just completed a 2-day trip to Jharkhand and would like to share my learnings with my LinkedIn group. I would encourage all of you to share your personal learnings/ insights in this forum.
Key learnings:
- The nutrient value of grains and vegetables has fallen substantially in the last 100 years as per recorded data. The iron content in spinach as published by nutrient data has reduced to one-fifth since 1914. It is attributed to lesser microbes and soil content because of chemical farming.
- The nutrient value of native seeds is higher as per Siddarth Jaiswal’s study.
- The protein content in Bhutku Rice is as high as 11.5 percent along with B1, B3 and B6 vitamins and phosphorus,
- Saw Amrit Krishi’s bed and learnt 5 layer farming on the same bed (Amrit Krishi is a system of Natural farming (an advanced form of Organic farming) in which no external bio-input purchased from the market is used. The product is from native sees which are grown in virgin tracts using natural concoctions of native cow dung/urine and biomass by tribal farmers of Chakuliya in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. The grains are processed using traditional methods and checked manually.)
- Carbon content of Amrit Mitti is 6 to 8 times higher than normal organic soil.
5-layer Farming on Amrit Mitti bed
Layer 1: Underground crops like Potato, Onion, Turmeric, Ginger, Garlic, beetroot etc
Layer 2: on Ground crops like cabbage, Brocolli etc
Layer 3: Bushes crop at higher levels like Brinjal, Tomato etc
Layer 4: Creepers on Bamboo sticks wired in the Center of Amrit Mitti bed
Layer 5: Leafy Vegetables in the remaining space in a broadcast fashion.
The concept of layer 5 is very interesting. As per Amrit Krishi theory, Sunlight is the only energy source for the growth of plants which needs ‘designed distribution’. Normally in empty spaces, weeds surface. If we sprinkle leafy vegetables in the empty spaces, it prevents weeds to grow and we get one extra vegetable.
