Intensive outside influence has led to a shift in perspective amongst farmers from the tribal and other primitive communities. Earlier, farming was seen as a lifestyle, a way for sustenance for their family, community and local ecosystems. The settlements used to do farming in a place for some time and when the fertility used to reduce they changed the place and agriculture was practised in new fertile soil. This was termed jhoom cultivation. Later, villages were made and settlements practised natural farming with organic compost as growth stimulant. But now they have been trained to view farming as a pathway for securing financial gains (cash flow). This cash crop mentality has led to large scale deforestation in eco-sensitive zones, land and soil degradation and loss of local seed diversity. We are working with the community to return to healthier agricultural and economic practices to slowly but surely build a resilient village community. The nation harvested a record 110 million tonnes of wheat during 2020-21. In rice high-yielding varieties were developed to perform well under drought or saline conditions. However, Basmati rice varieties, developed by IARI, won worldwide acclaim and popularity due to their exquisite aroma, flavour, and texture. India could earn equivalent to Rs 33,000 crore of foreign exchange by exporting basmati rice during 2018-19. Backed by S&T interventions and improved varieties, India harvested a record 122.27 million tonnes of rice during 2020-21.
Former Vice President Shri Venkaya Naidu urged the farming community to bestow special attention on environmental protection. In this regard, he advised every farmer to accord importance to tree plantation and conservation of water.The Vice President said that at a time when science and technology are driving the progress of the world, agriculture cannot lag behind and has to adopt modern scientific practices. It is not the sole responsibility of the government to make agriculture profitable. Every stakeholder must come forward to enable the farmer to reap the benefits of modernization. The Vice President also urged educated youth to develop an interest in agriculture and provide technical help to farmers. He also appealed to the private sector to come forward and invest in modernizing agriculture. Stressing the need for a wider debate on modernization of agriculture, he said that scientists, policymakers and media should take the lead in this matter.
Feeding the world in the 21st century is not an easy task due to several issues of uncontrolled population growth, uneven distribution of resources, depletion of natural resources, overburdened urbanization, loss of fertile soils, etc. Vertical farming can be seen as an opportunity to mitigate food security risks. Vertical farming can provide continuous crop production and is much more efficient; one acre of vertical farming can cover the food production of 30 acres of farming on the land. Due to the controlled environmental conditions, there is less chance of diseases and insects/pest attacks which can eliminate the chance of chemical use during farming practices. Many environmental factors such as hail, flood, drought, etc., that cause crop failure are also eliminated due to controlled environmental conditions. Moreover, vertical farming helps to reduce carbon emissions generated during agronomic practices and reduce water losses by 70% (Kulak et al. 2013). Although this cropping system can deal with food security issues, it comes with some challenges to deal with. The main challenge to deal with is the cost–benefit analysis. The land and building costs may vary from region to region but cost in urban areas does not allow vertical farming in big cities. The use of energy and operational cost to maintain and control the internal environmental conditions of a farming setup can challenge cost efficiency. A limited number of crops can only be grown through vertical farming and also require pollination by hand during crop growth. However, the system lacks some economic efficiencies, but in the future, to avoid food scarcity, vertical farming will become a trend and the reuse of necessary building structures will reduce the cost of the system (Naqvi et al. 2022). People are afraid of pesticide pollution and adulterants used in food and food items like different carcinogenic chemicals in form of colors etc. The practice of cosmic farming may provide an alternative and relief from harmful chemicals.
Different cultivation practices
Historical records exhibit Egyptians optimized agriculture production with simple means. Most Egyptians were descents from settlers who moved to the Nile valley in prehistoric times, with population increase coming through natural fertility. Most people lived in villages and towns in the Nile valley and delta. Dwellings were built of the mud brick and have long disappeared beneath the rising water table or beneath modern town sites, thereby obliterating evidence for settlement patterns. Nearly all the people were engaged in agriculture. Bread was made from cereals. Spices like onion garlic, black pepper were cultivated and used in diets. Different agricultural practices may be listed as:
Jhoom cultivation or shifting cultivation, Natural farming, Modern or chemical farming, Bio-dynamic farming, Rishi Krishi, Nateuco farming, Jaivik Krishi-integration of technologies, Soil less cultivation or aquaponics, and vertical farming etc.
Problem of Pollution due to agrochemicals
Agrochemical led farming has polluted soil,water, air and environment. It has adversely impacted farmers, society, government and human being. Pollution is major threat to humanity. Broken social fabrics and climatic disasters is routine. Seems essential to trap ancient knowledge. Reverting back to technologies prevalent in ancient time could resolve current crises of humanity. Sustainable agriculture pertains with management of natural resources for agriculture to satisfy human needs along with its conservation to hand over to coming generations. So for we have abused natural resources-showing discomfort in form of natural hazards and many more ill impacts. Natural resources are free gift to humanity, we are simply custodian.
“Nurture these to assure comfortable life on planet earth and hand over to coming generation”. Concept of food should be changed-Air: Water: Food. “Cosmic Farming” could be a viable option.
Cosmic Farming: An alternative
Enormous amount of — cosmic, solar, lunar, planets, stars and earth energies are available. People do not respect old traditions. Ancestors respected Panch mahabhutas and these provided free energy. Energy from cosmic, planets, stars and sun are still in prime form availability for mankind. Cosmic energy is available all time, while solar in day hours. Soil microbes, plant cell, cow and soil humus have capacity to harness cosmic and solar energy. Sun is giant power house-Infinite, non-polluting source. Soil microbes and plants are potential tools to capture cosmic and solar energy. Natural resources i.e. soil, water, air, bio diversity of flora and fauna are available as grace of Cosmos and Sun. Cosmic farming includes better soil management and increase in soil microbial population by the use of cow dung and leaf litter, use of agnihotra in agriculture farms and use of ash after agnihotra in increase in fertility. By agnihotra there is reduction in insect pests and increase in plant growth.
Farming in Rigveda
Vedas are compilations of sacred hymns or verses composed by Rishis in vedic period. Agriculture was considered as very important profession. There are 8 mantras in 4th chapter of Rigveda, 12 mantra in 10th chapter of Rigveda and 9 mantras in 3rd chapter of Atharva veda related to agriculture. Ramayana tells us that in the circumstances of famine King of Mithila Raja Janak ploughed the field and Sita ji appeared during the process. Rig Veda tells
Indra Sitam Ni grahnat Tam Pusham chachatu
Sanah payaswati duhamuttramtaram samam.
Which means God Indra plough the land, pusha God take care and irrigated fertile land produce grains for us. Few other mantras of RigVeda tell (Nene and Sadhale 2000).
O Sun! You are the purifier and protector of everything. We praise the light by which you look after this world and feed all living beings (1:50:6)
Through Yajna the mother earth worships the father- the sun. Sun and earth produce the embryo which is irrigated with water inside the earth. Earth and sun have decided to produce all kinds of crops (1:164:8)
Let sand and fire together with implements used for digging the soil accept the offerings made during the fire worship (yajna) and give us disease free (rog-mukt) food (3:22:4).
Seed treatment
It is stated in Krishi- Parashara (400 BC),”the origin of plentiful yield is the seed.”Seed health includes (i) harvesting of healthy looking grains used as seed, (ii) removing visible contaminants, (iii) storing grains in safe place, (iv) viability of seeds before sowing. In northern India people used to celebrate a festival in which they carry sprouted seeds in pots over the heads in a procession which leads to a temple. This was a simple method of testing viability of seeds. Seeds were treated with cowdung, urine, milk, mustard paste and other botanicals. There are instances of treating seeds with coal ash before storage. Activated clay is also used. Pigeonpea seeds are coated with red earth before storage. The notorious pulse beetle lays eggs in mature seeds in the field. The harvested seeds contain grubs inside. The red earth coating prevents the emergence of adults from such seeds. The insect die inside the seed and thus the infestation is prevented. I have seen my grandfather using jaggery to treat Cicer or gram seeds. The soaking of seeds helped to attract and associate more Rhizobium near the developing roots thus promoting better symbiosis. Pelleting the seeds with fungus like Trichoderma or cowdung results in the antagonistic affect and it increases the percentage germination of seeds by killing the harmful microbes.
Agnihotra or Homa farming
Homa Therapy and agnihotra helps in reduction of pollution, and is equally effective in improving agriculture, animals and human health. Agrochemicals are not needed in it at any stage of farming. It can be integrated with any organic system to get synergistic impact. If promoted is assertive way it will have many implications in human life. In agnihotra the fire is lit in Pyramidal vessel, which attract energies from cosmos and sun; Biorhythm of nature (sun rise and sunset) are followed; Resonance impact in sound is produced by Sonic energy through chanting specific mantras. Burning of organic substances, results in vaporization and generation of heat energy,
and other electromagnetic waves.
Agnihotra ash itself has the properties of all elements- Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Ether. Agnihotra fire nourishes the Earth-soil to plants, air to water, all of human kind, animal and plant kingdom.With RP area up to 80 ha becomes cosmic area.
Energy resonate in four corner of pyramid, travels to 4 pyramids in field and shoots up to 12 km.It is claimed that environment is clean, full of subtle energy above this.
It collects subtle energy which get deposited in ash. Impact depends upon different discipline observed. As on today homa farming has been tried in more than 70 countries. On combustion chemicals like formaldehyde, formic acid, acetic acid, ethelene oxide, propylene oxide are generated. Formaldehyde can purify atmosphere by killing harmful microorganisms. It kills pathogenic organisms in air, water and soil. Propylene oxide helps in acceleration of rains. It results in enhancement in chlorophyll content in plants thereby increasing photosynthesis. Agnihotra alters biological systems. Homa atmosphere has positive impact on plants as well as human, and animal health. Agnihotra ash contains micronutrients when sprayed it improves plant growth as micronutrients can be absorbed through stomata. The ash helps in reduction of plant sucking insects and fungal diseases.
In an experiment conducted in 2004 near India gate in New Delhi the conc. of NO2 reduced from 56 to 29.5 and SO2 from 11 to 1.5 ppm. After performing yagna. When yagna was performed indoors for three consecutive days there was reduction in 63%,72%,92% bacterial and 83%,84% and 100% fungal population. Some effect persisted even after 7 days. In outdoor atmosphere the bacterial population reduced by 38%after yagna (Brahmavarchas 2016).
Environment and sensitivity in plants
Plant body is sensitive to environment, not only the sun light affects plant growth the storm or strong winds and cold waves affect the stomatal opening and thus reduce plant growth. The enzyme activity is changed due to temperature and pH. Patalwat (2024) reported that regular mechanical stress induces multiple physiological changes in Cajanas cajan. He found that even touching the plants daily can induce formation of jasmonic acid and this results into physiological changes. And even yields can be affected. Bhattacharya (2014) reported effect of music therapy on plants. Vibrations at 50Hz stimulated seed germination and root elongation in rice and cucumber (Takahashi et al. 1991). Wang et al. (2004) found that vibrations of 1400 Hz increased the IAA levels while ABA levels were decreased in callus of Chrysanthemum.
Role of Soil humus and bio-enhancer
Micronutrients and microbial fertilizers play a definite role in enhancement of plant growth and crop yield. Rhizobium a root nodule bacteria and antagonistic fungus Trichoderma can be multiplied easily and used for crop growth. Plant growth can be increased by soil microbes. The role of mycorrhizae and phosphate solubilizing bacteria are tried and found useful for plant growth. Arbuscular fungi like Glomus and Gigaspora are tried against different plants and the growth of mycorrhizae promotes root elongation and this increases crop yield.
Soil moisture can be maintained by providing mulching in the soil. Soil moisture can be also maintained by plastic mulching. In making Miyawaki forest mulching was tried with waste paddy straw. By maintaining soil moisture there was enhancement of plant growth. Trees attained a height of three meters within two years. Addition of waste ash produced after yagna in the soil enriches it with deficient nutrients. And this further helps in more plant growth.
All production factor i.e. soil, water, cow, earthworms, bees get boost in cosmic farming. Soil fertility is improved. Environmental pollution is reduced and Climatic disasters are avoided. It improves water quality and availability. Yield is equal or better than conventional or organic systems. Technology is eco-friendly and cost effective. Such model if found suitable will lead to sustainable agriculture.
References
Brahmavarchas (2016) Yagna chikitsa in Hindi. Shanti Kunj Hardwar 368pp.
Bhattacharya A. (2014) Everyman’s Science 49(4):236-244.
Kulak, M.; Graves, A.; Chatterton, J. (2013) Landsc. Urban Plan. 111, 68–78.
Naqvi S.M.Z.A.; Saleem, S.R.; Tahir, M.N.; Hussain, S.; Ul Haq, S.I.; Awais, M.; Qamar, S. (2022) Environ. Sci. Proc. , 23: 4.
Nene Y.L. and Sadhale N. (2000) In: Ancient and medieval history of Indian Agriculture. Udaipur 16-27.
Patalwat R. (2024) Ph.D. Thesis in Botany, M.S. University of Baroda.
Takahashi H.S. and Kato T. (1991) Plant and cell physiology 32(5): 729-732.
Wang B. Shao J, BioL. Jie L Chuanrea D. (2004) Colloids and surfaces biointerfaces 37:107-112