Once she called it quits as an IT professional, Sreeja S. Nair decided to follow her passion – farming. She wanted greenery around her house at Vattiyoorkavu. But she had no idea where to start or how to go about it. And then at one of those exhibitions in the city, she chanced upon a team promoting zero budget farming, a farming method that focusses on traditional agricultural practices and sustainable development.
Today Sreeja’s garden has saplings of different varieties of mango, jackfruit, and plantain, rose apple (chambakka), tamarind, coccum (kudampuli), pomegranate, sapota, vetiver (ramacham), corn, pineapple and vegetables. There are many farming enthusiasts like Sreeja who’ve turned to Biotips to befriend the good earth. In Sreeja’s case, Biotips undertook contract farming by helping her out with all kinds of support and guidance.
That is one of the activities of the seven-member group that was registered in February this year. “We encourage people to take up age-old farming methods by combining modern technology with traditional farming practices. We teach them about zero budget farming, which follows the basic principle that it is the natural environment that enhances productivity of crops,” says Sanjeev S. J., one of the members of Biotips.
It is their interest in farming that brought the group together. Most of them had started out with bee-keeping and, initially, had formed Bee Green, a group to promote bee keeping and agriculture. But an interaction with Subhash Palekar, the propagator of zero budget natural farming, changed their focus.
“Our motto is that there is a farmer in every human being. Each of us has our own farm where we cultivate vegetables, rear poultry, keep bees, and so on. We are also involved in marketing different agricultural products,” says Arunkumar, another member.
The products that are marketed include honey and honey-based products, dairy products, fruits and their by-products, plants with medicinal properties, tamarind and the like. They also help people procure indigenous cows, poultry, different plants and fruit varieties, some of them which are becoming extinct. “We enjoy hunting for such varieties that are difficult to procure,” Sanjeev says.
Biotips acts as a help desk, guide and facilitator. If a client opts for contract farming, the members help them to cultivate the plot, irrespective of the size of the plot. They provide clients with the raw materials, labour and tools.
“Zero budget farming is based on the principle of allowing a group of plants to grow in a natural ecosystem, thus ensuring required amount of sunlight, shade and nutrients in the soil. This ecosystem encompasses earthworms, micro organisms, honeybees, natural predators to control pests… all that help the growth of these plants in communion with nature,” says 53-year-old Vijayakumar.
Jeevamritham, Khanajeevamritham and Beejamritham are among the special cultures used as fertilisers. Cow dung, cow urine, black jaggery, ‘palayamthodan’ banana variety, and soil are the basic ingredients of these organic cultures, he explains.
Biotips, which has also associated with Centre for Disability Studies to set up a horticulture therapy garden, hopes to associate with the government in future. “There is a lot of unused barren land in different parts of the district. We have a project to develop a sustainable ecosystem in such places. If the owners can’t do the farming, we can step in and work there on a partnership initiative. Also, we have evolved a terrace farming method where the plants are grown in scrap material instead of the grow bags which are a threat to the environment,” he says.
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