Workshop for farmers on ancient agri knowledge, animal ayurveda

Over 200 farmers in India will be trained on traditional farming practices and animal Ayurveda, including using starch and animal urine to control pests, as part of a three-day event in June. The Bharatiya Paramparik Krishi Mela will be held at Tezpur University in Assam and will include a day-long workshop on krishi parashar, an ancient Sanskrit text on agriculture. The event aims to help farmers understand alternatives to chemical pesticides and fertilisers, said Ganti S Murthy, national coordinator of the Indian Knowledge System division. However, some experts have dismissed the measures as having no scientific basis.

New Delhi Controlling pests by spraying starch and animal urine, and dusting cow dung ash on vegetables; mixing ash and cow urine to protect cabbages from insects; using the leaf extract of cynodon grass to protect tomatoes; and using babool and jamun bark extract to cure foot-and-mouth disease in livestock — these will all be part of a special training on ancient farming practices and animal ayurveda for over 200 farmers from across the country in a three-day event being organised by the Union government.

Farmers will learn traditional Indian alternatives to chemical pesticides and fertilisers. (AFP)

According to people aware of the matter, the event, Bharatiya Paramparik Krishi Mela, will be held at Tezpur University in Assam between June 4 and 6 by the Union education ministry’s Indian Knowledge System (IKS) division along with the Union culture ministry under their collaborative Dhara series, which is a part of the celebration of India’s 75 years of Independence.

The event will include a day-long workshop on krishi parashar, an ancient Sanskrit text on agriculture and practices ostensibly adopted by farmers in different parts of India. There will also be a two-day conference featuring sessions on topics related to Indian agricultural traditions.

The idea behind the event was to help farmers understand Indian traditional alternatives to chemical pesticides and fertilisers, said Ganti S Murthy, national coordinator of the IKS division.

“When we say traditional agriculture, we don’t mean simply replacing fertilisers with cow dung. It is a fundamentally different approach to agriculture that we have been practising for a long time, and that is documented in a series of ancient texts dated 2,500 years ago including Krishi Prashar and others,” Murthy said. “The motive behind organising this event is to look into Indian traditions to check for methods that were safer for farmers and the environment, while being advantageous economically.”

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has conducted a scientific study of over 100 traditional Indian agricultural practices and has found that more than 85% of the practices are still effective, Murthy added.

The farmers will be trained in ways that can help them to avoid use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers and develop methods to increase the fertility and utility of soil, he said. “For instance, instead of using chemical pesticides, one can use formulations of asafoetida and white mustard seeds for pest removal in vegetables,” Murthy said.

Some agriculture experts said that the measures suggested in the workshop, though environmentally friendly, have no scientific basis.

“The issue of chemical residues caused by the use of chemical fertilizers, and pesticides is a global concern, and there is indeed a need to search for its alternative. However, there is no traditional method or practice in India that can give as much production as chemical fertilisers, Sudhir Panwar, a Lucknow-based agriculture expert and a former member of the Uttar Pradesh Planning Commission said.

“Farmers will naturally go for things that will give them higher production because it is the matter of their livelihood. Therefore, it is important to suggest practices that are result-oriented, and validate the results in the fields. They cannot be learned in training camps,” he said.

The farmers will also attend a workshop on Pashu (animal) Ayurveda conducted by the Indian Veterinary Association. “Since agriculture is so closely related to animal husbandry in our county, farmers will also be trained in how to treat animals using locally available resources, essentially the Pashu Ayurveda,” Murthy said.

A series of sessions will also be conducted between on topics including Indian knowledge for sustainable resource management, traditional knowledge for land and water management, traditional knowledge for pest management, and application of Indian knowledge for management of livestock, fishery and allied areas, according to the event’s itinerary.