New Year Greetings

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY AND STIMULATING TAMIL NEW YEAR TIME. TO THOSE OF MY MALAYALEE FRIENDS WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY VISHU KANI.

OUR NEXT POST WILL BE A COST COMPARISON BETWEEN INORGANIC CULTIVATION OF PADDY AND ZERO BUDGET SRI PADDY CULTIVATION.

Questions & Answers on the technique and practices

Shri Rajasekaran Ponniah has raised a querry on how to use Bijamurtham for Paddy and Black gram by a private email after going through this blogspot. I through that it would be better to answer this question through the blogspot itself so that along with Shri Rajasekaran Ponniah, others too can use the information. We must thank Shri Subash Palekar for developing this method which is proving beneficial to the farming community in general.

Question: How to use Bijamurtham for Paddy and Black gram?

Bijamurtham treatment for Paddy Seeds: Take adequate chlorine free clear water from your water source in a large wide mouthed can or vessel. Add small quantity of natural crystal salt (Kal Uppu). Now you can immerse the seeds in this water and allow the water to become still. This process should take about 15 minutes. Damaged and infested seeds will come up to the surface and float. Remove these seeds with the help of a strainer (tea vadikatti) and use it for mulching only. Now drain the water and allow the seeds to become dry. Add the prepared Bijamurtham and treat the seeds. Once this is done, the paddy seeds are ready for sowing into the seedbed.

Bijamurtham treatment for Black gram Seeds: Manually remove the infested and damaged seeds from the Black gram Seeds. Put the selected seeds into a thin cloth and soak the same well in the Bijamurtham solution for about a minute or two. Then open the cloth and allow the seeds to dry in shade till it is nearly free from external moisture. Now the Black Gram seeds are ready for sowing. Most Important: DO NOT RUB THE SEEDS TO AVOID DAMAGE TO OUTER COVER OF THE SEEDS.

Shri Subash Palekarji's books

Shri Subash Palekar has authored number of books on Zero Budget Natural Farming. Some of them are as follows:-

1. The Philosophy of Spiritual Farming - Volume I
2. The Principles of Spiritual Farming - Volume II
3. The Techniques of Spiritual Farming - Volume III

These books are THE BHAGAVATH GEETHA for the practicioners of Zero Budget Natural Farming. Every practicioner of this method of farming should buy a copy of the above and keep the same as a ready reconer.

Shri Sasi & Shri Pattikatar Palanivelan has translated this book to tamizh for the benefit of farmers of Tamil Nadu.

Those interested can buy these books from:-

Ancient (Vedas) Agriculture Research, Development & Extension Movement,
Lane No.5, Namuna Peth, Amravati 444601.
Phone: 09423601004; 09423702877; 09850352745

SRI Paddy Cultivation under Zero Budget Naturalfarmingpalekarway - Some Photographs

At our farm in Kayapakkam, we have cultivated ADT 37 variety of paddy under SRI method. We have not used any inorganic fertilisers or pesticides of any sort. We have followed the techniques being propounded by Shri Subash Palekarji. The paddy plots will be ready for harvest in about two weeks or so. I give you some photographic idea for the farming community in general.

We have applied Jeevamurtham at regular intervals as suggested by Shri Subash Palekar. We had also used Neem Astra to control pests. The incidence of pest attack has been very minimal (as the paddy plants were sturdy due to application of jeevamurtha at regular intervals as well as due to spraying of jeevamurtha solution at regular intervals) and the growth as well as tillering has been profuse.
It is very satisfying to see this paddy field when there is mild sea breeze.

Other farmers had planted the same ADT 37 on traditional method following inorganic farming technique. They faced substantial incidence of infestation of the field and had to use expensive inorganic pesticides, etc., to control infestation.

Acknowledgement of assistance

We thank Ms. Archana Ananthanarayanan for the suggestion to include a visitor tally counter. We thank her assistance in getting it incorporated into this blogspot.

Success story of Paddy farmer following Naturalfarmingpalekarway

Success Story of a humble farmer from Umayalpuram Village, Musuri Taluk, Tiruchy District, Tamil Nadu


Shri Annadurai hails for a humble village of Umayalpuram in Musuri Taluk, Tiruchy District. He hails from a traditional farming family and regularly cultivates his paddy field of about ten acres. Of course, he is one of the few farmers who is privileged to have a well irrigated land round the year as he has his own water supply from well maintained wells.

He has been independently farming for more than three decades. He has all along been cultivating the farm following the inorganic route advised by Agricultural Universities, Government Agriculture Department and distributors of fertilizers and insecticides ever since the green revolution. All he achieved was to line the pockets of distributors of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and could save very little for himself due to the high input costs and declining yeild.

In September, 07 he came across a line of hope in a message (was carried in the Tamil Agricultural fortnightly PASUMAI VIKATAN) which explained the concept of Zero Budget Natural Farming. The magazine had announced a conference to educate the farmers of Tamil Nadu on the Zero Budget Natural Farming propounded by Shri Subash Palekar. He enrolled for the conference and at the conclusion of the conference vowed to practice Naturalfarming following the technique of Shri Subash Palekar.

He went back to his village and began preparing two acres for paddy cultivation following Shri Subash Palekar method.

On preparing the land he applied 200 litres per acre of Jeevamirutham in his land and transplanted 25 to 28 day old “Ponni” paddy saplings in the traditional method planting. He successfully followed the application of Jeevamurutham, neem astra, Agni astra and hormone treatment. The schedule he followed is given below for the benefit of paddy farming community:-

1. The normal age of “Ponni” variety of paddy for harvest as per Shri Annadurai is 140 days.
2. His Saplings on transplantation was about 28 days old. He pumped in 200 litres per acre of jeevamurtha along with water before transplantation ;
3. His first spray was 5 litres of Jeevamurtha mixed with 100 litres of water on the 33rd day; (28+5)
4. He pumped in 200 litres per acre of jeevamurtha for the second time on 43rd day (i.e. 28 + 15 days);
5. He had a second spray of 10 litres of Jeevamurtha mixed in 150 litres of water per acre on the 48th day;
6. He pumped in 200 litres per acre of Jeevamurtha for the third time on the 58th day (ie.43+15 days);
7. He sprayed Neem Astra on the 63rd day though there was no indication of any pests as a proactive measure (Palekar recommends spraying only if there is any incidence of pests in the field. When there is no incidence of pest he says there is no need to spray any herbal pesticide at all);
8. around 85 to 90th day he found some incidence of “Kadhir Naval Poochi” (Ear head peg) and “Elai Puzhu” (cut worms) and hence he applied on the 95th day Agni Astra; This controlled the infestation completely;
9. Paddy started maturing by 110th day when he applied 5 litres of sour buttermilk mixed with 100 litres of water per acre as hormonal treatment to prevent shedding of grains and to increase the weight of the grain.
10. He harvested the grain around 145 days when he achieved 2100 kilos of paddy per acre with no inorganic input what so ever.

He is now very confident and is preparing the entire 10 acres of his land to plant short duration paddy under “SRI” system using Naturalfarmingpalekarway.

Let us take this opportunity to congratulate this enterprising farmer and wish his all the best in his future endeavors. Let us hope many more will emulate him in the days ahead.

Naturalfarmingpalekarway - Paddy cultivation at Musuri in Tamil Nadu

We are pleased at the success of Shri Annadurai a farmer from Musuri in Tamil Nadu. I understand that had attended the conference of Shri Palekar conducted under the auspicious of PASUMAI VIKATAN at Dindugal last year. After attending the conference he has followed the Palekarway and cultivated Paddy in his field. He has happily reported an yeild of 2100 kilos per acre on Ponni variety without any inorganic inputs of fretiliser or pesticides or inscetcides or fungicides or any other "dealer supplied" items.

We will shortly publish an interview of this successful farmer in our blogspot for the benefit of lovers of Naturalfarming and for the benefit of farming community in general.

We welcome informations and reports from those who know of other similar success stories so that we can share the same for the benefit of farming community.