With the onset of the southwest monsoon, farming is picking up momentum in Araku, nearly 120 km from Visakhapatnam, and other tribal areas of the Eastern Ghats, a region that remains in harmony with nature. Using their age-old cultivation practices, tribespeople here grow various crops, mainly paddy, sweet potato, ragi (finger millet) and pulses. Without chemical fertilizers, pesticides or tractors, they uphold traditional organic farming using manure and plough the fields using cattle. Entire families have been in the fields from mid-June. Ploughing and sowing turn the tribal area into a beehive of activity. In small groups, the people take up farming on a large scale to a perfect rhythm — a grand spectacle for tourists who flock to the region.
Children are left at home to take care of their younger siblings when other members are busy with farming work. Even school and college students take to the fields. The farmers here use indigenously made tools such as spades, sickles, axes and sieves.
Most farmers in Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh and the neighbouring hilly regions of Odisha have landholdings of just two to four acres. They resort to mixed farming, making use of perennial hill streams and rain-fed irrigation. Soil fertility is high as chemicals are not used. A minimum of three crops is cultivated in a season. However, per-acre yield is less.
Churning the earth: Women preparing the fields to transplant paddy at Araku in Visakhapatnam district on the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border. Tribespeople in the Eastern Ghats region do not use tractors, chemical fertilizers and pesticides for agriculture.
Patchwork quilt: Emerald fields greet tourists to the Araku Valley in Visakhapatnam, with the onset of the monsoon and beginning of farming.
Farm school: Boyi Ramachander (left), who discontinued studies after his intermediate course, along with his cousin undertaking farm work at Konjiguda in Dumbriguda Mandal in Visakhapatnam district.
Passing the baton: The farming practices of Araku Valley are passed on from generation to generation.
Undulating fields: A sweet potato patch comes up at Suva village in the interior regions of Araku.
Fair winds: Egged on by the monsoon clouds, a farmer ploughs his field in Araku.