Natural Farming of Rice.

Natural Farming of Rice:

In normal traditional cultivation of rice, the farmer makes channels in the
land to retain water. He tills the land and creates lot of mud. Then he
transplants young rice plants from a breeding plot to the field. He then
applies lot of fertilizers and pesticides to these plants. And he repeatedly
floods the field with water. This kind of farming is a costly affair. In
Fukuoka farming, there is no need to do all these things. Instead, rice
grain is enclosed in clay seed balls and scattered in the standing, ready to
harvest winter crop. These seeds will sprout in the right season with the
rains. Nothing else needs to be done. The remaining of the last crop i.e
straw, leaves, roots etc will control weeds and due to no tilling the rain
water will sink into the earth, which in turn will irrigate the
crop.(Translation by S.Yugandar)
photos

Natural Farming of Rice

Dear Frank, Nandan and others,

Thanks for your emails.
When we stop tilling the land, the local weeds and plants will try to make
a home for themselves. Those which are strong will win,establish their rule
and flourish by pushing aside the other weaker plants. To change these weeds
we will use the same tactic and spread the seeds of the crops that we want
to grow there and once they sprout, we will cut back the strong unwanted
weeds and leave them in the field. In this way, the crop that we want to
grow will become stronger and will become king. To maintain this process of
crop replacing unwanted ones, inter-cropping and previous crop residues play
a very important role. This process will result in good results in the first
year itself, and there is no need to wait for a long time. This process will
work for any weeds(ground cover crop) except few very strong ones. My farm
never required tilling or any organic fertilizers ever.
--Raju.(Translation by SYungandhar)
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/rajuktitus/NATURALWHEATRICEROTATION?feat=directlin\
k> Dear friend,
> Productivity is highest due to minimum in put. Yield is in record is one
> ton/quarter acre. This way of farming do no required much water because it
> is possible by without flooding.Natural irrigation system works in
> paddy.Rain water goes straight in to the soil and water vaporous supply
> water. Crop residues mange water. There is no risk involve in this way as in
> tillig based orgenic and inorgenic agriculture. <
> http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/uhVRDEX-1tlai51b4qUouA?feat=directlink
>>
> Raju Titus

NO TILL NATURAL FARMING (RISHI KHETI)

Dear Friends,
Just look at this growing wheat crop in our natural farm. I will easily
get 15 to 20 quintals of wheat grain and this equals the most productive
districts of central India which use modern scientific agricultural methods.
The salient feature of my farm is that it had not been tilled for the past
25 years. No man made organic or inorganic fertilizers have been used in my
natural farm.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/OCFTrZkSVUnoIcv34cal9w?feat=directlink
To seed this wheat crop we have scattered wheat plus fenugreek seeds and
covered them with rice straw.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/1qZbTJQeVLfy9nz3TFY6EA?feat=directlink

Before we could irrigate the field, there was rain. After the rain, all the
seeds sprouted and came above the rice straw. I have scattered seed balls
made with termite clay and containing grain that will sprout in the rainy
season in this thriving crop.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/fRe1Q_XjgRZIpG6Wha4RBw?feat=directlink

This scattered grain will sprout in the rainy season and will give us equal
output to that of the most productive farms of central India. We will get
time to sow another crop in between rice and wheat. During that time we will
grow moong ( kidney bean ) and sesame. These crops will enhance and enrich
the soil with nitrogen that can be used by the rice crop. We never keep the
rice fields flooded with water. This farming is very close to Fukuoka
farming but is not complete. We still have to learn so much.

SEED BALL MAKING.

Dear Kumar swami and Friends,

We use the soil excavated by termites to make seed balls.I use cay also
which used in making earthen pots. This time we were lucky enough to get
termite soil close to our home for our use. We dug up the clay and sprinkled
water on it so that the clay became broken and scattered. Then

we mixed 2 cups of paddy in one Tagadi (pot generally used in shifting

concrete mixture)
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/photo/fRe1Q_XjgRZIpG6Wha4RBw?feat=directlink
soil and kneaded it like wheat flour dough used to make chapatis. Then we
made half inch thick cakes of this clay dough and pressed it on a chicken
mesh to make small pieces. Care must be taken to ensure that the pieces are
between half to one inch in size and each piece must contain at least one
seed of paddy. Also make sure that the dough is soft like the bottom part
of our ear. Then we allow these pieces for one day for roiling by hands.we
dry seed balls in shade or they can be scattered in the field right away.
This is the common and successful method to make seed balls. Using this
method few people can make seed balls for many acres of farm. (Translation
by S.Yugandhar)

Raju Titus
http://picasaweb.google.com/rajuktitus/SEEDBALLMAKING?feat=directlink

Healthy Food.

Friends,
It is quite natural for people who are strong believers of conventional
till-based farming to get angry, when they first know about Fukuoka farming.
I also experienced anger and disbelief when I was practicing till-based
conventional farming and heard about Fukuoka farming for the first time. I
questioned whether farming could ever be really done without tilling,
without fertilizers and without pesticides. I felt that it was utter
foolishness. And, to prove my point, I struggled harder and as a result
incurred heavy losses. Moreover it left my lands lifeless,pushed us into
debt and wasted five years of time.

Nowadays, everyone thinks that the damage that is being done to agriculture
and the environment is due to the use of chemical or inorganic fertilizers
and by replacing them with 'organic' fertilizers one can solve all these
problems. But, very few people know and understand that due to tilling of
the land, tons of organic matter is washed away from the land due to rains
every year. So, the rain water that is supposed to percolate into the ground
just flows away thus causing famine and reduced rail fall year on year.

Narendra Patel is a young and dynamic farmer, and one of the largest acreage
farmer of my area. Their family is involved in conventional and scientific
farming since decades. They have earlier tried many alternative farming
techniques. Now, after adopting no-till based Fukuoka farming they have
found that their input costs have reduced by 80 percent, the land gets
better, water content in the soil increases and the food grown is natural in
taste and quality.
In reality, by stopping the activity of tilling the land, the flow of
organic matter/top soil stops and by returning the crop residues in-place,
the land becomes stronger. Many people think that the crops grown using
organic fertilizers are healthy, and buy the 'organic food' by paying high
price. The truth is that whether it is organic or inorganic fertilizer, only
weak food grows on weak land. This food is never healthy. Only the food that
grows in the wilderness or by using natural farming without any fertilizer
input on strong land is healthy.
(Translation by Yugandher)

--Raju Titus

--
Raju Titus. Hoshangabad.India.
+919179738049

FUKUOKA FARMING IS BETTER THAN ORGANIC AND SCIENTIFIC WAY OF FARMING

*FUKUOKA WAY OF FARMING IS BETTER THAN ORGANIC AND INORGANIC WAY OF FARMING.
*
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/photo/WNKZh2Qbtp3hLII8XyAxzQ?feat=directlink

.My name is Narendra Patil. I am practicing modern scientific

agriculture in 50 acres of my own land and another 50 acres of leased
land. My entire family including my mother, father and two brothers,
is fully occupied with the farm work throughout the year. We have all
modern technological agricultural tools including two tractors.
Initially we used to get good returns, but since the last few years we
are incurring losses. We kept on increasing our input costs year on
year in the hope of increasing yields and profits, but we got
increased losses in the same ratio. Since we do not have any other
income generating options other than agriculture we started feeling
insecure about our future. In this process we started searching for
alternative farming techniques.

First we tried organic farming with a complete Gobar Gas plant setup
(biogas plant using cow dung) as per NADEP(National Agribusiness
Development Program) and used the resultant compost in our farm,but we
got only depressing results.There is much fuss in this but the results
are poor and damaging. Numerous other farmers share the same fate as
mine. The government is breaking the back of the farmer. The increased
cost of living is most disastrous for the farmer and he is not getting
the right price for his produce in spite of heavy input costs. This is
resulting in ever increasing losses for the farmer. The government is
importing food and causing the prices to fall locally. Due to this we
are not getting a fair price for our produce. Secondly, our lands have
lost their fertility and even the usage of costly fertilizers and
chemicals is not giving the desired results. Cattle breeding was an
alternative source of income for our family and we used to cover the
agricultural losses with the income from cattle. But with the use of
tractors and chemical fertilizers, cattle breeding has become
impossible.

We have been growing paddy in rainy season, wheat in winter and mung (
kidney beans ) in summer. For the last two years we have continuously
incurred losses in all the crops. Our neighbor Sri Raju ji was an
advocate of modern scientific farming in early days. But after
experiencing the various difficulties in scientific farming he has
switched to no-till natural farming and is a very happy man now. We
started seeing the power in his way of natural farming and adopted his
method of no-till natural farming to grow paddy,wheat and mung in our
fields with Sri Raju sir's help. This is the second year of our
experiment with no-till natural farming and our wheat crop looks
better than the crop grown with chemicals and fertilizers despite the
fact that no chemicals or fertilizers have been used in our farm and
no tilling has been done at all. This is in front of your eyes to see.
The seeds we use are locally stored and not bought from outside. Our
costs have reduced by 80 percent by adopting no-till natural farming.
We used to spend around Rs.8 lakhs for our 50 acres of farm for
chemicals, fertilizers and tilling. Moreover the costs would easily go
up in case of weather disturbances.
We are sure to save around Rs.6 lakhs to Rs.7 lakhs by adopting
natural farming with the help of Sri Raju ji as we see the crop in our
fields. And we do not have fear of getting the right price for our
produce as we came to know that naturally grown food is commanding a
price of nearly 8 times to chemically grown food. So, we have made a
definite decision to adopt the same natural farming methods on our
entire farm after seeing further results. We heart fully thank Sri
Raju Bhai and his family for pioneering no-till natural farming
methods in India and for spreading this knowledge among farmers.
(TRANSLATED BY YUNGANDHER)
- Show quoted text -

--
RajuTitus India
+919179738049

Tilling is not Organic process

Re: [fukuoka_farming] Tilling is not Organic process.(जॠà¤¤à¤¾à¤ˆ जैविक नहीà¤

‚ है.)

English Translation:
-------------------------------------------------------------
* Tilling done to grow crops is not organic*
Dear friends,
Mr. Thomas from Brazil, and a member of our group, paid a visit to my farm
few days ago. He asked me "Can we start with organic farming i.e till the
land, fill it with compost initially and after the land regains it's
strength switch to no-till natural farming?"

I replied "Organic means 'living' or 'with living properties'. By tilling

the land we kill the multiple and varied life forms of the soil. Then it
becomes non-living farming instead of 'living' farming. So, instead of
increasing the health of the soil we actually decrease the strength. By
tilling the land once, around 10 to 15 tons of organic matter gets washed
away with rain and also disperses into the atmosphere. There are innumerable
living micro organisms in each gram of soil and living beings like
earthworms, insects, rats etc build their homes in the soil. Tilling
destroys their homes as well as their lives and thus till based farming is
not organic or natural.
--Raju Titus
-------------------------------------------------------------
WATER DAY

Re: [fukuoka_farming] WATER DAY (जल दिवस)

English Translation:
-------------------------------------------------------------
*Water Day*

Dear Friends,
Today(March 22) is 'World water day'. On this day, let us resolve that,
'To protect the Earth's water cycle we all will practice 'No-till natural
farming'. We will also use all our available resources to publicize and
disseminate the information about 'No-till natural farming' with full force.
By tilling we destroy the homes of numerous beneficial living beings that
help the rain water percolate into the ground, which otherwise flows away
taking along with it extremely rich top soil. No-till natural farming helps
all the rain water to percolate into the ground without flowing away, thus
helping in recharging ground water and preventing famines.

Thank you.
--Raju Titus
WEED IS NOT PROBLEM

Re: [fukuoka_farming] WEED IS NOT PROBLEM (खरपतवार समसॠà¤¯à¤¾

नहीं है.)

English Translation:
-------------------------------
Friends,
I have a friend by the name Rajendra Singh Rathore. He is working on
organic farming. He keeps asking me questions and recently he asked
"Wouldn't weeds take over the fields if we stop tilling?"

I said, "Nature always wants to keep the earth covered with greenery. But,
we continually destroy the green cover by cutting, tilling, grazing,
weedicides/weeders and burning. So, nature keeps giving birth to new and
stubborn weeds to counter man's actions like 'Kaans grass' and Parthenium(
Gaajar ghaans) etc. If we stop the above mentioned human activities of
destructing the green cover, the so called weeds automatically become our
friends and move out of our path.

My fields were filled with 'Kaans' grass before taking up natural farming.
The roots of this grass grow 30 feet below the surface and entagle
themselves with other roots at every inch. This deep mesh of roots cannot be
removed by any machine and this grass cannot be eliminated by using
weedicides. After I stopped tilling the land, and started doing natural
farming among this grass without tilling ,it slowly disappeared. Now I am
easily able to practice natural farming without the trouble of this grass.

So, If you want to protect the greenery and environment of this earth,
please do no-till natural farming, which is the easiest solution. Today, my
fields are filled with tall and dense trees from which I am getting many
things."
Thanks
--Raju Titus
"It is very harmful to make pits for growing rice

"It is very harmful to make pits for growing rice"

Friends,
One friend of our group has asked this question: "What is the harm in
digging pits in the land?"

My answer: "Farmers of our locality are trying new techniques of growing

crops when they find that profits from traditional farming practices are
dwindling. One technique that is being practiced recently is as follows.
First the land is deep tilled. Then it is leveled, top soil is collected
into heaps and bunds are constructed on all four sides. A second tilling is
done in these formed pits and water is filled to make mud. Rice is
transplanted into these pits. This process is done to eliminate and control
weeds. But due to this the land loses it's natural balance and becomes life
less. The organic matter and water content is lost. The farmers may be
successful at first with the help of fertilizers and pesticides and grow
unnatural food, but after some time the land cannot grow any more crops.
There are many such life less lands in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh
and Chattisgarh where even rains have stopped occurring and farming is
stopped. Fukuoka has said "It rains from under the earth and not from the
sky"

Friends,
One friend of our group has asked this question: "What is the harm in
making pits in the land?"
for Paddy.

My answer: "Farmers of our locality are trying new techniques of growing

crops when they find that profits from traditional farming practices are
dwindling. One technique that is being practiced recently is as follows.
First the land is deep tilled. Then it is leveled, top soil is collected
into heaps and bunds are constructed on all four sides. A second tilling is
done in these formed pits and water is filled to make mud. Rice is
transplanted into these pits. This process is done to eliminate and control
weeds. But due to this the land loses it's natural balance and becomes life
less. The organic matter and water content is lost. The farmers may be
successful at first with the help of fertilizers and pesticides and grow
unnatural food, but after some time the land cannot grow any more crops.
There are many such life less lands in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh
and Chattisgarh where even rains have stopped occurring and farming is
stopped. Fukuoka has said "It rains from under the earth and not from the
sky"

--
Raju Titus. Hoshangabad.India.
+919179738049.
http://picasaweb.google.com/rajuktitus

VISIT OF SHASHI P KUMAR.

Friends,
Today, Sri Shashi Kumar of our group had visited my farm. I was a little
afraid before his visit, because he said that the purpose of his visit was
to know about the failures of natural farming. I felt that this person must
be angry with natural farming due to failures. I have seen many such angry
and dissatisfied persons. But, after receiving Sri Shashi kumar, I found in
him a very dedicated human being, who despite working for one of the top IT
companies of India as an engineer is living with his family some 95 km away
from his work place(Bangalore) and doing natural farming in his 3 acre farm.
He came along with his 6 year old son and nephew.
He had very confidently started doing natural farming. He believes that
with the help of a small farm he and his family can lead a honest life of
self reliance. On one hand he is educating his son without sending him to
school and on the other he is teaching his village kids on a personal level
about environment and nature. He is also conducting many experiments to
enhance water availability and accessibility. He is growing grains,
vegetables and fruit trees in his farm with the help of his wife. He has
done a great favor to me by visiting my farm. It has filled me with more
self confidence. My sincere prayers to the almighty creator of this nature
via this group to give him all success so that he can totally come out of
the concrete jungle of the city.

--Raju