Bio-resources into Bio-wealth : a way forward for grassroot communities to build climate-friendly livelihood with local food.

 

  Bio-resources into bio-wealth:                         By Farmer Samir Bordoloi

 

The northeastern region of India is a hot spot biodiversity zone of both flora and fauna. The abundance of natural resources provides a great opportunity of building up self-reliant sustainable livelihood by transforming the bio-resources into bio-wealth. The farming communities at the grassroots with sustainable use of those natural resources with the idea of conservation, cultivation, consumption and then commercialization can build up resilient communities.

Naturally grown high nutritive forest food which is apart of the local cuisines is collected from the wild and is never grown. This enormous list of wild edible plants must be conserved in its naturally growing state, but, the grassroot farmers should be trained to propagate them in their homestead gardens. Research needs to focus on these food plants and develop the ways of cultivating them in the homesteads. The growing techniques must also tap the significance of the natural resources that can be utilized to make organic manures and bio-pesticides to ascertain healthy food production system. Through the conversion of those bio-resources like fallen dry leaves, green biomass considered as weeds, animal manure etc. a natural farming system of those unsung high nutritive, high value, health-food flora can sustain a balanced healthy life.

The ever-growing wellness food industry touching the heights of about 500 billion US dollars demand those food plants in different forms of processing. Communities around these plant growing areas have inherited skills of processing and consuming them. Standardizing their traditional ways of processing with blending of technical skills of Food experimenters with renewable energy-based technologies can create an economy of permanence for the grassroot practitioners.

Wild growing fiddle head ferns with high nutritional qualities like high protein content is an example of the lying bio-resource on ground which can be processed to dehydrated health-food. Centalia growing wild in the paddy fields can be processed into wellness food by active participation of the women farmers and processed into different high value and low volume food products. Bread Fruit growing wild in the forest needs its seed collected to grow into orchards. The sour fruit can be processed into high value juice and the seed can be used like peanuts. Thus, these under-rated naturally occurring bio edible resources can be converted into bio-wealth.

When we say bio-wealth, it is based on the principle of developing a circular economy which is the requisite of the Climate-friendly food production system which is going to be mandatory to follow for all humans to sustain life on this planet. Conversion of bio-resources into bio-wealth must be devised in such a way that we know our carbon footprint in every stage of the process. Preparing bio-diversity registers of those miracle food floras, mapping community’s ways of evolving with their food floras(the food culture), proper food value analysis, selection of those resources, develop ways of cultivating, building nutritional securities of the communities is the need. Building up livelihood by processing the surplus into low volume but high value Wellness Health Food Products (WHFP) is the way forward.

  

Compassionate Natural Farming

                                               

                                      By Farmer Samir Bordoloi, Ashoka Fellow & Practicing Farmer 

 

Compassionate Natural Farming:

Compassionate Natural Farming is a way of life based on mimicking nature to grow our food. It has scientific relevance and also based on spirituality to maintain the natural balance of life. This is an art and science based on the principles of diversity and co-existence. Everything is tuned towards the maintenance of the natural soil microbial world through minimal human intervention. The soil is the soul of a farmer. The Living Soil is the result of the beautiful microbial action and the symbiotic relation of the overground and the underground world of living entities. The soil undisturbed can support strong plant system which is diverse and capable of even thriving in stress conditions. This is how the forest grows. The birds, the bees, the earthworms, the ants, the grazing and the wild animals and the humans have specific roles to balance this natural process of living on this beautiful planet. The birds and animals disperse seeds, the wind and water also disperse seeds to naturally grow the forest. The dry leaves shred over the green grasses and the earthworms raises the soil over it through castings and the animal litter over it to co-create the beautiful humus. Thus, the top black and friable soil is formed in the wild which establishes wild edible or non-edible trees over it which survives for hundreds of years with limited amount of water and mitigates all the stress they encounter. But when it grows naturally, it is a diverse forest with different plant types and different heights. This is the first basis of Natural Farming where we intend to grow our food maintaining this diversity.

Soil is the Farmer’s Soul:

To maintain this diversity and the co-existence principles of life, the first thing we have to do is to build up the microbial population of our soil. This will help us to meet the balance between the ask for a huge quantity of food to feed an ever-growing population and maintaining the natural balance. The cultivable lands are under tremendous pressure in this business of feeding the world. This is resulting in a soil type void of microbial action owing to heavy tillage followed by monocropping. This type of monocropping and the advent of the nutrient-hungry and thirsty hybrid seeds and the modified seeds is leading to a deficient soil. As soil is the soul of the farmer, if the soil dies the farmer also dies. In tis race of feeding a big population, we are losing on our soil quality, natural balance and farming population. Migration of young people from farming to other profession is a big challenge our country is facing today. This is creating more pressure on the remaining food production zones and agriculture has become highly input dependent and costly for the farmers and the country as a whole. The shift is hard but the only way out is to rebuild the beautiful microbial world under our feet.

Compassionate Natural Farming is the way forward:

Natural farming practices based on the principles of building the soil health with resources available with the farmers, using desi seeds (local seeds), diversity without the science of elimination in a multi-storied cropping pattern of native plants, and with minimum or no-tillage is the way forward to develop the economy of permanence and a happy life. In India, natural farming practices has been based on the following four pillars of success:

1.      Jeevamrut

2.      Beejamrut

3.      Acchadana or Mulching

4.      Wapasa

·        The first principle is based on rebuilding the microbial network of the soil by application of home-made extract based on the desi cow dung, urine, gram flour and jaggery. Here the farmer, utilizes the numerous amounts of beneficial microbes present in the desi cow dung, multiplies it in water by adding cow urine, gram flour and jaggery to spread over his cultivable land.

·        The second principle is based on how the farmers use desi seeds and heirloom seeds, conserve them and cultivate them through a beautiful way of seed treatment using desi cow dung, cow urine, and top soil. This is to provide a beneficial microbial coating to the seeds.

·        The third principle is based on how we keep the exposed ground of our farms covered by mulching. This covering is not again with a plastic but with compost and other resources like dry leaves available with the farmers. There is a perception that the root zone needs water but actually the root zone needs a prolonged moist situation. This principle helps in maintaining the water holding capacity of the soil and also checks the evaporation. In natural farming the moisture is maintained by live mulch and also maintaining a multistoried cropping pattern of different crops to check evaporation and create a farm micro-climate. This also aims at maintaining the aeration of the soil, rain water holding capacity of the soil and controlling the undesired plant growth naturally. This also aims at minimizing tillage and if needed ploughing with desi plough than a heavy tractor. This also prevents too much raise in the soil to be cool as temperature above 36 degree starts releasing carbon from the soil. It also emphasizes on selection of companion crops.

·        The fourth principle called wapasa is based on maintaining the moist soil. When the soil is 50% moist and 50% aerable which is the friable condition of the soil achieved naturally is called wapasa. Water stagnation near the root zone is prevented in wapasa but a needed moist condition is created. This is also signified by the return of the desi earthworms to our soil with its natural castings.

 

Preparation of Jeevamrut:

Resources required:

Slno	Resources	Quantity
1	Local cow dung (Lakhimi cow of Assam)	10 kg
2	Local Cow Urine ( Lakhimi cow of Assam)	05 litres
3	Jaggery	02 kgs
4	Gram Flour (Besan)	02 kgs
5	Water	200 litres
6	Top soil from the base of a tree	1 kg

 How to prepare:

1. ·        Take a plastic drum with 200 litres water.
2. ·        Mix 10 kgs of cow dung and stir clockwise for 2 minutes.
3. ·        Mix 05 litres of cow urine and stir clockwise for 2 minutes.
4. ·        Mix 02 kgs of jaggery and mix it for 2 minutes clockwise.
5. ·        Mix 02 kgs of gram flour and mix for 2 minutes clockwise.
6. ·        Mix 1 kg of top soil and mix it clock wise.
7. ·        Now stir fast the whole mixture for 20 minutes in clockwise direction.
8. ·        Keep it covered with a jute bag for 48 hours.
9. ·        Every day remove the cover, and stir clockwise for 2 minutes. Use a bamboo stick for stirring.
10. ·        Use the Jeevamrut upto 7 days of preparation. Keep it covered with jute bag to prevent flies and mosquitos.
11. ·        After 7 days throw the remaining jeevamrut on the ground a prepare afresh.

• In crops of 60 to 90 days duration, apply jeevamrut in 21 days interval. Apply 20 litres of Jeevamrut in 200 litres of water to cover one acre of land. 3-time application.
• In crops of 90 to 120 days apply 4 times. In crops of 120-135 days duration, apply 5 times. Above 135 days of crop duration, apply 6 times in 21 days intervals.

Beejamrut Preparation:

Resources required:

Slno	Resources	Quantity
1	Lakhimi cow dung	5 kgs
2	Lakhimi cow urine	5 litres
3	Agricultural lime	250 grams
4	Water	20 litres
5	Top soil	One handful

 

How to prepare:

1. ·        Tie 5 kgs of cow dung in a cloth and dip it in 20 litres water for one night.
2. ·        Mix 250 grams of lime in 1 litre water and keep it overnight.
3. ·        Next morning squeeze the cow dung tied in cloth 3 times in the water and remove it. Mix the lime water into the 20 litres water, add cow urine and top soil mix and keep it for 24 hours. Stir it clockwise while mixing and keep covered with a jute bag.
4. ·        Spread the seeds on a sheet or a bamboo mat and sprinkle the jeevamrut over the seeds.

The germination percentage of seeds treated with beejamrut have been found better. It also saves the seed from harmful soil microbes. The remaining part of the beejamrut can be also used for seedling root-dip treatment while transplanting.

 Compassionate Natural Farming in Assam and the Northeast India lead by SPREAD NE:

In Assam and the Northeast India, already many natural farming systems exist in our age-old traditional systems of baris (the homestead gardens) and also the sporadic small forests in the villages. Many areas are naturally organic and we should follow the conservation agriculture with regenerative agriculture which are basis of the natural farming practices. Diversity with multistoried cropping pattern of all local herbs, fruits, and vegetables with some wild species of trees are the existing natural farming in the form of our baris. Bari-unnayan through natural farming practices and creation of homestead and community food forest is the main mantra practiced successfully by a local non-profit organization called SPREAD NE under the leadership of Farmer Samir Bordoloi. The organization has created many ways of natural farming based on local resources very specific to the state and the region and trained more than 1500 youths as Green Commandos and reaching about 7000 farmers through their action. They have created a Food Forest and a Farm Learning Centre at Rupnagar, Sonapur to convince the world about climate-friendly compassionate natural farming ways of life. They have also worked out economically viable models of developing low volume and high value wellness food products combined with agrotourism to enhance the income of the small, marginal and tribal farmers of the region.

Learning and working on the above-mentioned natural farming practices, farmer Samir Bordoloi and his team of Green Commandos developed some very natural ways of farming which the farmers of the state and the region can easily absorb and perform. In many places it was difficult for them to find resources like jaggery and besan.Hence, the group found many natural inputs to substitute those items with those easily available with the farmers. The soil of Assam and the region excluding the monocropping area actually needs very less care due to little disturbances made. So here, SPREAD NE works on conservation of the local food wisdom, cultivation of the local crops as homestead and community food forests, consumption of the local food for nutrition from the baris and then commercialization of the surplus as low volume and high value wellness food products.

In addition to the above natural farming practices like the jeevamrut, beejamrut , acchadana and wapasa, SPREAD NE has developed local ways to develop those homestead and community food forests. One very important extract to enhance the soil microbial population with very effective results is the SPREAD NE Mycomix. This emphasizes on increasing the mycorrhizal network in the soil to maintain the amazing wood wide web. The region has a rich biodiversity of bamboo and bamboo is used in many aspects. The waste bamboos are collected and made into bamboo biochar in a very easy procedure to attract mycorrhizae to come inside the pore spaces of the bamboo charcoal.

How to prepare SPREAD NE Mycomix:

The first step is to produce the bamboo biochar which can be learnt by subscribing the You Tube channel Farmer Samir Bordoloi.

After producing the bamboo bio char at home, we need the following resources available at home to make the mycomix.

Sl no.	Resources	Quantity
1	Bamboo Bio Char	500 grams
2	Lakhimi cow dung	1 kg
3	Lakhimi cow urine	1 litre
4	Soil from abandoned termite hill soil	250 grams
5	Top soil collected from base of a big tree	1 kg
6	Liquid starch collected while cooking local rice (Bhator Marh)	1 litre
7	Ripen banana	5 pieces
7	Water	50 litres

 

1. ·        First add 500 grams of bamboo bio char into the 50 litres water in a plastic drum.
2. ·        Now add 1 kg of fresh Lakhimi cow dung.
3. ·        Add 1 litre of Lakhimi cow urine.
4. ·        Add 250 grams of Abandoned Termite hill soil to add proteins like gram flour. It has more protein content than besan.
5. ·        Add 1 kg top soil and then add the 1 litre of the liquid rice starch and the meshed ripen banana.
6. ·        Stir clockwise for 20 -30 minutes. Cover the mouth of the container with a jute bag and store in shade for 24 hours.
7. ·        After 24 hours mix these 50 litres mix with 150 litres of water and apply on your soil. You can sprinkle with a bunch of paddy straw over existing crops.

·        Apply during land preparation, next at 21 days interval and next at the flowering stage.

 {Apart from the Mycomix, SPREAD NE has developed more than 20 techniques of compassionate natural farming to create food forest. A documentary has been made on few techniques in assamese for the benefit of the farmers of the state of Assam}

These are practiced by farmers successfully in multilocational trials in different parts of the state.

Seed Ball Making & Seed bombing- My Compassionate Natural Farming Way.

 

                       Seed Ball Making & Seed Bombing

                                              Farmer Samir Bordoloi

 

Introduction

Most of the creatures in this world are regenerative. A bird eats a fruit but litters the seeds in different places to regenerate the fruit tree. The grass and herb feeding animals eats up the grasses with seeds and the undigested seeds come out with their dung to regenerate the grasses again. The wind and water carry seeds to different places. Seeds also get stuck to many animals’ skins and they move to other places. Nature has its own way of balancing and regenerating the lush green vegetation which supports our life in this planet. Somehow, a fast development of the human race has resulted in developing an uncaring attitude in us towards nature. Our intellect development resulted in disturbing the natural balance in some ways and we are now in a process to augment it through some natural solutions. Thus, we must also think how we become regenerative and maintain our lush green world.

What are seed balls and seed bombing?

Seed balls and seed bombing is a technique of compassionate natural farming where we become instrumental in disbursing the seeds of our native trees for their regeneration. Seed bombs are actually ancient Japanese practice called Tsuchi Dango which means ‘Earth Dumpling’ as they are made of clay earth.This technique was reintroduced by Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka. This is made of clay and also some additives like humus and compost. There are many references of using this technique to recover derelict grounds resulting due to some human activities like mining and heavy tillage agriculture.

At SPREAD NE, we have been working on this technique since last 5 years to develop the food forests in the Northeastern region of India. After many trials now we have the right combinations of materials to make the seed balls more effective with high germination rate. We have also so far identified those native trees and species which are most effective in seed bombing. Our seed ball consists of a mix of different size of seeds of herbs, grasses and a native tree. As agriculture and the nature as a whole is dynamic, we cannot come out with a static way of seed bombing in every place. It differs with soil type, climate and depends on thorough study of the biodiversity of the particular place. Hence, localized production by farmers and school children gives the best result. Thus, we train different people in their villages to make seed balls with resources which are local and natural through our network of Green Commandos.

Best Time to prepare seed balls and seed bombing

Spring and early summer is a good time for seed bombing as in spring seeds take root and vegetation begin to grow. The weather is warmer and often wetter which helps in proper establishment of the seed ball as a plant. This is also the time when we get most of the seeds of the native trees.

The best time to prepare the seed balls is from February to April. The best time for seed bombing is March to August in our North eastern region.

Seed Keeping for Seed Bombing

Seeds are the basis for a healthy environment. Keeping our own seeds for the future is our freedom. Native species of trees only perform well in seed bombing. As seed bombing is mainly done in no-tillage lands, only native species can thrive and establish as a plant in those areas. Collecting our local seeds also saves lot of money and also stops us from not introducing an exotic plant to a local habitat. Mother plant selection is an important task in seed keeping. The mycorrhizal network and the underground connection of native trees is very strong to support a healthy forest. The jungle grows into a multistoried pattern with grasses, herbs, and trees and plants of different heights growing together. We should collect seeds of all those different height plants and mix them into our seed bombs. Seeds of different species of the locality should be collected and should be stored differently. We use bamboo cans to store the seeds. We use bamboo leaves and cow dung mix to cover up the mouth of the bamboo can. There are numerous traditional ways of seed keeping which we should explore.

Seed Treatment before making seed balls:

Seeds kept for few days should be treated before mixing them into the seed balls. Seed treatment is important to clear the unwanted fungal growth or any other infections like insects and other harmful microbes during the storage. The ingredients we use for seed treatment are-

1. Raw Turmeric Paste- 100 grams

2. Raw garlic paste- 100 grams

3. Bamboo biochar powder- 50 grams

4. Wood ash-100 grams

5. Rice gruel- 100 ml

6. Water- 1 litre

7. Cow Urine (desi cow) if available-100 ml

Method:

Mix all the above ingredients in a container (preferably earthen pot) and cover the mouth of the container with a jute bag and keep for 24 hours.

Tie the seeds in a cotton cloth and dip it in the above solution in the container for 20 minutes. After the treatment, shade dry the seeds until they are fully dry before inserting or mixing with the seed ball. Do not dry in direct sun.

How to make a Seed Ball?

This is a way we make our seed balls which resulted in 60 to 70 per cent germination rate in our food forest situated in the hills of Sonapur, Assam. We also have successful results in the foothills of Meghalaya in the villages of Kolongpur, Pesamsuru and Dondoral. Our Green Commandos working in different parts of Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur and few parts of Sikkim tested this technique to success in their specific work areas. The process that we follow in making the seed balls is as follows:

Materials required:

The materials required to make a seed ball are as follows:

1. Red Mountain soil- 3 kgs

2. Compost – 1 kg

3. Bamboo Bio char powder- 200 grams

4. Fresh Cow dung (Desi)- 1 kg

5. Finely chopped paddy straw or dry bamboo leaves- 250 grams.

6. Wood ash- 100 grams.

7. Water- 2 litres.

8. Small seeds of grasses or herbs- 500 grams

9. Seeds of big and medium height trees- 100 grams.

Method of Preparation:

1. Mix 3 kgs of red mountain soil with 1 kg of fresh cow dung, 250 grams of finely chopped paddy straw,500 grams of compost, 100 grams wood ash and 100 grams bio char powder.

2. Now add 500 grams of small seeds of grasses and herbs to the above mixture.

3. Add water little by little to the mixture to make mud balls. Over watering might loosen the mixture to bind as a clay ball. For watering we can also use the extract left after the seed treatment method mentioned above.

4. Now prepare another dry mixture of 500 grams compost, 100 grams bio char powder and mix the seeds of tree species.

5. Gently with your thumb, press the centre of the clay ball to make space to fill up the above dry mix of compost, bio char and seeds.

6. After filling up the dry mixture in the centre, again gently make the clay ball round. Practice will give you skills of doing it.

7. If the seeds are bigger, after filling up the dry mix and making the seed ball round, we can insert the seed to reach the centre dry mix in the ball.

8. Dry the seed balls under a roof. Shade-dry for 2 days before throwing gently to the ground.

Seed Bombing:

Minimum or no-tillage is the right approach to go about farming or planting trees in this world. The microbial network in the ground is responsible for a healthy forest cover in our land. Tillage operations disturb this web of beneficial microbes and make our soil unfertile. So, in compassionate natural farming we follow seed bombing and no-tillage raised beds to plant more trees to co-create the food forest.

Seed Bombing in our garden soil:

During the spring or just before the rains we throw the seed bombs to our garden soil without removing the grasses and other plants which we call as weeds in conventional agriculture. From our study we found that plants from seed balls establish well in grounds full of grasses and other green vegetations. We do not need ploughing or tillage of the land before sed bombing. Later on in garden soil it is needed to sprinkle compost and liquid microbial extracts which we can prepare at home. Seed bombs take time to establish as a plant, so the seed bomber needs patience to observe the natural process how the radicles form to roots to hold the soil coming out of the seed ball and become a plant. The natural way of penetration to the soil helps the plant to be strong to develop a strong defence mechanism. The bamboo bio char in the seed ball help to develop a mycorrhizal network on the root hairs to establish to the real ground and extract nutrients for the plant in the initial stage of development.

 

 Seed Bombing in Derelict grounds like the post mining operation grounds:

Derelict grounds are devoid of the top soil layer full of humus and organic carbon where the beneficial microbes thrive. So, before seed bombing in these grounds it is necessary to add some home-made extracts of microbial solutions to increase the microbial activity. After sprinkling this liquid over the ground and also sprinkling bamboo bio char powder over the ground manually wherever possible or by aerial spraying, we need to sow/plant grass and succulent herb seeds before seed bombing of different native species of plants. We have developed many such microbial solutions which can be developed at home by the farmers. One such mixture is SPREAD NE Myco-mix 1, which we can prepare at home as follows:

Materials Required:

1. Top soil collected from the base of a big tree- 2 kgs

2. Fresh cow dung (Desi Cow) if available- 1 kg

3. Bamboo biochar powder- 2 kgs

4. Rice Gruel (Starchy liquid of rice)- 3 litres

5. Termite Hill Soil- 500 grams

6. Water- 50 litres

Method of Preparation:

Take a 100 litres plastic drum and add in all the ingredients listed above and then pour in 50 litres of Water. Stir the solution for 30 minutes both clockwise and anticlockwise with a stick or use an aerator.

Allow the solution to settle and keep the mouth of the container close with a jute bag for 24 hours. After 24 hours, mix this solution into 150 litres plain water. Stir properly and apply these 200 litres SPREAD NE Myco Mix 1 solution to one acre of the ground.

In derelict ground it is important to sprinkle this solution before seed bombing. Time to time spraying of this mix will ensure proper microbial growth in the soil to support the seed bombs to grow into live plants.

Size of the seed bombs:

Size of the seed balls will depend on the size of the seeds of targeted plants. Generally, seed balls should be of half an inch to 1.5 inches diameter. Seed balls should be light weight and about half inch if aerial bombing is done.

 

Few Important Tips:

Ø  Throw the seed bombs in the early morning or late afternoon. Avoid full sunlight while bombing.

Ø  Throw the seed bombs in rainy days.

Ø  Have patience to see the success of seed bombing.

Ø  Seed balls also protect the seeds from birds and insects.

Ø  Do not put freshly harvested seeds to seed bombs. Only few species of trees germinate so fast. Keep the seeds for few days and then treat and insert inside seed bombs.

Ø  Always make seed balls with native plant species of the particular area.

Ø  Before seed bombing, make a biodiversity register of the area.

Ø  If aerial seed bombing with drones-insert Bluetooth device to control the bombing interval. Big tree species need space to grow.

Ø  Mulching of seed bombing areas with compost or dry leaves help.

 

 

About The Author: A compassionate natural farmer with a university degree in agriculture. An expert in mixing the scientific skills with the traditional practices to develop into a Nature-friendly approach. A calm and healthy life protagonist, acquired the skills of developing derelict grounds into lush green food forests. Living a life of a natural farmer in the food forest he created, he could acquire the skills of learning fast from nature and developed more than 50 techniques of growing food plants and other plants together with other creatures into a co-existence model of living. As agriculture and forestry is dynamic and very place-specific, he has developed in last 15 years, the skills of adapting and developing area-specific ways of compassionate natural farming. An expert in building the soil microbial population and with special emphasis on developing the underground mycorrhizal network with resources which are area-specific. His expertise includes no-tillage methods, bio-intensive farming, high density food forest development, area-specific seed balls and seed bombing methods, local home-made extract with area specific resources to increase soil microbial activities, no-weeding farms, Water management, livelihood security for small farmers by low volume and high value local product development and agro tourism. A motivator, public speaker and a trainer with the abilities to connect with grassroot people with practical approach of training irrespective of communities and languages. Email: samirf2f@gmail.com