Xavier Farm: going organic

On 8^th May ’14 a One day training in organic farming, for the enthusiastic Jana Jagaran staff, by Mr. Suresh Desai from Bedikihal, Chikkodi, held at Xavier Farm, has definitely led to a decision as to experiment the models of Organic Farming in one’s own field as well as in a portion of Xavier Farm.

Suresh Desai, an experienced agriculturist and a consultant for agriculture had an amazing energy and confidence in his voice throughout the day. He began with an introduction to Organic Farming by taking us back to analyse Indian farming in ancient and present times. The need of the hour is that everyone needs a healthy food. However, can we really claim that we have a healthy food when we consume food produced with the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides? The increase in the population has led to so many problems such as unemployment, urbanization; need to produce more with the hybrid seeds.

With the development in technology, food is becoming poison which causes numerous diseases in us. Mr. Suresh presented an incident wherein a new born baby was kept isolated from its mother since the doctor diagnosed that there were poisonous elements in its mother’s milk. We have also seen a similar situation in the program ‘Satya Meva Jayate’:  Poison in our Plates where people in Punjab are prone to cancer due to the food produced with the use of pesticides.

We are the cause for the destruction and damage. So we ourselves have to experience the harmful consequences. However, Repair of the earth can also be done by us. We can produce more food without the use of chemicals or pesticides through Organic Farming. Just as in a forest, the huge trees get their nourishment from the forest residues, we too need to use agricultural residues to make our land fertile and produce healthy food.

All of us, enthused and motivated then took a round in the farm to see the dairy, the plot of land upon which we as a JJ staff are going to experiment with Organic Farming. Thus in the years to come we strive to make Xavier Farm a model farm.

GO GREEN! As part of SAS (Jana Jagaran’s) overall design for transforming the country side  with green coverage,  JJ and its activists decided to plant during the current monsoon season 2000 trees in the premises of Xavier Farm, which is managed by SAS(Jana Jagaran).  JJ procured 1000 saplings from Forest Departments’ nursery in Machhe and planted 600 of them during the 2nd week of June with the help of the Farm Staff.  The other staff of JJ planted the remaining 400 saplings on 22nd June.  Fr. Joe, the director of JJ, had suggested earlier  that JJ staff did one day “shramadan” – free labour,  on 22nd June.  The response was beyond all expectations. 35 staff turned up for the “shramadan”. Under the leadership of Fr. Joe, they finished planning the saplings by lunch time and wound up the program with a delicious lunch prepared by Jana Jagaran’s most popular chef Mr. Alex Fernandes.  The staff, soaked in rain, returned home jubilant that they could contribute with their sweat to JJ’s efforts to green the country side. They were excited and promised to be back for the next operation - planting 1000  “Marihal Bamboo” in  the month of July 2013.