Sustainable Agriculture: Notes from the Ground
Oct 26: Many readers of this blog are familiar with the work of Manzil led by Ravi Gulati. 
He mentors groups of what we euphemistically call 'underprivileged' children and youth. The focus is on learning from the world and learning for the world (livelihood and service). Ravi says that we should never forget that books are an imperfect approximation of the world and that real learning can only be by doing. Today nearly twenty of his incredibly creative and confident students are visiting the farm with Ravi and his family.
We begin with a walk-around and talk about the various activities at the farm. Before the students plunge themselves into activity – checking out the worms
, picking produce, cultivating, bathing the buffaloes and cutting chaff for growing mushrooms – we stand in a circle and share. What happens to all the produce? A few hands move over tummies. We talk about the difference between sustainably grown food and industrial food. How does the produce reach the consumers? We explain the logic of the friends of Farmers First consumer group. Why bring farmers and consumers together? This is where the discussion gets really interesting. The visitors caught the logic of better returns for the farmer quickly. But there is more. The consumer gets to look the farmer in the eye, gets to visit the place where his food is grown and thus knows that it is wholesome and nutritious. There are skills and resources he has – e-mail, internet, phones, tying up training and transport, which the farmer may not have. He can perhaps contribute to both production and marketing. The farmer has skills and knowledge, say about traditional foods, seasonal rhythms, soil and vegetation, that the city folks do not. He can perhaps help the city dweller relax and reconnect with the earth. A simple marketing channel becomes a platform for sharing
.
All of us get a special treat at the end of circle time, a song on FFF composed and sung by Ram Singh, the farm manager. The lyrics in Punjabi tell the story of a farmer, burdened by debt and caught in the cycle of 'Zinc, Urea and Spray'. His wife tells him about organic agriculture, composting and FFF. He can't believe first that you can do without fertilizers and pesticides but as often happens in Bollywood he has a change of heart during the course of the song. Ram Singh ends with a comedy routine in Hindi about two mixed up radio talk shows – one on growing potatoes and the other on taking care of husbands. The girls laughed the loudest when he announced that bad (potatoes) husbands should be thrown on the compost pile.
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