Chennai: Even as there were world-wide protests on Saturday against genetically modified crops and the company synonymous with it, Monsanto, around 15 seed conservators displayed their rich yield obtained through organic farming, in Chennai. The farmers, hailing from different parts of Tamil Nadu and neighboring Karnataka, took centrestage at a seed and organic food festival organized by Safe Food Alliance, Organic Farmers Market and Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture.
Several stalls were setup to showcase the diversity of traditional agriculture with seed savers displaying native seeds of paddy, millets as well as vegetables. The crowd, composed of several young professionals and students, eagerly enquired with farmers regarding their decision to shun chemicals. They purchased the organic produce. Describing the seed mela as a novel protest in comparison to the marches, Ananthoo, of the Safe Food Alliance, said farming and seeds should remain with farmers and not be destroyed by corporate giants like Monsanto.
A seed conservator, Shankar Hanumant, from Belgaum district in Karnataka, explained that organic farming guarantees substantial returns at no significant cost. “We are a group of 40 farmers doing organic farming in small pockets of land and cultivate more than 90 varieties of pulses, millets and vegetables. We have a seed bank and hence we sustain by ourselves even though there is no help from the government side,” Shankar said.
Woman quits job to till soil
Why would a college lecturer in archaeology give up her decent job and decide to become a daughter of the soil? When the question was posed to her, Deepika Kundaji, a participant, said she wanted to do farming by herself adding “I yearned to live the life of a peasant farmer and not a landowner farmer.” With no future by living in an urban city, she moved from Bengaluru’s IT hub to Auroville where she had been working with Bernard Declerq, one of India’s best known organic farmers and researchers since 1994.“I am part of a land regeneration project, whereby in a half-acre eroded land I rebuilt the soil and grow 90 traditional varieties of vegetables, including eight kinds of extremely rare ladies finger”, she said.
Farmer realises Benefits of organic farming
G. F. Viswasam, of Dindigul district, is one among the 250 farmers promoting organic farming in agricultural fields in 450 acres in his native district.The third generation farmer said his father had tried to enrich land chemically, but soon realised it was not benefiting in any way. So, after getting to know about organic farming through the late G. Nammalvar, a renowned activist involved in preaching the benefits of organic farming, Viswasam decided to adopt that method of farming.
