Anyone can do it, not only me
Also this is possible because it is proven.
I think anybody can do it, anywhere else.
Even barren, rocky, and bedrock, and sheet rock
Any kind of rock. They can do this kind of farming.
It is possible!
In our last episode, we saw how DRCSC is working with tribal communities in West Bengal, lifting them from Poverty to Permaculture.
From there we headed Southwest to the state of Telangana, on the Deccan Plateau.
The Deccan Plateau is in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats Mountains, so it is hot and dry for most of the year,
averaging 650mm of rainfall during the intense monsoon season.
We started in the city of Hyderabad,
and wound our way out 200 kilometers into the countryside to visit the oldest permaculture farm in India.
I'm here with Narsanna and Padma Koppula, who are the founders of Aranya Agricultural Alternatives
and the Aranya permaculture farm
Aranya Permaculture farm was founded in 1999,
but Narsanna’s introduction to permaculture was as a younger man in 1987,
when Bill Mollison, the Australian revolutionary designer who coined the term Permaculture, showed up on the Deccan Plateau to meet with Narsanna’s guru, Dr. Venkat.
We are in India, in the Southern Deccan, about 2 hours by road from Hyderabad
Hello, Venkat
Young Narsanna was a revolutionary himself, working for social justice and equality.
He began a lifelong friendship with Mollison and has worked tirelessly to spread permaculture throughout the Deccan Plateau.
In the true permaculture spirit, Aranya farm was founded on land that was declared by the government as a wasteland,
a plateau eroded down to bare laterite bedrock where no human could scrape together a livelihood.
This stone is a bedrock. There's not much porosity. Not even cracks.
Totally, it is a sheet rock
Where water cannot even sink and impound into the soil.
It's considered as a wasteland in this region.
Even government records also, it's called a wasteland.
The wastelands are not wastelands. They are wasted lands.
That is a slogan I have taken!
It's always wasted lands. We wasted it! Not a wasteland...
Most of the soils, they are not as good and bad. They are poor and rich.
So same social structure, if you take the poor people and the rich people.
Who will take care of such poor people?
Everybody neglects the soils. Everybody is caring only for the fertile soils.
Who will take care of these kind of soils?
From this bare rock, Aranya Farm has grown into a mature food forest
that shows the capacity of permaculture to create abundance in the harshest of conditions.
This land is totally barren 20 years ago.
There I planted a lot of trees.
I started raising a nursery. Then whatever I raised at the nursery
From that nursery, the saplings, I planted in one area.
Slowly one by one, in a phase-wise manner, I developed this entire farm
But the first step was the water harvesting. Second is I did my compost.
The nursery, and plantation, and some crops.
Only ten percent of land, I kept for annual crops.
Where I don't need to do much work.
So these are perennial crops. I put almost eighty percent of the land under perennials.
Most of the trees came on their own. Most of the trees I think are from bird drops.
That is the very beauty of the entire farm.
I think a lot of natural growth is happening after 10 years, but
Now it's the twentieth year. Twentieth year -- you can see, it looks like a mini forest.
The bounty at Aranya Farm is undeniable,
full of food plants, native species, vegetable gardens, domestic animals, birds, flowers, and seeds.
But the spectacular thing is how the water table has regenerated as the forest grew and the soil deepened.
This is evident when we look at the hand dug open well that supplies Aranya’s now plentiful water.
When I came here, I think this is totally bedrock, only a little amount of soil.
All around the well you can see the depth of the soil. Only just six to eight inches of soil.
The roots are penetrating into the hard rock.
Making small cracks, I think they have totally started going inside and breaking the rock.
On this farm, I think I am maintaining the water table because of planting trees.
Not only few trees, but different (trees). Not only trees, but different sizes.
And small bushes, and shrubs, and trees and plants, all together.
I think the root system, the network in the ground. That will hold more water.
The water table has been maintaining since last twenty years.
But over a period of six or seven, I could see a lot of water in the well.
That is an indicator that you are harvesting water through plants.
Each plant is holding water.
After saturation, when it reaches saturation, they are releasing water into the open wells like this.
I think that is a great indicator. This happened within just ten years.
Now it's the twentieth year. I have plenty of water.
I'm never short of water at all on this farm.
I needed to understand the practical steps in turning bedrock into a food forest.
So we traveled off the farm, into the surrounding community, to see some sites that are in the early stages of development.
The first primary activity which they did was to harvest the rainwater.
This kind of trenches we did in all of the woman farmers fields.
And then, on the top of the bunds, they sow the seed.
On the bunds also, on the rocky areas also, they could be able to grow some things.
She planted the Mango tree. And also she has done the water harvesting within the plant.
Because it's all a rocky area. The water is coming from there.
And she was able to stop the water. And water can stay for a longer time to the fruit trees.
And at the same time, she has done the mulching to hold the moisture for a long time.
Using the same moisture to grow the vegetables like tomato, chilies.
And she's showing the moisture. If you do the mulching, how the moisture looks like...
All of the farmers collectively bringing the water to the tankers
And putting it into the tank. And from there, these people are using the bucket,
and are giving the water to the plants.
If you see the crescent structure, the slope is from that side.
Water is coming here and staying for a long time.
So, she would be able to -- I think seven months she has not given any irrigation to the plants.
Even though, she could be able to grow because of the water harvesting.
So essentially, they identified an area where there was a little bit of soil amongst the bedrock.
And dug that out to form a crescent shaped berm that would intercept the rainwater sheeting off of the bedrock.
A mango tree was planted in the basin, with vegetables surrounding it, and the area was heavily mulched to retain moisture.
Another method is to carve out a simple trench that is placed perpendicular to the flow of water.
The soil is mounded to create a berm below the trench, and in that loose soil, seeds are sown.
When monsoon rains fill the trench, seeds come up in the soft soil and grow from the residual moisture that is soaked in by the trench.
Harvesting water in trenches and growing crops on the tops of the berms is a recurring pattern.
And they have really developed this method to help with the transition of wastelands into productive farms.
Why you did like this? What is this? She said swale or trench. In their language, a trench.
And what did you do here? They took out the soil from this portion and raised the bund.
On the bund, they planted a lot of trees.
So why you did this? To stop the rainwater.
Why did you do across like this? Why can't you put it like this?
She said it is perpendicular to the water flow, which is towards this side
Some water is percolated and some water is laterally moved.
Which helps the plants that we planted on the bund.
Because of that moisture we are able to see this greenery and these flowers that are there.
Otherwise, we never watered so far.
They introduced a lot of trees.
Combination of food, leguminous nitrogen fixers, and some fruit plants
A little amount of water is enough to grow these plants because they're very hardy.
At that time, they don't need much water.
And a lot of rainwater is being harvested.
Anybody can pluck the fruit and they eat.
That kind of fair share is happening by planting this kind of trees.
In one bund you can introduce multiple species. Like about...
Already so far we have seen already seven, eight varieties.
The depth, you can see holding a lot of water. The growth of the trees, you are able to see.
Which indicates that most of the water has been percolating here, and not much erosion now.
This is going to be one of the best examples for the live fence.
The food, also available on the live fence along the roadside
At the same time, making a lot of water harvesting.
And a lot of soil has been regenerating and more production is available on the bund.
Look at the multiple functions that it has.
A swale is dug perpendicular to the slope, which intercepts the surface rainwater flow, and spreads the water out to soak into the ditch.
The mound of loose soil is then planted with a diversity of perennial species.
This is often conveniently placed along the boundary of a site,
so it also serves as a living fence, planted with fruits to feed the passerby,
and can also be positioned as a windbreak to further protect crops from the drying effects of winds.
This is a very common technique used by Narsanna.
And it has proven its effectiveness, over the decades since he installed the very first one.
So this is where I introduced my different concept of combining the live fence with the windbreak.
When I was here in the beginning, totally now what we have just seen -- the rocky area. No plant, nothing, only rocks!
There is no grasses. Not even a blade of grass is growing on this rocky area.
But now it is almost 20-25 years. Now it is totally -- full, lush green.
They started agriculture on this land after ten years. That is how the transformation has taken place.
By doing this, I got a lot of confidence. Any land, any kind of soil can be transformed within 2-3 years.
I introduced a lot of local species, very dry; and at the same, time multiple trees.
And the microclimate is totally different now, where I'm standing
This cool is totally different from the hot sun.
Now this has become one of the big income for her.
Only for Tamarind, she sell every year some 25-30000 rupees of Tamarind.
That is a big income for a small family in a rural area.
I think that is how the live fences, you can combine with the windbreak as well.
You can make them more resilient, at the same time, dry species
It should be more productive also. It's economically viable, and at the same time, you're protecting your farm as well.
This project is much more than just the biophysical aspects of regenerating a wasteland into a water-rich food forest.
There is a powerful dimension of poverty alleviation and social justice that is at the root of Narsanna’s motivation.
When I came here, and I'm talking to the people, they were very hopeless on their lands.
By seeing these lands. But most of them are landless.
So I approached the government. At the same time, I approached the community.
What is a possible way to get the land?
That land belongs to the government, but that land should be enjoyed by the people.
They are all untouchable community. They are a totally neglected community in the village.
I got land for each family today. When I came to this village, sixty percent of the people were landless.
Now today, almost every household has some piece of land.
They said it was hopeless. Then I thought, I think we'll make it hopeful.
There are some who call Narsanna the Gandhi of permaculture, as he works tirelessly not only to regenerate wastelands into paradisiacal food forests.
But has succeeded in obtaining land for many of the landless poor of the untouchable caste, who are at the very bottom of India’s social ladder.
Some say that permaculture is a revolution disguised as organic gardening.
And in Narsanna and Padma Koppula’s case, this is absolutely the truth.
Like, subscribe, and join us for our next episode,
where we travel to a farming region on the verge of collapse in the drought stricken state of Andhra Pradesh,
where Aranya Agricultural Alternatives is funded by the government to build water resilience and replace chemical agriculture with sustainable practices.