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For the love of the land

Pheroze L. Vincent PHOTO: K.ANANTHAN

Clad in silk, sitting in a spartan grocery store, under the watchful eyes of Ganesha, Shanta Ramaswamy makes an unlikely revolutionary. But her efforts to do away with artificially produced agrochemicals have supported scores of farmers to go organic , and market their produce locally, rather than export. With a missionary zeal, Shanta continues, despite financial losses and low demand.

Shocked by an article in this paper, on endosulphan pesticide pollution in Kasargode in Kerala, Shanta wanted her farm to be organic. “We grew Cashew on 25 acres near Walayar, where we used endosulphan. We could not continue to pollute after reading the article, but we didn’t know how to manage without it.”

A greenhorn to agriculture, she wasn’t taken seriously. It was then she met Anbusundara Swamigal, who was managing a farm near hers. He asked her to spray p anchakavya — a mixture of cows milk, urine, dung, ghee and curd.

This is a natural pesticide. Cow’s urine is used instead of urea and cow dung, sawdust and vermin-compost is used as fertilizer. A cow is imperative for going organic, she says. But cattle feed is expensive and even Rs. 40 per litre of milk will not let a farmer break even. Thankfully, Shanta is supported by her husband’s real estate business which bankrolls her organic adventure. The milk in the panchakavya is reused abhishekam milk from temples. “Something so holy cannot be wasted in gutters,” she says.

In 2000, both the monsoons failed. Seven thousand trees in her Chavadi farm dried up. “It takes three to four years to go organic. Plants absorb only about 40 per cent of fertilizer,” says Shanta. Only after this regeneration period do crops lose all traces of chemicals and can be certified by authorized agencies. She had to sink deeper borewells and only then did the results begin to show. “Chemical fertilizer gives you an assured production, but organic farming only yields when the climate is favourable. But the plant won’t dry up,” she adds.

She also started bio-dynamic farming, i.e. the use of cosmic energy for optimizing agriculture. “This is being analysed in United States and New Zealand now, but it is already in the Vedas,” she says. Lunar charts predict the days of high earth gravity. Organic fertilizer is only applied on those days. She says that old farmers knew of all this but we have forgotten it after inorganic farming began.

Certified organic products can be exported and farmers are able to tide over the losses of regeneration period. “But we want our own people to benefit from this,” she says emphatically. Besides, export quality products need to meet size and quantity specifications. “You can’t instruct a plant how to produce,” exclaims Shanta.

In 2004 she sold 13 tonnes of guavas at an abysmal Rs. 2 per kilo in the open market. Grocers treat organic produce on par with inorganic produce. It’s like comparing silk and polyester, she says. Consumers care a lot about externalities but would like to cut corners when it comes to healthy food. “The additional expense of switching over to organic food works out to only Rs. 500 per month,” she adds. Shanta firmly believes that diabetes, hypertension, infertility can be avoided with organic food.

Rejected by the open market, she opened Sreevatsa Organic Farm Products outlet on Mettupalayam road in 2004. Produce is either from her farm or directly procured from recognised organic farmers in south India. The middleman is cut out of the picture. A minimum of Rs. 12 per kilo is paid to the farmer for any organic product. “People only care about the cost and not the farmer. What we’re doing is a social service,” she adds. Mangoes cost Rs. 30 a kilo and rice is around Rs. 10 higher than inorganically grown rice of the same variety. The shelf life of organic vegetables is longer and they last for almost three days, without refrigeration.

At Shanta’s, vegetables aren’t pre-packed and customers can pick and choose. Sales are a meagre 20 to 25 kilos of each vegetable, daily, but the building and establishment charges are taken care of by her husband’s company. This is the main reason of her survival, when most other such outlets in the city have shut shop.

The shop has now started organic savouries too, which are cooked under her nose. Though recyclable plastic bags are used now, she promises to switch to eco-friendly packaging if sales pick up. “We don’t do anything to make the produce look good, but look, my skin glows,” says Shanta smiling.

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