No Till Farming at Raju Bhai’s Farm

I had heard of Raju Titus as some one who’s inspired by Fukuokaji. I was told that he has not tilled his land for the last twenty years and has been getting good yields. Had seen pics of his farm where wheat was growing under the shade of babool trees. He just casts the seeds on the ground on the remains of the previous crop and then just waters the field(that’s a major intervention). He doesn’t even cover the seeds with clay like Fukuoka ji talks in his books. After seeing the pics I was even more clear that I wanted to visit him.

We saw that the wheat was growing on undulating land and under the gentle shade of trees. I was commenting to Daulat, my friend who is a farmer and was with me on his farm, that it won’t be possible to run a tractor in Raju ji’s undulating field which has so many trees. Daulat who ploughs his field with bullocks in his village said - “ forget the tractor, we can’t even plough his field with bullocks”.

I have met some organic farmers who are inspired by Fukuoka ji’s do nothing farming but he was the first person who was actually doing it successfully to the extent of zero tilling and throwing the seeds in the field. Being on his field assured me that there is abundance in nature if we live with nature.

Rajuji was sharing his story… around twenty years ago he was doing chemical farming but each year they were getting less and he was getting so sick of farming that he was about to quit it and sell his land. Around that time his mother met people at the Friends Rural Center in Rasulia, who were working on organic farming. She talked about her son wanted to quit farming to them. They gave her a copy of ‘One Straw Revolution’ by Fukuoka ji. She liked the book and gave it to Rajuji…

The idea of ‘do nothing’ farming appealed to him and he saw that tilling is the most harmful thing. He, like Fukuokaji, believes that when you till the land you break the structure of the soil which has been made by rats, worms, insects and micro organisms. The capillaries which are made by the up and down movement of the earthworms and other life forms in the soil are broken down and the water holding capacity of the soil is reduced. Tilling also exposes micro-organisms and other insects to sunlight and heat which kills them and destroys some humus. This reduces the water retention in the soil and also leads to lower fertility so the farmer has to bring fertilizers, either organic or chemical, from outside. Rajuji is totally against it and believes that the soil on an organic farm should become fertile on its own and should not even need organic fertilizers. Any biomass from another place according to him is stealing from where it should have been.

His farm was like a complete eco-system or a microclimatic zone. The trees next to the wheat play an important role by breaking the wind, increase shade and humidity. They bring the nutrients from under to soil through the deep roots and drop them through their leaves which are broken down in some time. The birds and other insects who live on the trees eat the insects on the plants and enrich the soil with their droppings. The trees also give wind break, give shade and increase humidity.

Rajuji believes that even on and organic farm, tilling weakens the soil. The plants don’t get enough nutrition and become vulnerable to ‘pests’ and diseases. The farmer then uses organic composts from outside (vermi compost) and organic pesticides, which according to him defeats the purpose of organic/natural farming.

I had met some Permaculturist, who said that a plant gets pests because it is weak but insects after eating the plant will eventually die in the same soil and their carcasses will bring some more needed nutrients to the soil. Deepak Suchde, another farmer friend, told a story of a farmer in Hyderabad whose rice crop got some ‘pest’. He was advised by some organic farmer to cut the crop and leave it there to mulch in the same field. He did that and next year his yield was double than what he used to get normally. According to Deepak Bhai, two most important things in natural farming is improving the soil and making a micro-climatic zone.

It seem that ‘disease’ comes because there is a reason and its natures intelligence at work. If the plant is weak, the stem cant support the leaves so they become small, faded, shriveled and fall down, eventually, increasing the biomass under the plant to eventually increase the soil fertility. Had read that when there is a pest instead of treating the plant we should treat the soil. There is an idea of ‘swiss biology’, a healing system, where in case of human disease they say “don’t treat the disease but treat the patient”.

Raju Bhai believes that even ‘weeds’ are natures mechanism to improve the soil. ‘Weeds’ are natures way to increase the green cover so they come easily on any soil where there is nothing growing and the soil is weak. According to him when we till we weaken the soil and nature thinks that the soil is weaker so it gives us ‘weeds’ which grow very faster and stronger each year with more tilling.

For him GM is a smaller issue while tilling and the consequential farming done by adding fertilisers is a serious one. GM is a cause of the same problem which has been created by tilling at the first place. According to him the way we are farming, it is destroying the soil, so we get artificial fertilizers and pesticides and when that also doesn’t solve that we have to look for more drastic methods like GM seeds. Just as we need to increase the fertilizers every year we need more drastic measures like GM to solve our problem. Einstein had said that you cannot solve a problem with the same mindset which created the problem at the first place. He thinks that it is naïve to expect the farmer to forever stay on chemical farming and eventually not move on things like GM, etc. We have to go to the root of the problem and stop tilling the land.

He refers to his farming as ‘Rishi Kheti’, a name given by Vinoba ji. It is done by hands. Rajuji talked about ‘Rishi Panchami’, a festival when crab grass is worshipped and people are supposed to eat only grains which are grown without tilling. He also told of a floklore where when a particular grass called ‘kaans’ begins flowering on the fields it is said that ‘rain has grown old’ which means that the soil has lost its moisture and the field should be left fallow for the animals to graze.

He also thinks that the way farming is now practiced, it is violent and ‘himsic’. For him Rishi Kheti is a farming of Ahimsa. He doesn’t believe in using any pesticides (even organic). It is the overall ‘himsa’ of the chemical farming, wherein after killing all the other species, which we think are harmful, we are now forcing our farmers to kill themselves by committing suicides.

As for ‘satya’ or truth, he believes that such farming is in consonance with the ‘satya’ of nature. Understanding it and accepting it. Taking natures support to do farming. I would say this farming also stands for Swaraj. There is self reliance and one can live off ones farm. This includes, making your own compost, in situ and not getting anything from outside. Though he is not fully self reliant in food for some reasons but the farm where the wheat is growing is a really amazing space.

For him ‘do nothing’ farming is a kind of ‘akarma’(non-action) of Gita. It’s a stage of Karmayoga when the person does karma(action) without ‘doing’ any action. The way yogi’s don’t DO any thing but there presence creates a state of action around them, that’s how nature does the ‘karma’ like ‘akarma’ in case of ‘Rishi Kheti’.

The pictures of the farm can be seen at
http://picasaweb.google.com/rajuktitus