N, P2O5, K2O) and micro-nutrients (Cu, Fe, B) cannot be isolated, fragmented
and disconnected from the cycles of materials, powers and life processes taking place under and on the
soil surface.

As long as the soil is fed with organic material that contains all the necessary elements thanks to the
nature of the cycle, and as long as the conditions are created for flourishing life cycles, there will be no
big shortage in nutrients and micro-nutrients. When soil analysis shows that adaptation is needed in
certain circumstances (mostly in the case of a shift from conventional agriculture to organic agricul-
ture), this is always possible in a mineral form.

Minimal shortages of e.g. micro-nutrients in food as a result of a one-sided approach to the soil
(overuse and exhaustion), show an enormous impact on the health of men and animals.

2.1.7 The Earths Vegetal Cover

Cycles of materials and powers are unthinkable without the earths vegetal cover. A barren soil without
plants does not function as a living organism. Plants without soil have no living capacity.
Plants are able to create an intermediary zone between the mineral earth crust on the one hand and the
light, sun-warmed air on the other. The life of plants, animals and men takes place in this intermediary
zone.

The sun is the source of warmth, light and energy that moves the carbon cycle via photosynthesis.
The conservation of food production, protection against heat and coldness, mild climate, rain and reten-
tion of water in the soil, timber for construction or firewood, all these elements require a mindset of
considering the earth and its vegetal cover as a living, breathing organism.

2.2 The Landscape Organism

As a bearer of culture, agriculture needs to be connected intimately with the region, the area and (with)
the type of landscape in which it works. It is important to keep this constantly in mind because it is the
key for a sustainable farm management. Tradition and inherited property relations have always guaran-
teed continuity between types of soil, types of management and types of humans. Generations of farm-
ers who have toiled on heavy, naturally fertile soil are different from generations of farmers doing the
same job on a light, poor soil. Their houses and farms will also differ.

And equally, the environment, a result of age-long moulding by nature and by the hand of men, is a
very determining factor of what is and what is not possible in agriculture. Height, climate, sensitivity to
erosion, wind cover, mineral complexion of the soil, these are all qualities with inherent advantages and
restrictions.
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Apart from the largely specific natural landscapes of the earth, such as the steppe, polar ice, rainforest,
etc., it is my opinion that every type of agricultural landscape should have a certain mixture of forest,
wood land, grass land, fields and water.
Three questions determine a good relation between agricultural activity and its environment:

1. What does the surrounding landscape look like, in depth and in width? How does my activity
relate to it? How can I improve this interaction in an economically viable way?
2. What is the transport and market situation? How are they likely to develop? Is the technical
equipment of my farm in harmony with this situation?
3. What and how much do I want to produce, and to what circle of people do I want to offer my
services?

The evolution of agriculture in the last century shows two major deficiencies regarding these questions.
Firstly, many farms have grown through industrialisation into independent, often inaccessible entities
with no connection to the environment. And secondly, the natural environment as an enveloping land-
scape organism has often disappeared.

Disturbed balances create diseases. Isolating organisms, by cutting them off from the sources that feed
life in a process of mutual stimulation, is asking for problems. Health can be restored when, with a new
vision, agricultural activity is re-integrated in its broader environmental context and when this interac-
tion is maintained and improved.

2.3 Ecological and Economic Farm Organisation

The purpose of an intelligent farm organisation is to provide a sufficient income and a meaningful em-
ployment, guaranteeing future production. Roughly speaking, the means to achieve these goals are:

1. the natural basis: soil, climate, water supply

2. the variable means of production, e.g. diversity of plants and animals, but also the state and
technical level of buildings, machines and working methods
3. the place in the market, the economic situation in the short term and in the long term
4. the skills and training of the farmer and his co workers

The art of a good farm organisation consists of achieving a balance on the farm level, in which all
available means support each other in a harmonious relationship. Financial and economic health of a
farm can never be achieved one-sidedly without a guarantee for the soil fertility and, consequently, for
the health of plants and animals.

That is why multi-sided and mixed farm types have more possibilities to realise this coherence.
The history of capital-intensive industrialised agriculture with a one-sided focus on profit has lead to a
far-reaching specialisation and a disentanglement of all possible branches. The loss of coherence might
be taken as one of the principal causes of the immense disease pressure on the increasingly sensitive
crops and cattle. Sadly, the input of chemicals and one-sided breeding techniques are the so-called
logical answers to this problem.

The coherence between ecology and economy needs a long-term strategy.

Farm organisation in agriculture needs to start from within and from the inherent nature of its activity.
It can grow in the most meaningful way from the people who are skilled and experienced in the agricul-
tural practice itself. But too often, farm organisation is an externally imposed theoretic approach from
a governmental interference, or from market mechanisms. For example, western agriculture is so
trapped in an enormous jumble of regulations and administration that farmers are obstructed to organ-
ise their farm in function of a qualitative management.
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2.4 Farm Individuality

Every farm has its own ecosystem. The more varied this system and the bigger its diversity, the more it
functions as an independent and self-sustainable organism. This organism is directed and formed by
man, and it develops a so-called farm individuality in the image of man.
For a farmer, the concern about the qualities, flaws and characteristics of his farm individuality can be
a guideline in the development of his farm.

Naturally, human social relations also play a role. The more the different organs are tuned to each
other, the more they support each other and the more powerful farm individuality becomes.
Such individuality does not have to be restricted to just one farm. By intense, mutual collaboration of
different farms, a bigger unity can develop with its own identity.

We have too long adhered to the idea that agriculture needs to be standardized for the sake of effi-
ciency: everywhere the same buildings, the same seed, the same breed of cows, and every farmer in the
world with the same cap on his head. But did it really bring us more efficiency in the long run? Nowa-
days, a new consciousness is growing that limitless diversification and individual character might be a
more efficient way to manage the natural resources.
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3. The Tools
3.1 Soil Fertility
Almost seven billion people are dependent on the food that is produced on 11,5 % of the earths sur-
face6. Only 3 % of this is naturally fertile7. It costs many years to build up soil fertility, and it can be
destroyed in only a few minutes. Fertile areas can quickly turn into barren plains through soil degrada-
tion. President Franklin Roosevelt once said: In the end, the history of every people is determined by
the care it gives to its soil. The decline of the culture on Easter Island seems to be caused by the com-
plete exhaustion of the rich available natural ecology; it can stand as a metaphor for the choices that
the global population now needs to make.

Soil fertility is a subtle concept, that we can only understand when we think in processes. In the same
way as an organism continuously changes its materials, and still conserves its form, so does the soil
contain at its best a certain quantity and quality of organic substance resulting from a series of trans-
formation processes.

Soil fertility is the search for a balance between the continuous input of organic material and its con-
tinuous degradation that causes an enlivenment of the soil.
Soil fertility is a key notion in agriculture. A vigorous, living soil that enables a good rooting and feed-
ing of the plants, is of primary importance for the development of stem, leaf, flowers, fruits and seeds.
The care for the soil is far more important than corrective care for the plant.

Without being exhaustive, I sum up some supporting insights that can help realise a better soil fertility
below.

3.1.1 The Soil

Soil quality is determined by three physical characteristics:
the soil texture, this is the quality of the soil on the basis of granular fractions, divided by size
in sand, loam and clay;
the soil structure, determined by the way separate soil particles stick together in bigger aggre-
gates or crumbs. This determines the air-water balance;
the soil profile is the development of the soil in depth. This profile can be more or less beneficial
for a deep rooting of the soil.

These physical characteristics are on their own not sufficient to guarantee the rendering of mineral-rich
soil. It is only the organic substance that mobilises these inherently dead minerals to plant growth, e.g.
by improving the soil structure.

A mostly sandy soil contains a lot of silicon and, thanks to the size of the grains of sand, a lot of light and
air. In a sandy soil, water sinks quickly. The more clay in the soil, the more calcareous activity present.
Clay particles are very small, as a consequence a clay soil is often closed, wetter, with little air and more
difficult to cultivate.

3.1.2 Soil Life and Humus

Nothing is as important for a sustainable agriculture as the humus supply and the life in the soil. The
scientific knowledge on this subject is still in full development but it is becoming more and more obvi-
ous that excellent care of soil life and humus is a fundamental condition for healthy and plentiful food
production.
Humus can be divided in stable and unstable humus.

Stable humus is the result of a long (counted in many years or even centuries) process of transformation

6
www.faostat.fao.org
7
National Geographic September 2008
 18

of organic material by soil organisms. Stable humus gives the soil its brown colour. It is an important
indicator for soil fertility. Sandy soils need at least 2% humus, clay soils 4%.
Unstable humus is the organic substance (e.g. crop rests, leaves, straw, weeds, manure, green manure
etc.) that is digested by soil organisms and made available as nutrients. Only a small fraction of it re-
mains as stable humus.
Soil life consists of bacteria, fungi, earthworms, many soil insects, etc. Many millions of creatures can
live in a handful of soil. More than half of all earthly species are living below the surface.

A minimal condition for healthy plant growth is the increase of the percentage of (stable) humus above a
critical level. The bigger the buffer we can create in humus supply, the fewer problems we will have with
deficiencies in plant feeding.

3.1.3 The Quality of Soil Life and Humus

Not only a sufficient quantity of soil life and humus, but also its genetic process and the conditions in
which it takes place determine the health of an ecosystem.

Living organic substances in the soil not only stimulate growth and production, but also the vital feed-
ing quality. It is an established fact that plants which are only fed in a sterile and mineral way (with
chemical fertilizers), grow up watery and lose their viability in the long run. The art is creating agro-
technical conditions in which the best possible quality of bacteria, fungi and diverse soil organisms can
develop. Our culture completely ignores the painstakingly acquired fact that bacteria are creators of
life. A lot of sciences (e.g. modern medical science) look at bacteria as pathogenic and thus plead for
maximal sterility. Such an approach leads to agricultural fields being disinfected with heavy chemicals
killing all life and producing a sterile soil. This leads almost immediately to a progressive derailment
and deterioration of the soil.

It is wiser to choose for a maximum input of organic activity and to cherish its quality in order to
stimulate a maximal balance of soil life. In doing so, inferior bacteria and fungi will have no chance to
proliferate in the soil and will be suppressed by superior bacteria and fungi. In this regard, the PH
value of the soil, the cultivation of the soil and the climatic conditions are very influential.

Research on organic cultivation systems in Europe has shown that the bacteria percentage in the soil is
mostly sufficient, but that there is often a great lack of fungus life, caused by e.g. intense cultivation and
a lack of cellulose in the manure. Such a lack of qualitative fungus life in the soil often causes fungus
diseases in the plant, because of the broken balance.

3.1.4 The Interdependency of Soil, Air and Water

It should be clear by now that the soil contains marvellous cohesion processes and that modern science
is amassing more and more knowledge about it. However, we cannot restrict our attention to the upper
soil layer; we also have to look at the cohesion with the broader ecological environment. Soil, air and
water are inextricably related to each other, and we should approach them as parts of one unity.
good quality of drinking water is mostly guaranteed by a good quality of the soil;
good water permeability of agricultural fields is part of a sustainable water management policy;
reducing air pollution guarantees a reduction of soil acidification;
responding to the needs of the global climate change and recognising the role of humus storage in the
soil as source and storage capacity of carbon dioxide.

The recovery of fungus life in the soil in greater areas by use of fungus dominant compost tea (research by
Dr. Elaine Ingham8) showed that the previously almost completely disappeared fish population in the local
river had recovered remarkably well

8
www.soilfoodweb.com
 19

3.1.5 You Can Test the Soil Quality Yourself

Every individual soil has a unique biodiversity relating to the soil quality and the surface biodiversity of
the ecological environment. Standard methods to test the soil are often carried out in a lab situation
and are therefore mostly inadequate in their observations. In general they measure more the mineral
composition of the soil than the living components in it.

For the latter, one has to make observations in the field. A simple profile pit of 50 cm depth is enough
to learn to look differently at the soil. Some points of attention are the colour, the smell, the rooting
and the porosity.
A good soil is evenly coloured, organic material gives it a brown colour. Oxygen-rich soil has a
nice smell. On the contrary, blue or grey spots point to oxygen deficiency, which is often accom-
panied by rotting processes and an unhealthy smell.
Look at the intensity of the rooting, how deep the roots go, whether there are thickened,
cracked or sick roots. Also look at the rooting pattern: sometimes it is superficial, or sometimes
some areas are avoided. Active roots are freshly white, old roots are corky and brown. When
roots are supported by the good mycorrhiza fungi, soil seems to stick to them. The pattern and
the intensity of the rooting is a good measure for the accessibility of the soil.
Porosity refers to the presence of free space between the soil particles for water and air, for
roots and soil fauna. In the upper soil, porosity can be recognised by the occurrence of crumbs,
cracks and small holes.

An important cause of soil degradation is the condensation and sludge by maladjusted mechanisation. Too
much cultivation, or cultivation in excessively wet circumstances, too heavy machines with excessive tyre
pressure also here, it is important to have the necessary skills, know-how, and respect for the soil condi-
tions.

3.1.6 The Tillage of the Soil

Normally, before the start of a new crop, a field is tilled with the purpose to plough the crop rests and
manure, to suppress weed and to aerate the soil. Ploughing is the standard method, and it serves the
purpose very well. However, some disadvantages need to be considered. Ploughing causes a drastic
disturbance of the soil life (by turning the soil). Moreover, a ploughed field is very vulnerable to ero-
sion. The organic material is brought to a deeper layer, where it has no immediate use.

Nowadays, due to the dramatic soil fertility condition of most agricultural fields, there is a growing
interest in no-soil-turning tillage. It aims to aerate the soil structure without drastically disturbing the
soil life, and without bringing the organic material too deep.

This approach asks for an adapted tillage machine, mostly with springy blades that reach deep enough
in the soil to split the soil layers in order to allow oxygen to activate the soil life. Furthermore a cer-
tain adjustment of the soil structure is required to realise a good penetration of the aeration blades.
In other words: a neglected soil will not be easily torn open. It will require a lot of tractive power. A
loose soil, full of soil life, however is easy to till.

An additional problem in a no-soil-turning tillage is the presence of crop rests and weed that remain at
the surface and make the preparation of the soil before sowing more difficult. Herbicides are most of-
ten used as a solution. But it is possible to do without - it only requires a clever management of the
crop rotation and an inventive use of mechanical tools.

Research on no-soil-turning tillage mostly shows a production increase, a better soil aeration and a more
even release of nitrogen in the upper soil. Moreover for soils that are exposed to extreme climate condi-
tions, this creates a necessary buffer against erosion.
 20

3.1.7 Manuring
The purpose of manuring is not solely to procure nutrients to crops, but also to maintain the soil fertil-
ity on the long-term and to increase it where possible. Therefore a cyclical mechanism with cattle is
absolutely necessary. Agriculture without cattle will inevitably undermine sustainable soil fertility. That
is why basic manuring needs to be done with organic animal manure.

Manuring the soil is a basically different vision than fertilising the plants. Sustainability asks for a pre-
dominant manuring of the soil. To manure the soil with organic material, preferably from animal origin,
is to enliven the soil. It is to add humus-like material, in a state of decay, to stimulate the present soil
life.

For the development of its life, the vital vegetal growth really needs this stimulation of life around its
root system. By doing so, the mineralization of the necessary nutrients through the transformation
process can take place: life in the plant is fed through life in the soil.

The contrary view, in its most extreme form, is feeding the plant with chemical compounds under the
form of dead mineral salts (chemical fertilizer), dissolved in water, in a system where plants root in an
artificial substrate, e.g. rockwool. Depending on a well-defined dose, high produces can be obtained,
but the important and often unasked question remains: what about the quality of life of those plants
and fruits? In a very short time such an intensive cultivation system leads to degenerated, infertile and
watery food quality.

In day-to-day agricultural practice, it has been seen that the regular use of chemical fertilizers as
source of manure leads to a watery plant growth and a degradation of soil life.

Taste, storage life and sensitivity to crop diseases are highly determined by the quality of the manure.
Origin, storage and processing of organic material are important keys in the construction of a healthy cy-
clic system.

3.1.8 Compost
It is known that in former times ancient cultures in Asia (India, China, and Japan) were perfectly capa-
ble of feeding large populations with a careful intensive agriculture, embedded in a tradition of thou-
sands of years. Descriptions by western agro-researchers in the beginning of the 1900s9 extensively
mention the prevailing composting process of organic material. City waste too became a valuable good
on the agrarian fields after the composting process.

No matter how different the materials are at the start, or how different the qualities of organic waste,
the rules of composting always remain the same. Although these rules are simple, some insight and
experience is necessary.
The purpose is to arrive at an evenly dark brown, disease-free, sweet-smelling, living humus substance.
Therefore, a carefully mixed starting material and a specific oxygen-rich transformation are needed. The
ratio of leaves, straw, manure, reed, soil, silt, vegetable waste, weeds and all organic material that can
be collected, can be expressed in a ratio of material with a rich carbon percentage (C) and material
with a rich nitrogen percentage (N); this is the C/N ratio.

Depending on the nature and the quality of the starting material, this ratio can vary, but you will al-
ways need a minimal part of nitrogen to be able to transform carbon (e.g. C/N 20/1). It is not immedi-
ately easy to measure, but a farmer can easily see how this ratio works.
The water-retaining capacity of the starting material defines the success of the transformation; in the
case of dry material, water needs to be added.
The mixture has to be airy, and during the composting process, it is better to turn it once to enable the
aerobic bacteria to do their work of decomposition and recomposition.

9
King, F.H., D.Sc.(1911) Farmers of Forty Centuries, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan
 21

Oxygen, humidity level and C/N ratio are the important parameters that need a regular visual control of
the compost heap.

The composting of organic material on a heap can more or less be compared with what happens in the
digesting organ of an animal. It is the transformation of life powers, through the billion-fold activity of
micro-organisms that creates a new balance in life.

Composting is a decomposition process that creates a higher temperature in the heap, followed by a
process of recomposition and the production of new humus. When all conditions for an ideal situation
are fulfilled, it takes minimum two months, and maximum one year. It is preferable to use compost
that is not too old in order to profit from the release of directly available nutrients.

Compost suits cultivation on a smaller scale where the choice has been made for high quality fertilisa-
tion. Agriculture on a larger scale will rather need to rely on crop rotation and green manure to im-
prove the soil fertility.

Compost with a larger volume of carbon elements (such as hay, leaf, wood soil nurturing) will develop a
larger proportion of superior fungi, whereas compost with a larger part of nitrogen elements, e.g. manure
compost (plant nurturing) will be more bacteria dominant. Fruit crops ask for more fungi in the soil life,
green crops ask for more bacterial activity.
 22

3.2 Closing Cycles

Animals close the cycle of materials on the farm. What cattle eat and digest as fodder is partly released
as manure. The manure is given to the field, which can then again produce fodder.

animals

fodder manure

soil

This cycle of materials needs to be permeated by life qualities, as described above, and these create
surplus powers. The manure of animals can for example gain quality through a composting process,
thereby increasing soil fertility and productivity of a field, so that a larger variety of crops can be culti-
vated.
The more attention is given to the cohesion of the life qualities and their mutual interaction and recip-
rocity, the better the cycles can be closed on the farms level. Finally, this will lead to a healthy farm
quality and, in the best case, to specific farm individuality.

family / man

animals
fodder
cereals,
vegetables, manure/compost
fruit
fertility
of soil
Scientific research shows a relation between the quality of bacteria life in the digestive system of a
cow and the quality of bacteria life in the digestive system of the human gastrointestinal tract,
through the long trajectory from cow dung, to field manure, to soil life, to vegetables and grains as
they are finally used to feed mankind.

healthy family /
man healthy
animals

quality fodder,
healthy cereals, good quality manure /
vegetables, fruit good compost

quality
microlife /
fertility of
soil
 23

A second cycle that can be closed on the level of the farm is the seed cycle. The life cycle of a plant
goes successively through the phases of germinating seed, root formation, leaf development, stem,
inflorescence and fruit/seed production.

We mostly only see a restricted development of the plant, depending on what we consider as the crop,
e.g. root, leaf or fruit.
In the endeavour for seed autonomy (see below), we try to breed a certain amount of plants (after se-
lection) into seed production, to maintain farm proper, local varieties. This closes the cycle in the
plant.

3.3 Crop Rotation and Green Manure Crops

A healthy crop grows on a fertile soil. Every plant species deals differently with the soil: it takes more
or less nutrients, it leaves more or less root rests, and it roots intensively deep or only superficial.
Similarly every plant species feeds the soil life in a different way. Change, this is crop rotation, is nec-
essary. The mixed farm will of course offer better possibilities for a broad crop rotation than a strongly
specialised one.

It is important to think seriously about crop rotation because many determining factors are at stake
and have to match on the level of the farm. Different crops require different conditions of the soil,
manure, labour, mechanisation etc.
A broad crop rotation is preventive for a lot of soil diseases, in the first place the nematodes. Not all
nematodes are bad, but the intensive mono-cultures have provoked a real outburst of injurious nema-
tode infection (e.g. Thrichodorus, Pratylenchus), with soil exhaustion as a result. Equally, some fungus
diseases (e.g. Sclerotinia) are suppressed strongly by a broad crop rotation with a big variety of crops.
Crop rotation also can be of great value for weed suppression. By alternating crops that have a great
weed suppressing capacity, the amount of labour for weed-sensitive crops can be sharply reduced.
It is advisable to be attentive to the different aspects of a plant (root, leaf, flower and fruit) when
choosing the crops for a crop rotation plan, in order to avoid a one-sided exhaustion of the soil in its
productive capacity.

As said before, green manure crops are the best way to achieve on a large scale what compost achieves
on a smaller scale. Green manure crops are sown in the period between two main crops, in order to
work them through the soil superficially, or even to leave them on the surface to maintain the soil fer-
tility or to increase it. This means, they are not or only partially harvested. For a targeted fertilising
result, the green manure crops are a very important part of crop rotation.

The advantages are:

supply of organic material
reduction of the washing out of minerals
suppression of weeds
rooting of the soil
reduction of erosion through ground cover
supply of nitrogen (when Leguminosae)

To make use of these advantages, equal care has to be given to the green manure crops as is given to
the main crops. A failed green manure crop for example can produce a lot of weeds.

3.4 Leguminosae
Amongst the green manure crops, the leguminosae are very important because they are able to trans-
form the nitrogen that is abundant in the atmosphere, into a form that can be taken up by the plant.
For this reason, they live in symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Rhizobium bacteria) that live in
 24

the root zone of the leguminosae. This nitrogen fixed in the root nodes will be released for the succes-
sive crop. Clover is a well-known example for a leguminosae green manure.

The provision of nitrogen for a plant - a necessary element for volume and production - can thus hap-
pen in different ways: via the decomposition of humus in the soil, via the decomposition of fresh or-
ganic materials, via chemical mineral nitrogen fertilizers, and via organic nitrogen fixations. This last
method deserves great attention: leguminosae green manure is a healthy and cost effective way to
guarantee the nitrogen provision for a plant. The cost of chemical fertilizers (which are very energy-
consuming in production) is related to the energy price, and will become ever more expensive.

Another important argument to revalidate the leguminosae in agricultural systems is the sound concept
of protein self-sufficiency for man and animal. In these times of globalisation, with its global mass
transports of protein sources (e.g. soya from Brasil) and the related disruptive consequences for the
environment, the revalidation of local protein sources is a must. Beans, peas, lentils, clover, all legumi-
nosae and traditional Indian main crops, contain high percentages of proteins and essential amino ac-
ids. Next to their high nutritional value, these plants also add nitrogen to the soil and help build a
justified soil fertility.

3.5 Conservation Agriculture

Conservation agriculture is an agrarian model that aims to couple a viable agricultural production with
a care for ecological sustainability. It focuses around three main principles:
a minimal disturbance of the soil layers
a permanent ground cover with organic material
a well-thought-out crop rotation with a maximal use of nitrogen-fixing plants

Although conservation agriculture is possible in all climate zones of our planet, the best use is in tropi-
cal and subtropical areas.
From these simple principles, a concept can be developed that is adapted for every agro-ecological re-
gion, for every size of farm and for every type of farming (manual, small scale or mechanised). More-
over, the traditional, local know-how can be integrated flawlessly in this concept.

Conservation agriculture has been adopted globally with success on ca. 100 million hectare, mostly in
North-, South-America and Australia, but also more and more in Asia and Africa. Conservation agricul-
ture connects miraculously with century-old traditional agricultural methods although it is a new con-
cept, developed from a scientifically grounded agrarian experience and based on the conclusion that we
have long-time committed a very wrong exhaustive agriculture with all its related dire consequences.
The wisdom with which India until recently has managed its natural resources in an intelligent agrarian
system that has proved its sustainability during centuries, reappears prominently in the picture.
Lets study attentively the three main principles on which conservation agriculture is based, because
they contain in their cohesion an important key for the revalidation of soil fertility.

3.5.1 Minimal Disturbance of the Soil Layers

We have already encountered the importance of a healthy soil life and a good soil structure for the
healthy life of a crop. The role of tillage, or the absence of tillage, is strongly dependent on a complex
of choices that the farmer makes regarding the relation of the soil with the successive crops.

In the concept of conservation agriculture, some people advocate the absolute absence of any tillage,
from the certainty that soil life itself, e.g. earthworms, is the most efficient tiller. Others do a minimal,
non-turning tillage, with respect for the existing soil layers. In any case, minimal disturbance enhances
the soil quality, produces more soil life, a better water infiltration and water transport, there is less
washing out of minerals and a reduction of erosion through wind and water. These are all advantages
 25

that are very welcome, especially in the southern hemisphere of our planet.
To avoid tillage (almost) completely, is less evident than is often presented. It requires an overall
smarter management of crop choice, green manure, crop rests, weed control and adapted mechanisa-
tion for sowing and crop handling.

A deeper tillage can be necessary for one time to loosen up very disturbed, sludged soils (e.g. because
of a former use of heavy harvesting machines), but after the switch to no-tillage the plant roots have
to take over this function. Plant roots create small canals in the soil and grow in existing canals of
former roots or wormholes. When the roots die and are consumed, the branched system of canals re-
mains with a descending and ascending capillarity capacity for water and soil respiration. The better
and the deeper a soil is rooted, the better it is able to resist condensing and soaking.
This means that tillage can evolve to a less deep and a less drastic (no-soil-turning) method, and prove
to be enough to prepare a planting or sowing bed.

For this purpose, the search is mostly for a mechanisation that reduces the weeds and the crop rests
sufficiently on a shallow level, and to cut them in an even depth to prevent new growth in order to
make a successive sowing or planting possible. It is a search for combination tools with chisels or
broader blades, followed by crumbling rolls. Another option is to adapt the sowing or planting ma-
chines to a soil with non-composted crop rests or to a covered soil.

The non-tillage of the soil also has consequences for the presence of weeds and for weed control. Tap
root weeds are and remain difficult weeds, but are not more present in conservation agriculture than in
other systems. They are cut less and dragged away less, resulting in less multiplication. Because of the
continuous concurrence with other plants, there is less opportunity for development. Seed weeds ger-
minate less abundantly with less or no tillage, on condition that they are controlled enough and hin-
dered to produce seeds. The use of herbicides often occurs here herbicides even seem to be a neces-
sary component of no-tillage. However, this needs not to be so, on condition that the crop concept is
intelligently built and controls all the elements of the crops.

3.5.2 Permanent Soil Cover with Organic Material

Throughout the centuries and in most countries of the world, tillage is culturally self-evident. Equally,
an agrarian field is synonymous with a ploughed plot. In this regard, it will require a major change in
attitude of the farmer to drop tillage (completely or mostly) and to provide a permanent cover for the
soil.

Conservation agriculture aims to yearly conserve and distribute crop rests, with added soil-covering
crops, in function of the soil fertility. This is in sharp contrast to cultivation systems that burn crop
rests systematically (the most reprehensible waste of time and valuable material), remove it or plough
it under.

Important advantages of soil cover:

It protects the soil and the soil life, resulting in an increase of porosity and water retaining ca-
pacity and in a reduction of the sensitivity to erosion through water and wind.
It increases the percentage of organic material in the soil and improves the structure and the
soil fertility.
It makes better use of the nutrients (especially N); because they are not allowed to wash away
(leaching) and consequently they remain available for the successive crop.
It is a buffer against weeds and soil diseases.

Important points of attention for soil cover:

It needs a higher level of management and know-how.
A good balance between produce (fodder quality, fruits, oil containing seed, etc.) and organic
crop rests has to be attained to the benefit of the soil.
 26

Enough time needs to be given for surface-composting of the crop rest, without taking too much
N from the soil
The right choice of crops, sowing and harvesting time, and their managed succession has to be
achieved in order to have continuous crop rotation combined with a permanent soil cover.
Use of adapted mechanisation or means that enable reduction of organic crop rests so that they
can remain on the soil (e.g. a knife-roller), and adapted sowing and planting machines that can
remove and replace the soil cover after sowing or planting.

3.5.3 In practice
No-tillage and permanent soil cover require a shift in the way farmers think and plan. Nevertheless,
nobody but the farmer is better placed to invent closing systems and to tap from the regional agricul-
tural traditions that often implement this concept to a high degree. In all regions of India, there is a
wealth of experience and wisdom in combination crops, with a multitude of crops and a multiple series
of possibilities for an intelligent composition of soil fertility.
The following theoretical model might aid a re-thinking process in function of a new paradigm shift in
crop rotation and soil cover.

The design below shows the cultivation of a commercial crop, sowed after the monsoon and provided
with directly available feeding salts (chemical fertilizer). Assuming the soil had a low percentage of
organic material (this is more and more the case in a lot of agrarian fields worldwide), there will un-
doubtedly be a major washing out of the provided fertilizers and moreover a weak (weakly rooting)
crop. After the harvest, increasing drought might prevent a successive crop resulting in additional loss
of nutrients on the bare field, open to erosion.

The upper design takes the opposite point of view. We first invest in soil fertility, add compost or or-
ganic manure, and then sow a deep rooting green manure crop that loosens the soil deeply via its root
mass. Also the green mass on the mow field can be abundant. When the crop has reached its optimal
biomass, it is laid down, preferably cut into small pieces, and we sow or plant without tillage the com-
mercial crop. The soil cover prevents the drying out of the soil and the still present root mass is the
 27

system with uncountable capillary canals for water transport from the groundwater level. As such, a
good use of the nutrients in the soil life remains possible and the soil is covered the whole year round.
Again, this is a theoretical model, as an incentive to be refined in the practice of a region or a farm,
but it may create new opportunities.

3.5.4 Intelligent Crop Rotation with a Maximum Use of Nitrogen

Fixing Plants

Classical cultivation systems give a maximum attention to chemical and mechanical control of weeds
and diseases. In conservation agriculture systems, the presence of weeds and diseases is maximally
reduced thanks to a preventive planning. Crop rotation, choice of crops, ecology in the farm, organic
matter percentage in the soil, these are all constructive elements to prevent problems later.
Diverse crop rotation is an important key to a good farm management.

Different crops show different attitudes towards the soil. In a shift towards conservation agriculture, it
seems important to integrate, above all, enough grasses and grains in the crop rotation plan. Through
their deep rooting potential, grasses and grains open up the soil well and at the same time, provide a
lot of biomass above the ground, which goes through a slow composting process thereby guaranteeing
long-term soil cover. When we succeed in increasing the soil fertility, the leguminosae can be called in.
They enrich the soil with the necessary nitrogen, so that the crop above ground can be easily handled.
Thus, all conditions are fulfilled to start a successful series of commercial crops, ensuring - in alterna-
tion with green manure crops and soil cover - a permanent and healthy crop rotation.

This way of working might seem a luxurious approach for resource-poor farmers, who struggle in their
survival for enough food for the family and for minimal surplus for health and education. However, this
should be weighed against the fact that building the capital of soil fertility guarantees a harvest and a
future, and is also very cost reducing (zero-budget farming). On the contrary, every form of exhaustive
agriculture (nutrient mining) works as a hangmans rope that closes slowly around the neck of the
farmer.
 28

4. Further Considerations and Choices

to Be Made
4.1 Autonomy and Seed Selection
If conservation agriculture wants to live up to its name, seed autonomy has to be a priority. Conserva-
tion and propagation is the law of the seed. Whoever can close the cycle within the plant shall receive
seed in abundance. Seed leads to seed in an eternal cycle.

In traditional agrarian systems, where there was no use of chemical fertilizers and herbicides or pesti-
cides, the farmers varieties were robust: resistant against drought, cold, diseases and pests. In almost
all natural circumstances, produce was guaranteed. Although the yields of these farmers varieties may
have been low, they were well adapted to the local situation and the farms environment.

The system of interactions between organisms and their environment is called an ecosystem. Agrarian
ecosystems that have organically evolved in their natural habitat and are based on closed cycles are
almost as stable as non-disturbed, natural ecosystems. In an ideal situation, the biodiversity will con-
tinuously increase, the cycles are closed and the whole system has a high buffer-capacity and stability.
The system becomes to a high degree self-regulating.

Within the context of an agrarian ecosystem, varieties can adapt to climate, soil, and the farms indi-
viduality. Whenever the farmer selects the best plants of a crop as the seed bearers for the next crop,
he takes care of his future profit. A farmer who produces his own seed has a large degree of autonomy
and he works purposely for the improvement of his future harvest. Thousands of years of practice have
lead to a great agrarian biodiversity in crops and varieties, adapted at the local environment of the
farm. Every little seed bears the creativity of evolution and the capacity to adapt. Biodiversity is the
proof of this adaptive capacity to the ever-changing environmental circumstances.

If our awareness of this is high enough, the attention and creativity of the farmer to breed and main-
tain his own seed in his own local varieties becomes self-evident. The challenge is to develop the
craftsmanship to direct a plant in a breeding selection process. The starting point for this is to look at
the plant in its totality and integrity.

4.2 The Impact of Technology on Seed Selection

A good agrarian method requires varieties with a broad resistance to diseases and pests, which need
relatively little manuring and water, and which have the capacity to connect intensively with the soil
through the rooting system. We call these robust varieties. These specific faculties are obtained
through conscious and attentive plant selection this was often embedded in the tradition of an agrar-
ian ecosystem. It has always been a long process, mostly in the hands of farmers and market gardeners.
Mass selection was the chosen method most of the time this is the selection of the best samples,
with visibly the best qualities, taken from a stock as large as possible. For example, you choose the
nicest carrots from the field to breed via seed formation.

Another much-used method was crossbreeding of new qualities, after which the best offspring was se-
lected and propagated. This process could easily take ten years to come to a projected result.
During the last decades, a real revolution has taken place in the plant selection process, mostly with
the aim to accelerate the process. In this, the selection has been detached from the production on the
field and the knowledge of selective breeding has become a scientific branch on its own: a technique
and then a technology that exceeds by far the knowledge of the farmer.

Whereas previously there was always an interaction between the plant and its environment, focalised
on the plant itself, the modern selective breeding has shifted its workspace to the level of the cell or
the vegetal tissue, and eventually to the level of its DNA. This implies that selective breeding becomes
 29

an industrial process that happens mostly in a laboratory without any participation of the farmer and
his field. Modern selective breeding has moved from the farmer, via the government and private seed
companies to the chemical industry. Selective breeding is now a very capital-intensive, technological
process.

The turning point from traditional, soil bound breeding to the modern technological revolution was the
development of the F1-hybrids. Hybrids are the result of the crossbreeding of two lines with specific,
well-known faculties. These faculties are known through a process of inbreeding of many generations
resulting in a simplification of the genotype. The disadvantage of this technique is the narrowed ge-
netic base to work with. However, the varieties (F1) that result from this selection technique show a
higher and quicker production, and, even more importantly, a greater uniformity of the crop. An addi-
tional, commercially very important, element for the breeder is the fact that the hybrid seed is a kind
of dead end: it is not possible for a farmer to continue with the seed, and he is obliged to buy new
seed every year from the industry.

Hybridisation caused two major shifts in selective breeding. Firstly the shift from selective breeding at
the level of the plant in its interaction with the local production circumstances, to an isolated environ-
ment enabling the technique of inbreeding. To force inbreeding, chemical or electric stimuli are also
used.

Secondly it caused a shift of the farmers seed autonomy to a dependency on industrial and commercial
seed interests. The scientific broadening of the knowledge on cell content and DNA has shifted the
impact of technology on plant selection towards the level of cell and DNA: in vitro fertilisation, mer-
isteem culture (this is a kind of gemmation) and genetic manipulation (the insertion in plants of ge-
netic constructions with foreign genetic material) as the supreme triumph of so-called scientific suc-
cess. The discussion on the desirability of the plant breeding technology can be very long, with pros
and contras. But lets take the ethical test: how far do we want to go in our interference with life?

In this text, we have assumed that agriculture works with living processes, situated broadly in between
the lower side of the root zone of a plant and the upper limit of the timberline. We have assumed that
this zone contains an immense variation of life forms (biodiversity), constituting an inextricable unity
(ecosystem), and that agriculture can only function in a healthy way if it relates to this area of life.
Regarding plant selection, the question has to be asked of what we consider to be the lowest unity of
organised life: when do we maintain the cohesion or balance with the environment and when do we
disrupt it? The answers to these questions could be the norm for justified plant selection. And would it
be possible in this context to give a place to the nature and dignity of a plant?

Wherever we draw the line of what is acceptable in plant selection and what is not, it will always be of
the greatest importance that the conservation and the breeding, and thus the slow plant selection in
the hands of the farmer, holds a place. Or at least, that the know-how of the plant breeder is tested
with the experience of the farmer and vice versa. The sensitivity of a plant to absorb the environmental
factors, in a broad genetic variation, will always have to be at the basis of every plant selection. Our
worldwide agrarian biodiversity does not belong in the freezer of a gene bank, but in the living context
of an agrarian culture, with daily attention and intelligent care.

4.3 Genetic Manipulation

From an ever increasing knowledge about the DNA structure, gene technology wants to isolate and ana-
lyse hereditary particles. The assumption is that DNA controls and determines all living processes.
Genes are important links in these processes.

Genetic manipulation is considered by the larger part of the scientific world as a constructive deed,
e.g. to insert a gene of organism A in the DNA of organism B with the aim to cause a change of facul-
ties, e.g. resistance. But, the working and functioning of a gene can change when it is inserted in an-
 30

other organism. It causes a shift in the bigger context of the organism, because the inserted, isolated,
strange faculty interacts with the surrounding genes and this will always result in a greater element of
unpredictability. Successes are often lucky hits.

The actual successes in the field of genetic manipulation in agrarian crops (soya, corn, rape seed) origi-
nate more often from a pact between gene technology and big business. It is often all about resis-
tance against herbicides (e.g. Round-Up), for the sake of the seed commerce as well as of the herbicide
commerce.

Lets skip the reprehensible argument that gene technology is at the service of the world population to
help in the battle against hunger. How real is the thought that living organisms are determined by the
genes, and that the knowledge about these genes will allow us to understand life? Of course, genes
play an important role, but we want to know which role. There are other cohesions and systems that
have an influence, that determine whether genes are active or not, but modern scientific knowledge
has mostly not taken these elements into account. However, many new insights keep emerging in this
field.

4.4 Beyond Genetic Manipulation

In cell biology nowadays, scientists invert the dominant paradigm that genes control the living proc-
esses. It is the living processes that determine the genes so that we can exchange the victims role of
life to that of an active, determining part. How realistic is the thought that living processes can be
manipulated, that diseases in plants have to be cured by gene restitution, and that plants need to be
made resistant against threatening environmental factors via insertion of strange genes?

Only a holistic approach makes sense, in which the total concept of the plant is considered in relation
to its environment. This vision allows us to work in a sustainable and creative way with lifes qualities,
from the autonomy of an intelligent management of the living processes.
Autonomy and manipulation are antipodes here. Autonomy is the preservation of inviolable rights; ma-
nipulation is the appropriation of rights you do not dispose of. It is the task of the government to pro-
tect every rightful endeavour for autonomy against every form of manipulation.

India is a free market and a test field for the interests of the gene technology. The socio-economic
consequences of the experiments with genetic manipulated varieties of cotton, rice, egg-plants, soya
etc. have often been disastrous. If India wants to safeguard the interests of its splendid population, it
has to choose unconditionally for plant selection techniques that respect the integrity of the living
organisms. Next to tradition, this offers a still uncultivated potential of knowledge and a scale of new
possibilities for the future.

4.5 Technique and Mechanisation

Plant selection always has been intimately connected with agriculture, and the same goes for technique
and mechanisation. Technique can do great things in agriculture, and it is today impossible to think
about agriculture without technique. However, there is a point, as it was with plant selection, where
technique does not serve the well-being of the farm anymore, but on the contrary, where the farm has
to adapt itself to the technique. Just like plant selection can deteriorate to test-tube plants in a sterile
lab, farms sometimes become sterile industrial places that give the impression that all life has drained
out of them.

The question is what kind of technique we have to apply in what kind of circumstances to get a fertile
agriculture. Technique and mechanisation also need the attention of mankind. And this immediately
determines its limits. Both the consequences for life coherence and for personal relations to it are im-
portant.
 31

To be able to judge the effect of technique on life coherence, we have to understand it. We will only be
able to work very well with a machine for sowing, mowing and harvesting if we are able to direct and
adapt its functions, because we always work on qualitative cohesions.
When mechanisation liberates man from the heavy work, time and power are won. When this causes job
satisfaction and a better personal relation with the soil, manure, feeding of the animals, seed etc.,
technique is justified. Technique and mechanisation have to be developed on a defendable scale and
have to be ecologically justified.

In this context, the revalidation of animal traction in agriculture is an interesting new development.
After the unstoppable development of the tractor as source of power, it is sometimes advisable to look
back at more simple and traditional systems in order to advance. Considerations regarding the energy
cost (the price of oil), the right scale of a farm in relation to the investments in mechanisation, the
effect of traction power on the soil structure, etc. can lead to a decision that animal traction in combi-
nation with technical innovation of the corresponding machines would be a better option than the pur-
chase of a tractor.

4.6 Biodiversity and Agroforestry

Biodiversity encloses all the communities and ecosystems on earth. The word biodiversity is an expres-
sion of the limitless variation of genes in living organisms. And just as each human being has a unique
appearance, we profit most from an as-large-as-possible variety in life forms to fulfil our basic needs of
breathing, eating, drinking, and dwelling.

Agriculture can greatly help to preserve the biodiversity when it chooses a limitless variety of agrarian
systems, based on the unique combinations of a multitude of plants and animals with a genetic poten-
tial that is as large as possible. In this context, we speak about functional agro-biodiversity. The start-
ing point is an intense relation of collaboration between soil, plant and animal, as the basis of a sus-
tainable agriculture. For example, the pollination by bees, soil aeration by earthworms, soil sanitation
by micro-organisms. If all these useful natural functions are integrated in an intelligent way in agricul-
tural systems, we acquire more stability and robustness in the system.

For example, an as-large-as-possible variation of crops allows the development of a system of mul-
ticropping. The conscious mixture of crops that complete and support each other works as a buffer
against the changing climate conditions, the epidemic development of diseases and pests and guaran-
tees a minimal harvest. This is important in the survival strategy which is the daily situation for many
farmers. The limitless, local, traditional know-how is instrumental here, but also new insights can be
integrated. India has a wealth of experience with all kinds of combinations of plants and animals, inte-
grated in the jungle landscape. The choice for biodiversity makes biotechnology superfluous.

Agriculture cannot be isolated from its natural habitat. Landscape, forest, nature should be allies,
rather than enemies. Because of the global issue of climate change, CO2 emissions and energy, there is
renewed interest in the introduction of trees in agriculture: agroforestry. It is about the combination of
the useful effects of both agriculture and forestry. The one does not stand in the way of the other, on
condition that the trees are broadly planted in rows, and that the right varieties are planted.

The introduction of trees in agrarian systems could in some aspects be more effective in sorting than a
forest on its own, because there is the mutual enforcement of the useful effects:
the root system of trees contributes to the repair of soil fertility and improves the water man-
agement in a dry and hot climate
the seasonable fall of the leaves enhances the organic matter percentage
trees limit the soil temperature, and thus the decomposition of humus and soil life
trees are as mineral pumps, bringing minerals from deeper soil layers to the surface
trees prevent soil erosion
 32

trees produce fruit, nuts or oily seed

trees produce twigs that can be used as fodder or ground cover for stables
trees contribute to the biodiversity
trees produce fire wood (ever more expensive because of the shortage)
trees form a buffer against the effects of climate change
some trees are very useful suppliers of medicines which is still very important for the poorer
population
planted as a hedge, trees keep cattle out of the fields

In the actual situation of agroforestry, the distance between the rows of trees is chosen in function of
the drought. The aim is to achieve an as-large-as-possible diversity in species and varieties. To limit
the competition with the crop, the trees are trimmed in the height, and the roots are cut. Choosing for
enough leguminosae (up to 50%) due to the N-fixation, adds to the N-supply in the soil and if used as
fodder, it adds proteins.

The concept of agroforestry almost does not exist in the industrial agriculture, but it is getting more
attention thanks to some new needs. In the search of alternative sources of energy, the woody shrubs
get a new value as replacement for oil, e.g. as wooden pellets for heating systems. But also because of
the appalling shortage of good soil fungi in the western orientated agriculture, wood is taken again as
a supplier of cellulose, e.g. shredded wood in compost, to develop useful soil fungi.

In tropical and subtropical zones agroforestry, in combination with conservation agriculture, is a must.
These two models offer all necessary elements for a sustainable development of the countryside. These
seemingly new concepts are not much more than a return to centuries-old traditional agrarian systems.
With this difference that by now we have seen and learned the hard way that a one-sided technological
agriculture can destroy much life in a very little lapse of time. In accepting this, we can wiser and
renewed embrace the traditional agrarian systems and develop them further.

4.7 The New Peasantries

Peasants (small farmers) represent 2/5 of the global population10. Moreover, small scale agrarian sys-
tems provide ca. 85% of the world food production with a short chain in selling and consumption11. The
peasant is thus an integral part of our time and our society. From his own essence, he is the guardian
of Nature. As no other, he is able to collaborate with the natural sources that are given to him (co-
production). He is an essential link in guaranteeing food integrity, agrarian development and Natures
dynamics. The farmers craftsmanship is not a standardised skill, but it shows in the most heterogene-
ous forms and styles. It is continuously animated by a pursuit of autonomy and freedom, coupled with
a great input of labour and means.

The driving forces of a small farmer are situated more in the fulfilment of well-being, in having a beau-
tiful farm, in seeing valuable manure or noble cattle, than in the maximum profit of the invested labour
or capital, because from a pure economical viewpoint, it is a grossly underpaid job.

Poverty or wealth are relative notions for a farmer who heavily depends on the cultural context. Here
we are talking about the flexible and autonomous farmer who is able to give the sources of Nature
(soil, water, air) an optimal surplus value in an unbroken process of growth and production.
A society with an eye for food security, a viable countryside and a high degree of employment, should
in the best case invest in the size and the quality of its agrarian classes.
It might sound illogical but many of the strategies of society worldwide and the consequences of the
liberal market economics and globalisation are factors that force the peasant in a straitjacket of de-
pendency, marginality and loss of freedom.

10
Weis, T. (2007) The Global Food Economy: The Battle for the Future of Farming, Zed Books, London, UK
11
European Commission, G5 (2006) Agricultural Trade Policy Analysis: Agricultural Commodity Markets, Brussels, Belgium
 33

In his book The New Peasantries, the Dutch sociologist Van der Ploeg12 shows brilliantly that in our
time of market liberalisation (Empire) and governmental regulations, the agrarian classes are so threat-
ened in their economic survival, and are almost completely stripped from any appreciation and respect,
that their only way out seems to be to turn back to their intrinsic values and to develop an opposition
in order to claim their autonomy again. This is a unique opportunity and a potential that we have sel-
dom experienced in history. It is an evolution that permeates all parts of the agrarian classes, every-
where in the world. Farmers often have no other choice than to farm. Their migration to cities is no
solution, on the contrary. That is why it is better to re-source agriculture and to adapt it to the real
needs of our time. Sustainability, soil fertility, biodiversity, multi-functionality and inspiration are the
new key notions to enable the farmer in his newly gained autonomy to receive spontaneously respect
and economic appreciation.

Also the FAO, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN, appreciates more and more the small
scale agrarian models that couple sustainability and food security to environmental care and social vi-
ability of the countryside.
In addition, an intelligent and caring management of the natural sources of life always results in abun-
dance.

12
Van der Ploeg, Jan Douwe (2008) The New Peasantries, Struggles for Autonomy and Sustainability in an Era of Empire and
Globalization, Earthscan, London, UK
 34

5. Case study The Lost Gardens of

Khajuraho
5.1 The setting
Since 1984 on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Khajuraho has become world famous as a temple city,
with some of the most beautiful temples of all India. It is a unique place, dating back some thousand
years to the time of the Chandela dynasty. For our understanding, it remains a mystery how so many
majestic buildings have been erected in such a relatively short period. But mostly, what kind of culture,
population and agrarian system must have existed to be able to feed the masses that build such an
enormous city of temples?13

In 1998, INTACH (the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, see: www.intach.org) pub-
lished an elaborate study on the whole of the Khajuraho region: Conservation and Sustainable Develop-
ment Strategy for the Khajuraho Heritage Region14.
This report was the first of its kind in India, because of the all encompassing and holistic view on the
sustainable future development of the present community in Khajuraho and its region, starting from
the rich heritage of the past.

This vision, based on the solid

research of an expert team,
headed by INTACH, was to be the
guideline for any further develop-
ment of the Khajuraho region.
But nowadays, we too often see
that immediate gain, provoked by
a growing tourist business, is the
impulse of a development that
causes an uncontrolled growth of
hotels, houses and defective in-
frastructure. In such a situation,
the texture of a valuable society
disintegrates due to a lack of
development possibilities for the
local population. The building
stones should be: education,
food, water, agriculture, crafts
and the (social) role of men and
women.

At the initiative of a Belgian art historian, Geert Robberechts, a Belgian INTACH Chapter was founded
in 2004 in order to support one specific, very interesting discovery of the 1998 INTACH Report. Indeed,
this report mentions the existence of several fruit and vegetable gardens in and around Rajnagar, that
where founded in the 18th CY by the royal Chhattarpur family. INTACH Belgium wanted to contribute to
the documentation and the research on the history and importance of these Lost Gardens of Khaju-
raho, and if possible to restore this splendid but neglected heritage.

These gardens could also become a tourist attraction, and thanks to a soundly constructed ecological
and sustainable vision, they could bring about a surplus in the employment of the local population.
It quickly became clear that next to the art historical value of these heritage gardens, the agrarian
value also had to be taken into account, all the more because the increasing drought situation in the
Khajuraho region threatens the survival of agriculture altogether. Not only in the exhausted gardens,
but everywhere around them the impoverished agrarian Khajuraho region is in great need. This is why

13
Punja, Shobita (1999) Khajuraho, The First Thousand Years, Viking
14
Khajuraho Planning Team (1998), Conservation and Sustainable Development Strategy for the Khajuraho Heritage Region,
New Delhi
 35

the development of the Lost Gardens cannot be detached from the regional, but also from the world-
wide developments in agriculture.

My personal contribution started in 2005, closely related with the INTACH Belgium project. Since then,
I have been travelling every year for some weeks to Khajuraho, to get to know the local agriculture and
culture with an open mind.

5.2 Model of Society

India, with its population of 1,16 billion souls is a growing global market. The growth of the GDP
reached a record height of 9,6 % in 2007. Worldwide only China hits higher.
The largest part of this growth comes from the industry and the tertiary sector. In contrast, agriculture,
mining and the public sector lose some terrain. These are the one-sided, sober facts from The Indian
Times of Saturday February 2nd 2008, the newspaper I found on a table in the reception hall of Hotel
Zen in Khajuraho, where I was staying at that time. I suppose we can grant some credibility to this
paper, but not necessarily a deeper critical reflection. And indeed, the article did not contain more
than the application of a calculation matrix of a liberal global economy.
But India would not be India, if one could not find some spiritual quotes in between the business news
for us westerners an unknown combination.

My eye was caught by a splendid quote of Benjamin Franklin, the American politician, scientist and
moralist.
There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth.
The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbours. This is robbery.
The second is by commerce, which is generally cheating.
The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed
thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favour,
as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.

These words might sound a bit archaic, but I am deeply touched, not only because of the contrast with
the down-to-earth growth facts of the GDP, but mostly because of the contrast with the poignant ex-
periences around me in the streets of Khajuraho. Because I see that all my friends-farmers are now sell-
ing post cards, small statues and other trifle souvenirs to the tourist mob, while their land lies drearily
impoverished and barren. Where has the richness and honest abundance of agriculture gone, and why
does the farmer have to lower himself to the level of a street swindler?

The critical world news testifies that every day more than 350 million people in India go to bed with an
empty stomach. Strangely enough, the larger part of this group are farmers. In the last 10 years, some
150.000 farmers have committed suicide. There is a real exodus of youngsters from the agrarian coun-
tryside to the cities. Large parts of India struggle with gigantic environmental problems (drought, de-
sertification, loss of produce) and social problems with the farmers (debt burden, dependency).

5.3 Good Soil

I arrived for the first time in India, in January 2006. I wanted to contribute actively to the project of
The Lost Gardens of Khajuraho. In my bags I carried more than 30 years of experience as a vegetable
farmer. I was acquainted with the daily struggle a farmer had to fight with hundreds of risk factors, and
I had learned to invent creative solutions on the level of my farm. But I had also developed an eye for
the vulnerable position of the farmer in the broader context of globalisation and liberalisation.
First and foremost I wanted to know how the farmers on the other side of the world worked technically.
What did they grow? How and when? With what tools and machines did they work? How did they live
and eat? How did they survive?
 36

I discovered quickly that the basic principles of agriculture are the same all over the world. There is soil
structure, manure, plant varieties, cattle, and of course the unique mixture of all this gives a very
recognisable agrarian model. Only the seasons might be a bit different.

In the Khajuraho Region and almost everywhere in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh agriculture
is still principally based on a traditional, conservative model. Although hard to find, there were still
oases of abundance in agrarian culture, replenished by the rich insights of tradition. On the other
hand, the monocultures of the western model prevailed, fed by a small addition of chemical fertilizers,
but without a lot of technical mechanisation. The soil was predominantly lime, with a fraction of sand,
and a well root-able depth. The soil structure was still virgin, untouched by mechanisation and chemi-
cals, and with a surprising potential of fertility. This was a major advantage in a shift towards sustain-
able agriculture. But the percentages of organic matter and manure were alarmingly low. My visual
judgement was confirmed later with technical-scientific soil analyses of some soil samples of the agrar-
ian fields.

These analyses showed an average of C percentages lower than 1%, a rather high pH-percentage (KCL
7,2-7,6) and very low calcium percentages, resulting from a disturbed Ca/Mg balance. This was probably
caused by a history of one-sided fertilising without enough attention for the necessary soil life and
humus supply.
Elementary tools and mechanisation were almost completely lacking; human labour dominated every-
where. Agriculture was the social glue between the generations. The fields were the gathering places
for men, women in colourful saris, children and elderly people.

The question arises of how long such a traditional agrarian model can survive the effects of globalisa-
tion, with its artificial fertilizers and chemicals, its technological seed selection, its competition and
low prices on the world market. Like everywhere else, the ones who lag behind will be excluded, and it
remains to be seen if the ones who modernise will have a better situation.
The challenge is: how can we develop impulses to protect regional agriculture in a sustainable way and
how can we make it less dependent on global infectious developments?

5.4 Water, Water, Water

During my stay in January
2007, I was confronted with
an appalling shortage of wa-
ter, a consequence of the
failing monsoon rains during
the last two years. Every-
where, I saw dry river beds,
empty wells, and of course a
withered and barren land-
scape. My conversations with
the elderly people confirmed
each time that this extreme
drought had never happened
before. The landscape of the
temples in Khajuraho, on the
contrary, has a historical large
water storage capacity of
lakes, artificial ponds and
wells that guarantee enough
water from the yearly monsoon rains in July and August to support a complete years agrarian activity.
 37

The apathy of the local population towards this absence of monsoon rains, was also striking: they con-
sidered it a matter of the gods and karma, and they reconciled themselves to the facts.

A rough estimation of the agrarian area still in use showed a reduction to 20% after one year of
drought. Farmers were barely capable of sowing their withered fields with the (for this season) main
crop of wheat and mustard. A broad, daring analysis of the drought problem imposed itself with three
main themes: deforestation, organic matter percentage of the soil, and stray cattle.

Large parts of India have been ripped of their green cover, firstly under British colonisation, but even
more afterwards. Here and there, the natural jungle landscape has been completely destructed.
In this process of deforestation, agriculture has evolved from a model in symbiosis with a diversified
forest landscape, to a more extensive, larger-scale model with a loss of biodiversity of crops, varieties
and breed. In the tropic and sub-tropic areas of the world, the organic matter in the soil decomposes
quicker than it composes, unless the farmer pays utmost attention to it in his cultivation process. Sadly
enough, this happens far too little, and many soils lose year after year their buffering capacity for the
soils fertility. Sooner or later, withering and desertification reach the point of no return and the land-
scape loses its self-regenerating qualities. Stray cattle, quite common in India, are no problem in itself
in case there is enough landscape, but it becomes a serious problem in a situation of desertification. In
effect it gives the landscape its final blow: the stray cattle grazes immediately even the smallest blade
of grass, the smallest germinating sapling; and the few remaining trees have their fresh twigs chewed
off.

A supplementary problem is that the free-running cattle prey more and more on the remaining fields,
so that the farmers need to stay outside during the night to protect their crops. Another problem is
that cows, goats and pigs fodder more and more on carton and plastic for want of better alternatives.
Desertification and water shortage are global problems. More than a hundred countries and two billion
people are confronted with desertification15. Large parts of Africa and Latin-America are so dried out
that the people migrate to other continents or from the countryside to the city because their land is no
longer productive.

A landscape cannot be detached from what happens under the ground with the groundwater level, and
above the ground with the clouds and the rain. We have to learn to see this as a whole. NASA satellite
images show that the groundwater level in India lowers dramatically16. But this water level is no flat
puddle of water: it raises and lowers in relation with what happens above the ground. In the same way,
rain develops (or not) above a greenish and fertile (or barren) landscape.

15
MO*, Mondiaal nieuws, 21/09/2009
16
MO*, Mondiaal nieuws, 14/08/2009
 38

Of course this finding is no fixed, eternal rule: it can rain above the desert as well. But it contains
enough truth to work with. In Brazil, due to the deforestation of the rainforests (mark the word!) for
the sake of the culture of soya, gigantic regions are turned into useless land because of drought.
The introduction of this analysis in the mind of a population that has never thought about this before
is no less than a revolution. The number of people that hear this message might still be small, it marks
however the birth of a completely new idea and vision in a community that lives in an ecologically pre-
carious situation without being fully aware of it.

5.5 Kushawaha Caste

While I was drawing these conclusions, I made some splendid discoveries. In scouting the broader
Chhattarpur District, I had found examples of farmers, mostly from the Kushawaha caste, who still grew
crops in combination with landscape management. Green oases, shadowing trees, biodiversity, rich
fauna and flora and full, shallow wells! A pleasure for the eye, but also a blessing for men and na-
ture, and a promising proof that a different approach is possible.

In such oases, there is still a treasure of traditional knowledge present. There is seed autonomy for
some crops, a sound activity and happy family life. At the same time there also exists an encroaching
influence of artificial fertilizers, chemicals, hybrid seed, loss of organic material and a lack of crop ro-
tation. An exchange of information and insights is needed, in order to preserve these gems of tradi-
tion, and to have them flourish so that they can become the building stones of the preservation of the
future.

5.6 Agroforestry
In establishing a strategy for the sustainable development of the Khajuraho Region, the 1998 INTACH
report defined reforestation as one of the first objectives. INTACH Belgium has been very instrumental
in starting a nursery for indigenous trees in Pateriya ka Bagh, one of The Lost Gardens. With the in-
put of local know how, the conscious choice has been made to raise local tree varieties, with the aim
to make them available for planting out in the streets and lanes of the village; a team of local labour-
ers, paid by INTACH Belgium, water these trees regularly and protect them against the gluttony of stray
cattle.
 39

Because of the global problems of climate change and CO2 emission, there is a growing interest for the
introduction of trees in agriculture, the so-called agroforestry. Apart from the specific characteristics of
a forest on it own, the combined action of trees and agriculture can have a significant effect on sort-
ing, as there is a mutual enforcement of benefits: shadowing, root activity, erosion prevention, water
management, humus production (fallen leaves), produce of fruits, nuts, seed, fire wood, twigs as fod-
der, etc.

5.7 Compost and Tools

The technique of composting of organic material has been introduced 100 years ago in Europe from
India, by Albert Howard17. This British agrarian scientist, working in India, gave a description of the
ingenious agricultural systems of India. It marked the first beginning of organic farming in Europe at a
time that also chemical fertilizers where introduced.

Nowadays, this knowledge of com-

posting has been lost for the
greater part in India. The re-
introduction in Khajuraho by us,
westerners, has been accepted
gratefully, also because compost-
ing is a textbook example of the
cyclic thought that is inherent in
all Indian philosophy.
It has been a real pleasure to col-
lect with the farmers all useful
organic waste on their farm, to
set up a valuable composting
heap, and to show the decompost-
ing and composting process, be-
cause in this climate zone this
process starts already after two
days with a strong brooding in the
heap.

Once at work, the total lack of

tools to help innovation shows in
all possible ways. Where a bucket,
a hammer or a nail are already
difficult to find, it becomes virtu-
ally impossible to find a reek or
another of our very simple agricul-
tural tools, unknown in India.

The European traditional agricul-

ture has known an enormous boost
thanks to the development of an
extremely diversified range of
tools, often designed by the farm-
ers themselves. With the help of
local blacksmiths, we introduced
some new tools: a reek, a dung
fork, rakes and a wheelbarrow.

17
Howard, A (1943) An Agricultural Testament, Oxford University Press, New York
 40

5.8 Local Chapter

In January 2008, the water scarcity is even worse than the year before. For the third year in a row, the
monsoon rains have almost completely failed, and our analysis becomes very close to reality. We esti-
mate that only 5% of the agrarian fields are still in use. Although hidden, the financial and social con-
sequences for the farmers are immense. He has to scratch to survive and is constantly in search for the
last drops of water in the wells.

In the many conversations with the people, one can see a shift in the susceptibility for the idea that
our human activity is also responsible for the climate changes. And that the good functioning of agri-
culture is an absolute prerequisite for a sound development of industry and the tertiary sector. From
the moment one really feels that water and food are more than a mobile phone daily vital necessi-
ties, the willingness to think about it grows.

At this stage it is important that each and everyone forgets, for a moment, his/her own self interest,
and that he/she pays attention to what is needed for everybody, in common. And this is a very difficult
task in Khajuraho, where under the influence of tourism almost everyone is seeking only immediate
(financial) profit.

An important key moment was the foundation of a local INTACH chapter in 2007, having an autono-
mous voice in the development of The Lost Gardens project. Some 35 respected local personalities of
Rajnagar and Khajuraho now form a community platform, not only for the conservation and manage-
ment of local heritage, but also for the development of a common vision on society and climate.

I have been able to present our vision and new ideas in the third meeting of this local chapter. It was
heart-warming to see how these local people were more than ready to join a vision in which the local
problems of drought are placed in a broader, global perspective, and to show that these problems also
happen elsewhere on other continents, and that from out there solutions can come to us.
 41

5.9 Whats Needed for the Future?

In most situations, we develop our actual working methods on the realised acquisitions of the past. But
sometimes, it is better to start thinking from what is needed for the future. If one has the courage to
let the acquisitions go, innovation immediately jumps in. But having ploughed a field for some 50
years, it is not easy to give it up, even not from insights in the soil feeding web and climate changes.
When we assume that in a decade there will not be enough petrol left to fuel the tractors, it might be
good to make other choices now for traction or energy supply.

India is eager to copy the western, materialistic progress thinking, where this model in the West has
already been partially abandoned, and notwithstanding that in India the possibilities for innovation
and to avoid the western mistakes are so much bigger.
It is about creating a shift in conscience, about looking with open eyes at the world around you.

In such a way, the technique of conservation agriculture is a shift in the conscience of the modern
farmer. No-tillage and permanent soil cover demand another approach, maybe other machinery, but the
overall result of this daring method is that a year round cultivation is possible, enhancing the organic
matter percentage in the soil, and using the nutrients in the soil in an optimal way.

One very important example is once again the traditional Indian composting technique. When we es-
tablished a compost heap for the second year in a row, on the same farms, something great happened.
In some cases, not always, the idea was taken up without our help. But always, there was a spontane-
ous, self-evident help of the whole family to collect all the useful organic material from all corners of
the farm, and in the same move to clear away all rubbish, plastic and garbage. This is unique in a cul-
ture where all garbage just lies there, and endlessly piles up into an incredible rubbish heap, to the
eternal annoyance of many tourists.

5.10 The Ecological Holistic Vision, Working with

Farmers
Contacts with the local farmers follow a gradual process. First of all, I tell them that I am a farmer as
well: I show them photos of my vegetable farm, of my fields, the crops, the simple machinery, the seed
selection, and also pictures of my wife and children. This creates an equal relation of kisan-kisan
(farmer to farmer), and that is a completely different situation than a bio-engineer instructing the
farmer.

In the consequent enthusiasm, I am invited for

a meal out of sheer hospitality, or so it seems.
But the next step, without any exception, is
that the Khajuraho farmer asks for money. Not
so strange, and I cannot blame them, because
our financial worlds lie so far apart.

Sadly enough, giving money is no solution, as

bitter experience learns quickly. Personal fi-
nancial support almost never leads to innova-
tion. On the contrary, it is important to offer
impulses and solutions that surpass the private
gain in the short term. It is a long emancipa-
tion process that needs to create small open-
ings of opportunity.
 42

It is a step-by-step process to create a readiness for conversation, a willingness to listen. Several visits
are necessary to put the impulses of agroforestry, adapted agricultural practices, composting tech-
niques, enhancement of soil fertility and biodiversity on the agenda.

5.11 Navdanya, Building a Movement

Finally, we got connected to a broad group of farmers, mostly from the Kushawaha cast, who know us,
who consider us as a friend, who learned that we will not be trapped in direct financial support, and
that our motives are much more far reaching. At the same time, we established collaboration with the
Navdanya Movement of Mrs. Vandana Shiva.18

Navdanya is a farmers organisation and works towards the development of sustainable agriculture and
seed autonomy. The latter is essential in India, a free market subject to free experiments of genetic
manipulated crops by American and European seed multinationals. Navdanyas aim is to unite farmers
and to convince them to choose for local varieties and to continue to work with these. This is of ut-
most importance when drought resistance is at stake. Local varieties are better resistant for drought
than e.g. the American hybrids.

Seed contain the essence of all life, and they are the beginning of the complete growing process in the
agrarian context. Nevertheless, on a global scale, we have given the seed and the seed selection in the
hands of the chemical industry. It is essential to bring this process back to the farm, and one way to
do this is to appeal to the pride of the farmer.

Our collaboration with Navdanya is personified in Mr. Swatantra Kumar who monthly spends a large
number of days in Khajuraho to develop the initiated dynamics. As a farmer amongst farmers, he is an
expert in sustainable agrarian techniques, and a man with a vision. His work field concentrates on
three aspects: the training and support of local farmers, the preparation of a local seed bank, and the
agricultural and horticultural restoration of the Lost Gardens.

5.12 Seed Bank

The variety in crops in India
is legendary. To protect, to
conserve, and most of all to
continue to work with this
heritage is a core task for the
agrarian community. Some
135 km from Khajuraho, in
Banda, on the farm of Mr.
Prem Singh, I was able to get
acquainted with the principle
of a Navdanya seed bank.
Various kinds and regional
varieties of millet, wheat,
beans, lentils etc. are being
documented and maintained
by a group of farmers. The
selection mostly happens on a
barter basis. Whenever seed is
taken, it has to be returned in
a larger quantity, in order to create a positive impulse for the maintenance of the local traditions. I
have been a witness of the warm hospitality and social interconnection of these farmers.

18
www.navdanya.org
 43

5.13 Vedic Agriculture

In the spring of 2009, I had the occasion to assist in New Delhi in a conference in which Professor
Nene, of the Asian Agri-History Foundation19, was reading texts from the Vedas, some of them thou-
sands of years old, testimonies of a comprehensive agrarian wisdom. In these texts much attention is
drawn to the important role of the cow, of cattle management, of trees in the landscape, of water man-
agement, and of happy animals and farmers.

Tradition and cultural heritage are in fact treasure rooms that contain often all necessary solutions for
the problems of our modern times. In the weeks before, I had realised the immense background wisdom
that can still be found in some places in India in a well-functioning agriculture. Swatantra had shown
me examples of the so-called self-reliance of a village community.

I had seen places and villages with a marvellous ecological balance, originating from a deep respect for
all life. Soil, plants, animals, people, trees, forest, environment, food, water, everything had its own
function and its own place in a defined and meaningful order and harmony. Everything was present and
related. Everybody cared for all and everybody; everybody had his/her own job and responsibility. Eve-
rything was available in the immediate environment to guarantee the material living and happiness on
a basis of autonomy; a lot was sustainable by exchange. With utter surprise, I was allowed to taste a
higher order of society in the Indian countryside, and I have been submerged in a centuries-old culture
of wisdom.

19
Nene, YL and Sadhale, Nalini, 1997, Agriculture and Biology in Rigveda, Asian Agri-History : 177-190
 44

5.14 The Lost Gardens of Khajuraho

Without any doubt, these historically unique places have once given impulses to the local agriculture.
Most probably, they have once been breeding places of innovation, instigated by the richness and the
culture of the maharajas. We can safely assume that these gardens have been centres of plant and ani-
mal selection.

Up to this day, an important effort has been made in collaboration with the School for Planning and
Architecture (SPA, New Delhi) to document the gardens, in order to prevent further loss and decay and
to revalidate their historical importance.

The purpose of restoring the Lost Gardens is to turn them once again into examples of innovation, and
to offer these to the local region. Pateriya ka Bagh is one of the gardens where the restoration is al-
most completed. A mango yard has been planted with the local desi varieties, and with an inter-
planting of guava, papaya and vegetables.

In this way, the seeds are sown for a gradual, sustainable change, for what the future expects from us.
 45

Colophon

Author: Johan DHulster

Photography: Johan DHulster
Editor: Hadewych Vandenbossche
Lay-out: Jelle Goossens
Coordination: Mieke Lateir, Geert Robberechts

February 2010

Blijde Inkomststraat 50
3000 Leuven, Belgium
Tel.: ++32(0)16/31.65.80
Fax: ++32(0)16/31.65.81
[email protected]
www.vredeseilanden.be

Vital Decosterstraat 72
3000 Leuven, Belgium
Te.l: ++32(0)16/23.08.30
Fax: ++32(0)16/22.76.10
[email protected]
About the author: 46

Johan D'hulster (1955) is the founder and manager of the

bio-dynamic farm "Akelei" (Schriek, Belgium). In 2005, he
joined INTACH Belgium as an organic specialist for the agri-
cultural side of the Lost Gardens Project in Khajuraho.
Contact : [email protected] or [email protected].