Shashi Kumar: Namaskaram, Sadhguru (Sadhguru Laughs).
(Speaks in Kannada – not transcribed),
you said one line, not exactly like this may be,
I cannot collect it, “When you’re enterprising, nothing can stop you in the world.”
(Speaks in Kannada – not transcribed),
I was working for a corporate company for six months,
(Speaks in Kannada – not transcribed),
I resigned it and I started my farming, and also my agri-business things.
So I am so happy for that. Thank you. And my first question is…
Sadhguru: See, this a country…
Shashi Kumar: Okay.
Sadhguru: We are a developing country by definition.
Shashi Kumar: Yeah.
Sadhguru: A developing country simply means, there are so many things that are yet to be done.
Shashi Kumar: Yeah, exaclty.
Sadhguru: See, in this country, youth complaining about I have no employment is a crime, if you ask me.
Shashi Kumar: Exactly.
Sadhguru: Because there is so much to be done, if you open your eyes and see.
You can pick up any one of them and make it your… part of your life.
Shashi Kumar: Exactly
Sadhguru: But people are unfortunately gone through education system and a mental attitude,
maybe family situations, which has made them believe, they have to do some ‘nine-to-five
sitting in the office’ kind of work.
Shashi Kumar: Exactly.
Sadhguru: There is… see, in a developed country, it’s very difficult to find an opportunity.
Here, there is so much to be done.
You are right now here, there’s garbage on this field, you can make a business out of this.
Shashi Kumar: You can do a mini-compost out of this.
Sadhguru: Yes, whatever, don’t name it.
I am saying you can make so many things out of it.
Shashi Kumar: Exactly.
Sadhguru: With every little thing you can do because
here, a developing country means a lot needs to be done.
Shashi Kumar: Exactly.
Sadhguru: So it’s the youth who have to take it up and do it.
If they don’t know what to do, they can consult, they can, you know, seek advice from other people.
But they should not feel helpless, “I don’t have a job.”
Shashi Kumar: And that made… inspired me also.
And Sadhguru,
we all know that the population is increasing and the availability of agriculture land is decreasing.
So, what is the future prospects of agriculture in India?
And what is the role of youth in that?
Sadhguru: Well, this increasing population we must curtail for sure.
Shashi Kumar: Yeah.
Sadhguru: (Laughs)!
So this is in the hands of the young people
that they need to make sure that the population doesn’t go beyond limits
because there is only that much population the land can take.
But, is it a concern that we won’t be able to grow enough food for 1.5 billion people? No.
We just have to improve the methods of cultivation and how we do agriculture.
Right now, this is still yet to be understood by people that even this agro-forestry
can be a tremendous means to increase food production.
It is not necessary to be using so much land to grow just food.
Shashi Kumar: Exactly.
Sadhguru: If you ask me, if you use one thing substantial,
you know, improvement of soil quality, if we do that
by increasing the organic content
and also bring in some scientific new methods which are there, if you bring in,
with one-third of the land that we are using right now for agriculture, we can grow our food.
And with one-third of the human resource involved or one-fifth of the human resource involved,
we can bring… make all the food that we need for 1.5 billion people.
I am talking about 1.5 as 2030.
Shashi Kumar: Okay.
Sadhguru: We can produce that much food.
Shashi Kumar: Exactly, yes.
Sadhguru: There is really no problem.
The problem is, agriculture is a very unguided missile.
Shashi Kumar: Exactly, exactly.
Sadhguru: (Laughs)!
When I say unguided missile, there is no one-guidance to it, there is no understanding of it.
People are doing things traditionally by their own little wisdom
which has worked well for the country for some time.
But, now if you want to take really forward strides in revolutionizing agricultural process,
if you want to revolutionize Indian farmer’s life as such, then it’s very important that we…
one thing is enrich the soil, which is the vital thing,
and the next thing is to bring modern methodologies through which…
There is enough technology, there is enough science in our agricultural universities right here…
Shashi Kumar: I am product of GKVK - Gandhi Krishna Vigyana Kendra.
Sadhguru: The GKVK is there, believe me everything you want to know is there.
Shashi Kumar: Yes, yes.
Sadhguru: How to get it to the land? This is the whole thing.
So as a part of this, we are also looking how we can educate the farmer.
Yesterday, I was talking at the Mandya event.
I was just telling them, “See, you’re growing rice.
You’re thinking, “I am rice farmer, rice farmer, stagnant pools of water everywhere.
Very easily you can grow trees and rice together.
Your yield will improve manifold and your cost will come down dramatically.”
All this can be done.
Shashi Kumar: Yes, yes, yes.
Sadhguru: So these methods have to go to the farmer.
So we will see what we can do in the next coming two, three years.
This education program we will run across these two states in the Cauvery basin.
And we are also… somebody is offering hundred-and-twenty acres of land near Bangalore.
We want to set up a training center…
Shashi Kumar: Superb.
Sadhguru: … and see how to train.
All of you should participate.
Shashi Kumar: Absolutely sir.
And to add up for this, like I’ve done my research on a topic called as “yield gap and constraints in maize.”
There is a nearly thirty to forty percent of yield gap, means
the potential yield and what’s the actual yield farmers are taking is, there is so much of gap.
I’ve written a thesis on that and I’ve made few objectives and I’ve done with that.
Sadhguru: That is true with every grain.
Shashi Kumar: Yes, yes, Sadhguru
Sadhguru: Not just maize.
Shashi Kumar: Yes, yes, yes.
But we have to stick for one particular for our thesis because we got only two years to complete our masters.
That is the point.
Sadhguru: No, but I am saying it is across-the-board true in India.
Shashi Kumar: Yes, yes.
Sadhguru: Indian agriculture everywhere there is yield gap.
Shashi Kumar: Exactly, exactly.
To add on like, you were telling to go for agro-forestry.
I am doing this agro-forestry in my own farm.
Sadhguru: The problem with me is, I am not trying to earn a PhD (Shashi Kumar Laughs).
So I simply say it in peoples face, so they don’t like it.
Shashi Kumar: Nothing like that.
Sadhguru, I am accepting it.
You’ve done masters in agriculture.
That means it is, it is… what you are speaking is science, not like some other things.
It is absolutely science.
Sadhguru, I am following this agro-forestry, where we are…
I have planted few tamarind and jamun plants.
They are three-years-old plants, saplings.
From down the lane… three years down the lane, I will be earning minimum ten lakhs
from five acres of piece of land, with my vegetable production
because I gave a distance of fifteen, fifteen feet from plant-to-plant and twenty feet from row-to-row.
In between, I am going for tomato, and after tomato I go for carrot and all.
So this is a lucrative business to go for agro-forestry and my…
Sadhguru: And it’s not rocket science.
Shashi Kumar: Yes, yes.
Sadhguru: It just needs some sensible approach.
That’s it.
Shashi Kumar: Yes, Sadhguru.
And Sadhguru like,
from last few decades like three or four decades,
there is… we talk like there is over use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
But the fact is that, our agriculture universities also recommended farmers
to use so much of fertilizers and pesticides.
But now we are blaming or pointing out that the soil is salty and all.
How correct it is or what is your opinion on this, Sadhguru?
Sadhguru: See, I was in Russia.
There is a very major phosphate mines there.
They wanted to take me there, but somehow due to schedules, I couldn’t make it.
So the owners of this who are really big, you know, magnets of Phosphate,
it’s one of the biggest phosphate mines in the world.
Since it is very interesting to see a phosphate mine, they would just dug into the mountain.
So they were saying, “See, in India you are not using enough fertilizers.”
I said, “See, if we are putting natural phosphate into the land, it’s alright to some extent...”
Shashi Kumar: Okay.
Sadhguru: “…but if you use salts minus the organic content, then you are completely destroying the land.
Because essentially the wealth of the soil is in its microorganisms.”
And as I’ve repeatedly said everywhere, Southern India has a fortune that one teaspoonful
of soil if you take, there are anywhere between ten thousand to fifty thousand species of microbes…
Shashi Kumar: Oh My God, yeah.
Sadhguru: And in one teaspoonful, there are more microbes than the number of people on this planet.
So it’s a phenomenal soil.
So, in this soil if you put salt, what’s happening is, salt will cause a certain osmosis process,
where it will suck out all the water from the living cells.
So this is just killing everything.
It’s… we must understand, a real soil is in its life, not just in the material.
It is the life that is there which makes everything grow, the microbes.
Shashi Kumar: Exactly, exactly.
Sadhguru: So, how not to kill them is what we should see.
We have a meal.
In our meal, we add little salt.
But, suppose we serve you just a salt heap as meal, how do you eat it?
That’s what we are doing.
Shashi Kumar: Yes, yes, yes.
Sadhguru: Little bit of salt is okay because with agriculture, the salt and mineral structures
get little weakened, unless you keep it really humus rich, which may be difficult in all farms to do.
So little addition, like you add salt for taste, you must add salt for little, what is missing.
People are taking some B-complex tablets or vitamin tablets, whatever, but they can’t live on it.
They need to eat good food and little bit of boost.
So, fertilizer should be that little bit of boost, not the mainstay of farming.
But unfortunately, I think we’ve gone that way.
Ahh…I must say this.
This may sound little whatever, but I must say,
this was more a commercial enterprise than a scientific input.
It is commerce which pushes this.
Shashi Kumar: Okay.
But Sadhguru, from past few years are like, there is a substantial amount of increase
in the flora and fauna, and there is increase in green cover and all.
But people are thinking still there is an… for industrialization we are cutting the forest
and all, what is your opinion on this?
Sadhguru: See, nobody is cutting the forests for industrialization.
That, that time is over.
Shashi Kumar: Yeah.
Sadhguru: See that is what it is… it has become a fashion
that environment means we must pick up somebody and beat them.
Shashi Kumar: Exactly.
Sadhguru: That’s not the way to address environment.
Shashi Kumar: Yeah.
Sadhguru: It is, as I’ve repeatedly said,
you have to make sure whatever environment projects we do are economically sensible.
Otherwise, they won’t last anyway.
If you want to make a living out of protesting on the streets, it’s okay.
But if you want to find a solution, that’s not the way.
It has to have an economic angle to it.
From what data I have, they say, only one percent of the land in India is occupied by industry.
About six percent by townships and cities and whatever.
Eighty percent is occupied by agriculture.
So that’s where we need to make the change because eighty percent of the land is there.
Rest of it, part of it is in the government hands, forests, this and that,
but eighty percent is in the hands of agriculturists or farmers.
That is where we need to bring about the change, if we really want to see some genuine change.
Shashi Kumar: Yes, Sadhguru.
And my… one more question like, every time (Speaks in Kannada – not transcribed) sympathy
(Speaks in Kannada – not transcribed), and everyone tried to use his name like, either
the political parties or any other, but no one comes with an precise solution.
So, (Speaks in Kannada – Not Transcribed).
Sadhguru: See, a farmer is not a beggar.
A farmer is not a beggar.
He doesn’t want to be a beggar.
He doesn’t need doles.
Because he is in desperate condition, he may ask sometimes.
But what he needs is dignity.
What he needs is economic opportunity.
What he needs is a lucrative way of doing farming.
So that’s what we need to give him.
He is not a beggar to come and beg from the government or from anybody.
Unfortunately, we’ve pushed him to that level.
Shashi Kumar: Exactly.
And my other question is like Sadhguru, like I from… my personal question this one is like (Laughs),
I was a common man before entering into reality show.
Sadhguru: Now you’ve become what?
Shashi Kumar: Now, no, no no (Laughter), not like that.
In terms of like people recognize me and show so much of love or, they adore me something like that, okay.
But five to ten percent of people will be commenting or trying to pull our legs, how to handle this?
Sadhguru: Don’t have to handle them.
They don’t have a grip on your legs.
Shashi Kumar: Okay (Laughs).
Sadhguru: They are… it’s dog’s pleasure to bark (Laughter), It’s all right.
If you say dogs should not bark, what is this?
They will bark. It’s okay.
As long as you know… you must know in the deepest crevices of your heart,
you must be clear that you are doing -- what according to your intelligence --
you’re doing the best you can for your own well-being and everybody’s well-being.
If you’re doing that, it’s okay.
Commentaries they will give; we can listen to them because there may be some truth sometimes.
There may be some truth.
Please listen to all the negative commentary.
But, it is not necessary they must decide the direction of your life.
No.
Shashi Kumar: And, thank you Sadhguru, thank you for giving me this opportunity and bless…(Unclear)
(Nadi Stuthi by Sounds of Isha)