Northeast India : Hub of organic food

Northeast India as an Organic Hub to provide Good Food to humanity and will play a vital role in strengthening Nation's economy. My reasons to justify it.  

• ·         Organic is a word that connects to the heart and nature. It is to be led by people who wants to feed the humanity with good food from their heart and soul. Northeast is a hub of different ethnic communities and very simple and hospitable people naturally producing food till date and by default organic in most parts of the region. This big hearted Human resource in the hills and plains of the Northeast region makes it a hub for Organic Farming. We have countable commercial farmers since the Green Revolution and maximum of our farmers are more dependent on Nature in farming which has now become the boon in disguise and strength of the region to lead the Organic movement.
• ·         North east is the most greenest part of the Country and most of our farmers are Green-fingured gardeners. This is possible because Nature boons us with enormous natural resources which can be sustainably reused and recycled to grow food by taking Nature as the Capital which is the main mantra for successful Organic Farming.
• ·         Indigenous food crops give a market identity. And North east India is the hub of indigenous varieties of food crops ranging from the Black rice of Manipur to King chillis and different coloured maize of Nagaland to the turmeric of Meghalaya to the scented rice of Assam to the bird’s eye chilli of Mizoram to the kiwis and apples of Arunachal to the whole range of Organic products of Sikkim, Northeast India is the hub for feeding the whole country with good food.
• ·          Many indigenous crops grown in the region are the favourite food crops of other Southeast Asian Countries and with the initiative of opening the roadways through the Northeast, our region will become the export zone for these crops and food items and thus, it will be the hub for export of organic products.
• ·         Organic Carbon status of the soil in the region makes it more suitable for organic farming and we have Bamboos growing naturally which is a big help in Organic farming as it traps most of the carbon and is the best resource to develop the bio intensive raised beds for organic farming. Bamboo bio char fertilizer has remarkable effect in organic farming and we can be the hub for production and use of Bamboo bio char fertilizers in Organic agriculture.
• ·         Aristotle told that future diseases will be cured by good food and not pharmaceutical medicines. Northeast India is the hub for Nutraceutical plants having both nutrition and therapeutic use. These are the future food for good health and we have lakhs of these species in our region. These makes Northeast India to be the hotspot zone for the Organic Food Industry.
• ·         One step ahead of Organic Farming, Northeast India is the hub for Zero Budget Ecological Farming Practices where food can be grown naturally with the forest. All the beneficial microorganisms in our soil must not be destroyed in the hills by extensive tillage and modern agricultural practices and made into Ecological Farming zones. Successful models of Edible Food Forest and Low cost Ecological Farming has been developed by the young Agripreneurs of Northeast. Sungwa Organic Farm & Learning Centre in Dimapur in Nagaland and SPREAD NE Ecological Farm Learning Centre in Sonapur in Assam are good examples of how this form of farming is best suited to the region.
• ·         North East India is also hub for Organic Meat and animal products. Indigenous varieties of domestic animals are found in the region which can create huge demand in the International market. Local Country chickens, indigenous pig breeds of Nagaland with high protein content, goats and cows can be highly demanding in today’s world of Genetically modified food items. Start-ups by agripreneurs in this section are finding good grip in the market.
• ·         Northeast India is the most suitable place for Agro tourism and that can create a big marketing prospect for the organic products of the region. Organic farming and Agro tourism can go together making the region into an Organic Hub.

Don't Sale, Don't Donate & Don't Mortgage Your Land in NE India

Don't Sale, Don't Donate & Don't Mortgage

The three Don'ts that we the farmers of Northeast India has to learn in terms of conserving our God-gifted 'Land'

Farmer Samir Bordoloi

Northeast India is the most looked-for region in the country to grow healthy organic food for the people of India. The Government of India is promoting the whole region into a hub for Organic food production. The youths of the region can sustain their livelihood by becoming successful Agripreneurs if we realize the potentiality of our Natural Soil. Farming in the region must be designed in a systematized way where we do not over exploit the potentiality of the region to produce good food.

The Country has experienced the soil quality degradation in many leading food producing states and zones and had to payback at the cost of life of many farmers who committed suicide and many more who lost their land to indebtedness. We cannot repeat that mode of large scale Industrial methods of farming in the name of Organic Food Production this time. The region is still virgin land with full of natural resources except few states following big mono culture of cash crops mainly in the plain regions of the Northeast. This is a truth that there will be high demand of food for the big population of the country and most of the soils of the major food growing areas has given up due to heavy exploitation through Industrial farming methods. So everybody is looking towards the half unexplored green northeast to feed good food. So we the farmers of the region has a big role to meet the demand in a very careful way so that we do not exploit our resources and the beautiful nature. 

We the farmers of the Northeast must realize that giving value to our land and  grow healthy food through ecological farming practices on it, we can retain our young people in our villages where they will get a sustainable livelihood opportunity and will not migrate to urban areas in search of jobs. We must involve them in profitable farming without making them depend on external inputs. Reuse and recycling of our natural resources through ecological farming, use of indigenous varieties of seeds and crops, our hospitable nature used to promote farm and village tourism, ethnic food tourism etc. can be the vehicle to the overall development of the region without exploiting the beautiful nature. 

In this world of fast and the furious, our people in the villages are blessed to lead a lazy life where even today nature supports us with lots of our needs like local forest food, good soil and good harvest to have sufficient rice grains for the whole year, indigenous fishes and other food items to lead a healthy life and most importantly good air to breath in. These assets of nature like the nutraceutical plants, local herbs and vegetables, different coloured rice varieties, beautiful villages and our rivers, people with hospitable nature are the future market potential assets. 

We have the resources that the whole world is looking for but we have not become the custodians of our resources when it comes to socio-economic development of the region. We do not value our land and the resources. We are happy selling trucks of soil which we dig from farmlands to fill up low lying areas of the cities. Its frightening when I see farmers selling land from paddy fields and chopping off mountains to fill up buildings and highways just for 300 INR per truck. Its frightening to see thousands of brick fields coming up in fertile paddy growing land. Its very disheartening to see mountains being chopped off in our hill states to sale the soil to Highway projects. Its very sad when you see agricultural land made into industrial zones.

Our people are so simple and hospitable that they are so fast in donating their farmlands to many projects where in people from the business communities get the free hand to tame our land and resources including the human resource in the villages. The laziness in us to not even use our farm lands to produce our own food and earn a sustainable livelihood through it leads to creation in the needs in terms of health,education,access to drinking water, infrastructure for living etc. In many remote parts of the northeast now a days, you can see many organizations and business houses with their own agenda of works take lead in meeting the needs of those simple minded, hospitable and lazy with nature people and ends up getting the most valuable asset 'Land' as donation to create their own food and tourism industry and eye on the whole Southeast Asian market with our valuable nutraceuticals and beautiful nature. Many time we the farmers land up in giving the land in mortgage for money we take as loan for hi tech industrial farming.

Its time to arise and awake for the youths of Northeast to take lead and understand the potentiality of our beautiful region and design social enterprises based on our indigenous resources. When Punjab led the Food production movement, those were all indigenous Punjabi farmers who took the charge. Now it is the time to produce good food for the people of the country, so indigenous farmers from the Northeast has to lead. Lets become agripreneurs, form social enterprises and come together and grow healthy food and establish marketing collaborations with other parts of the country by branding NE food and making the whole country prosperous. Double up income through Farm and Village tourism and establishing small scale food processing units like the Community Enterprises. 

For our kids to be happy and prosperous, we must not turn our needs into greeds and should have a circumference of our development. we must not forget: our land,nature,local food,forest food, fresh air and water and lovely hospitable people and a slow life is what the world will seek for. Lets cash on that and build our local economies. 

                 Lets  Keep our Land with us to grow food for the world's children. Lets regard it and promise not to sale, mortgage or donate. 

Become a Green-fingured gardener:create school nutrition Food Forest.

             

Caring for your plants is the key to success in gardening. Whatever you plan to grow in your school nutrition garden, caring for your plants will make you a Green-fingered gardener. Like-minded friends can comprise into Green-fingered gardeners and form a Green Tribe in the school. Trial and error is the way many gardeners learn. Exploring what works and what doesn’t is a part of the fun of gardening. This quest of mine to look at the nature to help me grow and following the trial and error method, gave me a model of school nutrition gardening which I am sharing.  

The first job in creating a School Nutrition Garden is to search for like-minded friends and teachers who wants to grow own food. Form a Green Tribe to follow ecological gardening practices and lets be with Nature in producing our food. Plan out your garden by a transect walk of the school campus and be sure where you want to create your garden. Create a resource map of all the things you feel could help you in gardening like the water source, high land, dry leaves, bamboo, green weeds, gardening tools etc. Keep your gardening dress, gardening boots and gloves ready and have fun. 

While selecting the garden site always remember plants need the sun’s warmth and also protection from wind and rain. Find suitable places for growing your plants indoor and outdoor. You need pots and containers and also a small garden patch to grow your edible plants.  

Water 

Ascertain the water source as plants need water to make their food. The proportion of water needed varies from plant to plant. The water is drawn from the soil by the roots and transported to leaves through the stem. Sprinkling of water to the plant foliage also helps in fruit setting. We don’t have to flood the root zone but we have to keep it moist. In moist soil plants grow best. Create a small school garden Jalkund to harvest the rain water. 

School Garden Jalkund 

Towards the Lower side of the selected plot for the garden, dig a pit which is 3 feet wide and 5 feet long and 4 feet deep. Ensure that the side walls of the pit are slanting. Go to the nearby village and collect some paddy straw, cut them into pieces and stake them up in the bottom and side walls of the pit and pile up to a height of 1 feet. After piling the straw, spread a blue colour silpauline sheet over it. Cover up the side of the silpauline sheet with mud plastering on the top and we create a beautiful blue colour pit to collect the rainwater. Once the pit is full we can grow aquatic plants like the Azolla to check the evaporation loss. In winter days we can use this water for our garden. When we grow azolla, the water will also become nitrogen rich for our plants. 

Soil 

Plants need good soil that provides grip to the roots, prevent water draining away and to be filled with nutrients. The top layer of the soil is called humus and is the most important layer for plant nutrition and water holding capacity. Generating three centimeters of top soil takes 1000 years. 

Continuous tillage operations like ploughing, loosening with spade, soil erosion and use of chemical fertilizers and herbicides detoriate the soil. The current rates of degradation of all the world’s top soil could be gone within 60 years depicted by a Senior scientist in the FAO. So we have to keep the top soil as it is for our next generation. To do so we must follow good soil health management practices. Soil is a living body due to the action of the microbes and the soil insects. In ecological gardening we take help of all and keep the soil good. To create a School Nutrition Perma Garden we must follow the following steps. We have to feed the soil and not the plants. 

Good Soil Health Practices to be followed 

 Compost: Recycle and renew 

We can turn all our bio degradable wastes in the school campus to wealth by making it into compost. Make a list of all the Bio degradable wastes that are generated in the school campus. Collect small twigs which are dry and easily breakable. Collect all the dry leaves that falls down in the ground. Collect all the green grasses your school mali cuts down and also the green weeds growing in the campus. Collect fruit and vegetable peels from your canteen or the hostel. Collect two sacks of top soil from a nearby jungle or dry animal manure (cows,goats,buffalo,pig or country chicken). 

After collection of the composting materials the first step is to prepare an Extract to add up beneficial microorganisms to fasten up the composting process. Take 20 litre plastic drum and fill up water. Mix a handful of fresh cow dung or top soil, 1 litre of rice gruel, 3 meshed plantains. Add 1 litre of cow’s urine if available (optional). Stirr clockwise and anti-clockwise with a bamboo stick very fast to aerate the mixture for 20 minutes. Now this extract is ready to be sprinkled in each layer of the compost heap. 

Second step is to select a partly sunny site and take an area of 1 metre wide and 1 metre long. Just remove the grasses from the area and loosen the soil of the selected site with a spade.Third step is to pile up the small twigs into a layer of about 2 inches like an inverted V above the selected area. Sprinkle the liquid extract over the layer of the twigs.Now, pile up a 4 inches layer of green weeds or kitchen wastes above the twigs and sprinkle the liquid extract.Take care that roots of green weeds are not added. This layer provides Nitrogen and also moisture. Above the green layer pile up dry leaves layer of 12 inches and sprinkle the extract on it. This dry layer is the Carbon and we can maintain the Carbon-Nitrogen ratio in our compost. Above the Dry leaves layer, spread one sack of top soil or dry animal manure and sprinkle the liquid extract over it. Repeat the Green weeds and grasses and kitchen waste layer upto 4 inches above it and sprinkle the liquid extract. Repeat the dry leaves layer (12 inches) and the top soil/animal manure layer and sprinkle the extract in each layer. After the animal manure layer cover up the whole heap with top soil which comes out when you make the garden drains. Mix water and mud plaster the whole heap to make it air-tight. Light watering is needed for next seven days. After seven days just put your hands inside the heap and you will find it’s hot. Then turn the heap with the spade mixing the top soil also and follow light watering and again mud plaster the whole mixture. Second turning and watering should be done in 14 days and again mud plaster the mixture. After 21-25 days you can harvest your compost to feed the soil. 

Through composting the goodness from decaying plants can be recycled and turned into rich soil for new plants to use. 

 Bamboo Bio char Fertilizer 

Bio char fertilizers are organic and can be prepared easily in our garden. Bio char made of bamboo is the best one for our tubs, containers and the raised beds. We should use bamboo bio char as bamboo grows up within 4 years.  It’s a powerful soil amendment which increases water holding capacity of the soil. The charcoal of bamboo has high porous physical structure which retains microbes like Mycorrhizal fungi which helps plants with nutrients. It is a good source of Nitrogen and it sequesters carbon in the soil. The most easiest way to produce bamboo biochar for the school garden is as follows: 

•  Collect dry small pieces of bamboo and a Jute sack. Also a bucket of water and a match box and a spade. Wear your hand gloves and ask your senior members of the school to cut the bamboo into small pieces. 
•  Dig a pit of 1 feet long and 1 feet wide. The pit should be 1 feet deep . Dig the pit into a cone shape. 
•  Place the small dry bamboo pieces in the pit and burn them. Let the fire spread in the whole pit. 
•  Soak the Jute sack in the bucket of water. 
•  When the fire spreads in the pit and is into full flame cover up the fire with wet sack.  
•  Don’t allow the white smoke coming out of the sack by covering it with soil. Retain the white smoke. 
•  Keep it overnight and next day remove the sack and the soil and harvest the black bamboo charcoal. 
•  Select the pieces which can be easily broken and breaks with a tang sound. Collect them and make them to powder to apply in your soil mixed with compost. 

Worm composting

is a form of composting where we use earthworms to eat up rotten compost and the excreta of the earthworms called castings is a very good quality organic manure. For worm composting we have to use surface feeder earthworms and those earthworms which consume 90% rotten biomass and only 10% soil. The process of using worms for composting is called Vermicomposting. The castings are called Vermicompost. The earthworms we use locally are found in the Banana pseudostem. 

For making this compost we need a box( reuse Thermokol boxes or use Plastic box). Install the box in a raised platform and make a hole in one side of the bottom of the box. Install the box under shade. Put a layer of sand(2 centimetre) in the bottom of the box. Above the sand layer put a layer of dry cow dung powder (8 centimetre). Above it put a layer of rotten biomass or partially decomposed compost (15 centimetre) and repeat Dry cow dung powder layer (8 centimetre). Sprinkle water in the box so that the moisture content is about 60 per cent. To ascertain 60% moisture, just take a handful of the content of the box and squeeze. If two drops of water comes out that ascertains that we are near 60% moisture stage. Now release 20 earthworms in a box on the top layer and cover it up with a wet jute sack. Place a container just below the hole of the box to collect the liquid that comes out of the box. This liquid is called Vermiwash and is a very good plant tonic. Its mandatory to water the box every day about 2 mugs by sprinkling above the gunny sack. After few days you will notice granular castings on the top layer of the box and these are the castings. When you have a 

layer of about one inch of the casting, stop watering for two days and collect the vermicompost of the top layer. After you reach the next zone where the worms are eating, again cover up with the sack and start daily watering to maintain 60% moisture content in the box. One box can be emptied by harvesting layer after layer from the top in about 30 days. Harvested castings can be used in tubs and raised beds of the garden. The liquid vermiwash can be used as foliar spray for better growth and development of the plant @ 1 litre vermiwash mixed with 9 litres of water. 

4. Bio intensive Raised Beds 

This is a permagardening model where in the focus is to reduce the amount of tillage and conserve the top layer of the soil for the future generation. Raised beds are prepared with the help of compost, top soil of the jungle, vermicompost and bamboo bio char fertilizer. So one month prior to establishing the raised beds we should ensure that the above mentioned operations of school gardening are followed. These beds give more production by ensuring sufficient growth of beneficial microbes in the soil. It improves the water holding capacity of the soil and prevents erosion of the top soil. The steps involved in making a Bio intensive raised bed Ecological School nutrition Perma Garden are as follows: 

•  In the garden site install the beds in the North-South direction to ensure proper light distribution to the plants. 
• Make size of the beds to 3 feet wide and 10 feet long.  Make a plan how many beds can be made in the selected area.  
•  Do not remove all the grasses or weeds from the selected site. Just remove where you want to make the beds. 
•  Remove the grasses and weeds from the 3 feet x 10 feet bed area.  Now divide this into five parts of 2 feet wide length wise. 
•  Dig out 1 feet deep from the first 2 feet and store the soil in a bucket. Now loosen the bottom part of the pit made as much as possible. 
•  Then, dig out 1 feet deep soil from the second 2 feet patch and fill up the soil in the fairs patch pit. Again loosen the bottom part of the second pit.  
•  Dig out from the 3rd patch and fill up the soil into the second  pit of the bed. Continue it upto last patch where after loosening the fifth patch in the bottom, fill up with the soil of the first patch kept in the bucket. 
•  Now use bamboo to make the wall of the raised beds. After the double digging method( steps involved above), make a cage of the bed upto six inches with bamboo or wooden plank. 
•  Place a layer of 2 inches dry leaves while raising the beds. Mix 1 kg fresh cow dung or Jungle top soil, 1 litre cow urine/ vermiwash, 3 meshed plantains in 50 litres of water and stir hard and apply above the dry leaves layer of the raised bed. 
•  Now fill up the raised part with Compost, Top soil from the jungle, Vermicompost, Bamboo bio char upto the top of the bamboo cage. You can also mix egg shell powder to add calcium and also repel the soil insects. Release big size earthworms on the beds. 
•  Follow high density planting as in raised beds roots can go deeper inside. Follow Hexagonal spacing in place of square spacing to facilitate more plants. 
•  Mulching is to cover up the exposed soil in the space between the target plants. Cover these areas with mulches( Paddy straw, partially decomposed compost, and live mulch like the Centella asiatica plants. 
•  The double digging operation is only for the first time and next season onward, we can just fill up the beds with the compost mix. 
•  Never plant only one type of crop in a bed. Always mix the crops in the bed. 
•  Collect indigenous varieties of herbs, veggies, fruits trees from the village nearby the school and plant them on the beds. 5. Tubs and Containers for planting Indigenous edible plants 

Filling up a container or tub 

Make some holes on the base of the tub/container and place some pebbles at the bottom. Fill up the tub with the mix of compost, vermicompost, bio char, egg shell powder.  Plant the seedling on the centre of the tub. Mother plants to keep seeds for the next season can be grown in bigger tubs/containers. Place the tubs in different position of the garden and the school. You can also plant some indoor shade loving plants in the tub.  

 Border Plantation with Indigenous Fruit crops 

Live Fence: Plantation of Lemon trees or thorny local fruit trees at a close spacing creates into a Live Fence. Lemon trees are thorny and if planted closely at a spacing of 1,5 to 2 feet, does not allow animals to come inside the garden. The lemons can be sold by the green tribe which fetches good price or else eat them up at the hostel or the school canteen. 

Trap Crop: There are lots of crops which attract insect pests and also they have insect repellent properties in them. Marigold is such a crop which should be planted all around the raised beds next to the Lemon row to keep the bad insects away from the edible crops and also providing an aesthetic look to your school garden. The leaves and flowers of marigold can also be used to make insect repellent sprays. 

In Ecological Farming practices we concentrate on gardening with our own internal resources and their sustainable usage. We do not depend on external inputs. It is low cost as we take Nature as the capital. Just following the above practices and without spending money we can set up our Ecological School Nutrition Permagarden. Only we need the positive attitude and the work culture.  

          In my next write up, I will discuss about Keeping our garden healthy. Happy Gardening 

  

                                    __________________x____________________ 

School Organic Nutrition Gardens can create Future Social Agripreneurs

“It is the time to create dreams of agripreneurship based on sustainable use of local resources with the principle of Local people – Local Food – Local economy and school gardens must be the start.”- Farmer Samir Bordoloi

Food is life and people need to have good food. Future diseases in the world can be taken care by making good food eating habit rather than depending on too much of pharmaceuticals. Food that people eat must be nutritious , suitable to the local eating habit of the people and must be grown out of locally available indigenous crops so that dependence on food industries become less to maintain a quality food supply to the humanity . This requires respect towards the local indigenous food crops and one must learn to grow their own food. Increase in the world population has led to a heavy demand of food which is leading to production of food through high yielding varieties of crops which are also genetically modified  and intensive agricultural production system with the use of maximum tillage , hybrid seeds , extensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides leading to unsafe food items concerning health of the population . This intensive farming system is forcing extensive pressure on the Farmer’s most valuable resource ‘the soil’ , and in many places of the world the soil is becoming unproductive due to losing its quality. With the intensive farming system , the cost of cultivation is going very high and farmer is finding difficult to make profit in farming and many rural youths have left farming as their profession leading the whole food production into the hands of Corporations in the Food Industry . Hunger of the Food Corporations to make more profit has degraded the quality of the food which are less nutritious compared to local food items. With life becoming so fast for the humanity , the concept of having a small kitchen garden at home is fading away and people are going out of the habit of gardening . So it’s important to inculcate the concept of growing own food among the children and students to keep the tradition of farming retain to the human populations rather than giving it to machines .

Child’s Nutrition is better when the child enjoys eating food that is served . The corporations have lots of ways and means to lure the child towards those food items which are less nutritive and not safe in comparison to indigenous food . When the child learns to plant a food crop and he harvest it and takes in his diet , the kid is happy to eat own grown food . So making them grow their own food also develops the interest of the kid on the food he/she is eating leading to proper digestion and consumption. Hence, an organic school nutrition garden can be a beautiful tool to develop nutritional stewardship among young minds. The garden can also be a tool to provide Activity-based learning to the students by linking their textbook contents to the garden activities . It can also build a scientific temperament among young minds as their curious brain in the garden area will make them to search for many solutions . Gardening is another best method to inculcate lots of life skills like passion , compassion , love , patience , problem solving attitude etc. among young minds.

There is need of a systematic approach to include Organic Nutrition gardening as an activity based learning programme for the school kids . Students need to learn the simple techniques of growing their own food and also work towards bringing back the local food wisdom of the place . God created some crops specific to certain area which can provide healthy and nutritious food to those people living in the particular area. These are all local varieties of herbs , fruits and vegetables which grow well in the local conditions . As food is a big business as everybody in the world needs food , it’s the big Corporations who want to dominate the food industry . There is a hunger of the corporations to make people of the world eat those food items those can be under their control . They are in a race to shift the food habit of local people with local food into foods that are manufactured by them . Even they are up to changing farming of local crops to some hybrid and genetically modified crops for which the farmers will be always dependent on the market right from the seed to harvest.

When for the first time the child learns about food in schools , they learn more about the exotic food items . A child learning vegetables from a Chart in the Nursery class get exposed to pictures of hybrid and those vegetables which are not local and whose seeds the farmer cannot keep for the next season . Thus , from Nursery onward the food identification is shifted to some crops that are not local . It’s important to bring back the local food wisdom and school nutrition gardens with local crops can sow the seed of local people eating local food and building strong local economy in the mind-set of the future responsible citizens. Christ in the Bible has mentioned that when he created man , he created food for human beings by creating some herbs that yield seeds. It’s clearly mentioned to eat those herbs as food that produces viable seeds to carry on the legacy.

To make farming profitable , cost of cultivation has to be brought down . Dependency on external inputs has to be reduced by sustainable use of provincial natural resources. Utilization of locally available resources in farming is done since generations . But these practices are vanishing due to the chemical intensive modern day farming system . But the bad effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and as a whole the Industrial Agriculture has

As Sustainable Development Goal aims at conserving nature and sustainable use of natural resources in farming , plans are made to conserve seeds , soil , water and other resources. In the same way it is the time to conserve farming as a profession as most of the rural youths are migrating out of farming as a livelihood. If farmer’s kids doesn’t come to farming , the whole food industry will move to the hands of big Corporations. Thus , farmers must be converted to

Ecological farming practices of Ginger in my Edible Food Forests

                                                                                                                        

Ginger is a herbaceous plant belonging to the family Zingiberaceae and the rhizomes of the plant is used as spice. Ginger originated in the tropical rain forest from Indian sub-continent to Southern Asia. Numerous wild relatives of this crop are found in this region. The growing period of the crop is 8 to 9 months. It grows well under the shade of the trees and is suited to grow wild in the forest.  It’s an integral part of my way of farming inside the forest which I term as an Edible Food Forest. In the present era we have to go back to the roots and must think about joint management of the Forest with the food crops. We cannot take the risk of clearing jungles to grow food crops and also cannot burn forest every year to grow them. We have to pay back more in terms of shortage of water, oxygen, climate change and many more in lieu of our food. 

My experience of growing food crops inside the food forest that we have created in Sonapur at SPREAD NE Farm learning Centre is beautiful where we get tasty food with least management of insects and diseases. I can notice a beautiful synergy between the plants in the forest. Some providing the required shade, bananas storing the water in no water zones, bamboos shredding leaves and mulching the area with dry leaves to suppress growth of other plants near the food crop and also harvesting the dew drops and keeping the soil moist. Few practices that I follow growing ginger in the forest through my ecological farming practices are as follows: 

When to sow: 

For the plants to grow well in the initial stage and establish itself as a forest crop, a moderate rainfall at sowing time till the rhizome sprout is good. During the growing period we should have a well distributed showers and weather should be dry one month before harvesting. Thus it should be planted in the beginning of the rainy season. 

Varieties: 

For growing them in Edible Food Forest, we should grow the local varieties. Maran, Bhola , Nadia are good varieties to grow along with the forest. 

Land Preparation: 

Ginger grows in well-drained soil. Water stagnation should not be there. It should be grown in the highlands and slopes of the forest. In pit method, we make pits of size 1 feet x 1 feet x 1 feet. Take out the soil from the pit and loosen the bottom of the soil. Fill up 5 cm layer of the pit with dry leaves and then fill up the soil of the pit. Apply 50 grams wood ash and 30 grams of bamboo bio char per pit. In furrow method, make raised beds which are about 6 inches high. Trench Composting in between the furrows is important in this method. 

Trench Composting: 

Make trenches 30 cm wide and 30 cm deep in between the rows of the crop. Place the dry leaves as bottom layer of the trench. Above that put a layer of green grasses removed during making the furrows. Sprinkle a slurry made of 3 kgs cow dung, 3 litres cow urine and 1 litre rice gruel in 50 litres of water. Cow dung can be replaced by top soil found under trees in the jungle. In place of the green grasses, fresh kitchen wastes can also be used. Cover up the trench with the top soil. 

Seed Rhizome treatment: 

Mix 250 grams of raw turmeric paste and 100 grams of bamboo bio char and 100 grams of wood ash in 10 litres of water. Tie up the rhizomes in a soft cotton cloth and dip in the extract for 20 minutes. Shade dry and plant. 

Planting: 

In pits, place the small treated 2 to 5 cm long rhizomes weighing about 20-25 grams having one or two good buds should be placed on the centre of the pit. After planting do not press the soil and just keep it loose to facilitate aeration.  In furrows, Place the rhizomes in rows planted 20-25 cm apart from each other. Application of compost and dry leaves as mulch is an important step in planting. Seed Balls with Arahar or Pea or Beans seed inside can be placed on the compost trenches after one month of planting Ginger. Seed Balls with Pumpkin seeds should be thrown all over the area in the ginger area of the forest. 

SEED BALLS: 

Mix same amount of compost and top soil and make them into balls of a cricket ball size and insert a seed 1 cm deep in the ball. Shade dry and throw in the forest (Seed Bombing).

  After Care: 

For Growth and Development: 

•  Release long and big size earthworms in the whole area.  
• Mix 2 Kgs termite hill soil (ensure removal of termites. There are lots of hills in the forest which the termites leave after a certain period) in 50 litres water and sprinkle all over the land.  
• Make Bamboo bio char and mix 1 kg in 50 litres water and sprinkle time to time.  

For soft rot and rhizome rot: 

It is the most destructive disease of Ginger caused by fungi Pythium aphanidarmatum, P. vexans and P. myriotylum. The infection starts at the collar region of the pseudostem and progresses upward and downward. The collar region becomes water soaked and later the rhizome rots. Roots are also infected later on. On the leaf you can see symptoms like light yellowing of the tips of the lower leaves and the leaf blades. Seed Treatment as mentioned above is very important to control this disease. Applying vermicompost mixed with mustard oil cake helps to control this disease. 

Bacterial Wilt: 

Water soaked spots appear at the collar of the pseudostem and mild drooping and curling of leaf margins of the lower leaves which later spreads upward. Yellowing starts from the lower most leaves. Severe wilting and yellowing at the later stage. Bacterial ooze comes out of the pseudostem if you cut it and notice under a plain glass of water. Seed treatment and removing water stagnation at the base are important for control. Once the disease is noticed mix 10 grams of asafoetida(Hing), 200 grams of Calotropis leaves, 100 grams of Bamboo bio char in 10 litres of water and sprinkle above the plants.  Shoot borer: 

The shoot borer( Conogethes punctiferalis) larvae bores into the pseudostem and feed in the internal tissues resulting in yellowing and drying of leaves. This can be controlled by light traps by lighting with fire in a tin near the Ginger plants for one hour from the dusk. Mix five kind of leaves which are not eaten by cow, goats and deers and boil them in 5 litres water and cool and sprinkle the extract on the plants. Take 500 grams of each kind of leaves. Sprinkle wood ash above the leaves time to time. To sum up, these challenges are very less and also absent when we grow ecologically in the food forest. Keep the forest and grow your food and livelihood.  

Bamboo based cropping pattern with king chiili under it.

Growing King Chillis under the shade of Bamboo canopy : A way to reduce the incidence of insect pest and diseases to have bumper yield with no irrigation in hills. 
                                                                                                      -Farmer Samir Bordoloi

King Chillis are one of the unique types of chillis found in most of the parts of Northeast India known all over the world for its hotness. The chilli grows well in the states of Nagaland, Manipur , Assam and few parts of Arunachal Pradesh. The local name of the chilli differs from place to place and also there are different types of the chilli in terms of size, shape, colour , plant size and hotness. Very less works has been done on the research part to identify the qualities of different types of king chillis available in the region. This type of chilli plant is subjected to many insect pests and diseases and most susceptible to four types of viral infection. Thus, at SPREAD NE Farm Learning Centre where Farmers are the barefoot scientists conducted a study based on the traditional ways of growing this crop in remote hilly villages of Nagaland and Manipur. With those indigenous techniques, the Farm Learning Centre incorporated ecological farming methods based on the sustainable reuse and recycling of the Farm Resources. King chilli is a shade-loving plant and it was recorded that , it was less prone to insects attack resulting in viral infestation was less when provided with proper shade. The indigenous people of Old Tesan village and Tenning village of Peren district of Nagaland has an unique way of growing king chillis under the shade of trees and bamboo plants on the hills. Working on the same technique of growing king chillis, SPREAD NE Farm Learning Centre led by Farmer Samir Bordoloi planted king chillis under the bamboo canopy with modifications in the planting techniques by making larger pits and incorporating compost and bamboo bio char fertilizer and mulching with dry bamboo leaves. In the experiment, 100 plants were planted under a bamboo canopy and 84 plants survived without incidence of any major insect pest and diseases. It was observed that this method enables the plant to thrive in hard conditions in the hills like non availability of irrigation water and difficult conditions for intercultural operations like weeding and land preparations. 100 plants of same size and age were also planted without shade in the farm and it was found that only 30 plants survived and had severe infestation of aphids and leaf curl virus though planted in raised beds with proper nutrition. This was also observed that the bamboo plant shred leaves which covers the exposed land and acts as mulch for the king chillis and retain moisture in the root zone which helps them in hills where there is acute shortage of water for irrigation. The green canopy provides about seventy per cent shade where the plants are very strong and productive. The challenge of soil insects like cut worms and termites were taken care by application of egg shell powder and wood ash and bio char. Bamboo leaf mulch also reduced the infestation of cut worms and snails. It is observed that a 5 to 6 years old bamboo canopy can support 80 to 100 plants to grow strong and produce about 120 kilograms of king chillis and can earn about Rs.24000 per growing season for the farmers.

  INTRODUCTION :

King chillis are shade-loving plants and they do not grow well under the direct sun. They are more subjected to incidence of insects and viral infections when grown under the sun and with a clean cultivation practices like proper beds , weeding and much systematic way of farming. These are the feedback of the indigenous farmers of the Northeast growing this crop and also our experience of trying to grow this crop in different farms of the northeast growing it organically. While working with the farmers of Old Tesan , Peren and Tenning villages of Peren district of Nagaland , we found that the farmers have an unique method of growing this crop in the hills under the shade of the bamboo canopy and they didn’t have access to irrigation water in the hills. They simply dig the soil with a short handle-spade to make a small pit and plant the sapling and slightly tap the soil with their feet . The plants grow naturally without any fertilization and after care and they harvest good quality chillis . Banking on this traditional way of farming in the hills , we incorporated our ecological farming techniques to yield better quality , disease free , less insect damage , minimum requirement of water and management practices , and naturally organic king chillis. In comparison to the plants grown under direct sun , the survivality and productivity of the plants grown under bamboo canopy are better. The method used is based on the recycling and reuse of the farm resources making it low cost technology to add on to profit.

  OBJECTIVES:

·         To increase productivity of king chilli by proper shade management and use the land under bamboo canopy.

·         To develop a bamboo-based cropping pattern.

·         To develop a method to utilize hilly land with less water availability into king chilli growing zones to enhance farmer’s income.

·         To develop a business package of king chilli and bamboo, two potential crops of North east India.

   SPREAD NE Method of Growing King Chilli under Bamboo Canopy :

Seed Source : Keep your own seed . Make a bio intensive raised bed under the canopy of a bamboo to grow the mother plants and collect similar size , matured and ripen fruits . Use a hand glove to pluck the fruit and place the fruits in a paper plate and above a tissue paper. Keep it in a dark place with proper ventilation and change the tissue paper whenever it is wet. Keep like this for seven days and after that with a sharp knife or blade cut the stalk of the fruit and dissect the fruit length wise in the centre . Now with a bamboo stick (Needle shaped) , remove the seeds and after shade drying store in a sealed paper envelope.

Seed Treatment: Mix 50 gms of raw turmeric paste in 100 ml raw milk and 300 ml cow urine .Add 25 gms of wood ash and 50 gms paste of Calotropis leaves or Papaya leaves. Mix this solution with 2 litres of water in a clean container. Tie up the King chilli seeds in a soft muslin / cotton cloth and dip it in the solution for 20 minutes . Shade-dry and sow the seeds in a seedling-tray.

Seedling Raising: Fill up the seedling trays with the mix of 70 percent compost that you make through heap and hot composting, 20 percent worm compost and 10 percent bamboo bio char. With the help of a bamboo stick make a small hole of about 1 cm deep and place the seed on the center. Use disposable hand gloves while sowing. Keep the seed tray under the shade and water it in regular intervals.

We can also grow the seedlings by making a bio intensive raised bed of the size 3ft wide and required length. The bed after double-digging should be raised to 6 inches by using bamboo frame under a bamboo canopy and the raised beds should be filled with 70 percent compost, 20 percent worm compost and 10 per cent bamboo bio char. It is good to sprinkle 1 kgs wood ash mixed with 200 g egg-shell powder or snail-shell powder to keep the soil insects away and also add calcium to the soil. Mix same amount of seeds and worm compost in a paper and mix thoroughly and then sow it on the bed ensuring uniform spread. Watering the beds in regular interval is essential. The seedlings are ready to be transplanted in 25-30 days.

Making Planting pits under the Bamboo Canopy:

Make pits of 1 feet wide and 1 feet long (square) and 1 feet deep. After digging out 1 feet soil from the pit, loosen the bottom of the pit as much as possible. Now mix 200 g compost, 50 g bio char , 100 g wood ash , and 100 g worm compost with the dug-out soil and mix thoroughly and then fill up the pit . Don’t compact the soil and make a hole of the size of the soil attached with the seedling and place it in the center of the pit and gently tap the soil with hands. Mulch the pits with fallen bamboo dry leaves. Cut worms do not like the bamboo leaf mulch and our seedlings are safe. They also don’t allow weeds to grow near the plants and retain the moisture as we rarely have watering sources in the hills. Best time of planting the seedlings is April-May. The spacing from one plant to the other plant should be 2 feet.

Plant Care Techniques:

7 days after planting: Mix one handful of fresh cow dung or 1 kg of top soil or 500 g of compost, 3 liters of cow urine or 1 liters of vermin wash, 1 liters of rice gruel in 20 liters of clean water and shake clockwise and anticlockwise for 20 minutes with a bamboo stick and then apply one cup of the solution to the base of each plants.

15 days after planting:

·         Boil 500 g Calotropis leaves, 100 g ginger, 500 g Karanj leaves, 500 g Castor leaves, 200 g raw turmeric paste and 50 g garlic paste in 5 liters of water. Boil the solution until it is half i.e. 2.5 liters remaining. Cool down the solution and then filter the extract with a cotton cloth. Mix the extract with water in the ratio of 1:9 and spray on the crop. [In case the mentioned leaves are not available, farmers can take those leaves which are not eaten by cows and goats.]

·         Re-Use Plastic Mineral water bottles as sticky traps: Put yellow paint mixed with thinner inside a used mineral water bottle and shake well to colour the whole bottle into yellow color from inside. Apply Castor oil (Sticky) on the outer side of the mineral water bottles and install them in the crop growing zone and put one bottle for ten plants. This will attract the sucking insects which transmit viral diseases and will be trapped in the castor oil.

30 days after Planting:

·         Mix 200 g bamboo bio char with one liter of vermi wash and 200g of the inner soil of a termite hill (ensure it is free of the termites), asafetida (Hing) 10g with 20 liters of water, stir clockwise and anticlockwise for twenty minutes, filter it with a cotton cloth and sprinkle over your plants and the base of the plant with a handful of paddy straw dipped in the solution.

·         Cut the lower leaves with a scissor.

After these operations time to time apply worm compost to the base of the plant. No weeding is needed as very less weeds grow under the bamboo canopy because of the natural mulching done by shredding of the dry bamboo leaves. Following these operations we are having a good yield of about 2 kgs of chillis per plant per yielding season and one bamboo canopy can accommodate about 100 chilli plants. We do not plant outside the canopy area. All the inputs we use are generated in the farm itself keeping the cost of cultivation very less and farmers can make profit and we can use the space under the bamboo canopy which remains unused in most of our farms and gardens.

 Results and discussions:

King chillis grow best under shade and an unique system of growing those chillis under the Bamboo canopy is successfully carried out by the farmers of SPREAD NE Farm Learning Centre, Sonapur of Kamrup Metro district. In the hills of the farm ,the team of SPREAD NE comprising of Diganta Kakati, Alakesh Das, Brajen Deka, Riku Rahman, Raju, Hanif and Kamaleswor Das led by Farmer Samir Bordoloi conducted a trial of growing king chillis under the bamboo canopy and planted 100 plants under one canopy and followed the above mentioned techniques and yielded best quality chillis with minimum infestation of pests and diesases. Now the Centre is training tribal farmers based in the hills of the region to grow in this model. Out of the 100 plants, 84 plants survived and yield about 250 g of chillis in one plucking per plant. It was also found that planting in later part of May, the crop is getting rain water evenly distributed by the bamboo canopy and making optimum level of rainwater available for the plants. This was also observed that shredding of bamboo leaves turns out to be a natural mulching technique covering the soil not allowing unwanted plants to grow and also retaining the soil moisture adding to microbial growth. The study also revealed that as termites are a challenge under the bamboo canopy but they were not destroying the plants because of the use of bio char and egg shell powder on the base of the plant. The cutworms also didn’t affect the seedlings due to the bamboo leaf mulch. The growing media of compost, bio char, vermicompost, in the seed trays without using soil resulted in very strong seedlings. It is important for our farmers to grow with the indigenous techniques and bringing in innovations by using the resources we have around us to make our farmers self-dependent and most importantly profitable. The cost of cultivation is very less as most of the inputs used were produced at the farm. A comparative study was done on the growth of king chillis under bamboo canopy and under the sun was taken up and it was observed that plants growing under the bamboo canopy performed well in terms of production, infestation of insects and diseases, growing condition with less water. Most of the plants growing under direct sun were heavily infested by the leaf curl virus, whereas a few plants only had minimum incidence of the infestation in few plants. Out of 100 plants planted in both the conditions, 84 survived under the bamboo canopy and only 30 plants survived under the sun.

Winter Farming in hills : Dew drop and frost harvesting is one of the keys to success.

                                                                                                           

 

People living in the hills of the North eastern part of India has the habit of growing their own local food amidst all the hardship they have in reference to the mountainous topography. They maintain their local food wisdom by keeping their diet to all the indigenous edible crops that grows in this part of the world. The change in the environmental factors is now making the farmers of the region face many challenges in the process of growing own food. These challenges has to be credited to all the deforestation, every year shift of land for farming, industrialization, and natural calamities, farmers are now finding it difficult to grow their crops with the major problem of Water Scarcity. The farming here is totally rain fed and installation of micro irrigation system is also a challenge due to the topography and scarcity of permanent water source. In winter months it is more difficult as people have to think even for the drinking water and for their house-hold activities. Animal rearing is becoming more difficult.

This water shortage is leading to change in the food habit. People who are food producers are becoming food purchaser. The nutritious local food habit the people used to have is turning to some food items produced through industrial agriculture. Farmers are migrating out of the villages as they cannot make profit in farming. The rich culture of the villages are in stake as the youths are preferring to move out of the villages. Technologies are being pumped in but adaptability of the technologies to the local conditions and the topography is a big question mark.

Working for last three days creating Paangkhriang Friendship School Nutrition Garden in the beautiful village of Ijeirong in Noney district of Manipur, I realized nature has solutions to all the challenges it gives to mankind. I am putting my whole energy to think about the solution to the big water shortage that this beautiful garden created by school children and youths will face in this coming winter. I don’t want them to surrender in front of a challenge and rather develop their attitude to explore Nature to find out an answer developing their problem solving attitude. This quest of mine to find a solution led me to explore nature and while walking in the grass early morning, I found a solution in the form of Dew drops. My whole leg was wet and saw the thatch grasses in the road sides with so much of water retention. Now the idea to bring the thatch grasses cut without the roots and mulch them in our bio intensive raised beds will help us to harvest lots of dew drops and fog in the mulch zone sufficient to feed our crops in the morning. Already we are creating Bio intensive raised beds in the slopes and terraces with compost and bio char to improve the water holding capacity of the soil.

 Lots of Poly houses are being promoted now in the region through different initiatives which has a fixed Ultra Violet film roof, which I feel should be with the option of removing during the winter months. Shade net house for the shade loving plants are better for this region. In the school garden we are observing difference in the water retention in the beds inside the poly house and the beds in the open. Open beds in winter months are better.

Nature nurtures Future. It gives us challenges but also solutions nearby. We should seek to nature for solutions as Natural solutions are best and friendly to the small and the marginal farmers.