Govardhan_Eco_Village_Newsletter_January_2011

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www.ecovillage.org.in

Govardhan Eco Village

Newsletter

Vol 2, Issuse 1

Happy New Year!Govardhan Eco Village wishes everyone a prosperous and Eco

friendly New Year. We begin the New Year with a new look and

exciting series of articles. This year 2011 has officially been

declared by the United Nations as the International Year of

Forests. This is to raise awareness and strengthen the sustainable

forest management, conservation and sustainable development of

all types of forests, for the benefit of current and future

generations. Forests, which are the lifeline for over 1.6 billion

people today, are fast depleting due to massive deforestation.

Lets do our bit in saving this most precious gift of Mother Earth.

The control of the Lord is everywhere, and if the Lord is pleased, everypart of nature will be pleased the forest will supply sufficient wood,

drugs and vegetables, and the seasonal changes will effectively helpproduce fruits and flowers in profuse quantity.

- Srila Prabhupada.

Inside

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Page 3

Page 5

Organic Farming: Crop

Rotation

GEV Rice Plantation

Report 2010

Farm Fresh: News &

Events from GEV.

January 2011

Address: Govardhan Eco Village, At. Galtare, PostHamrapur, Taluka Wada, District Thane, Maharastra,India 421303.Email: [email protected] No: +91 91672 04666, +91 99301 41781

Dedicated to His Divine Grace, A. C. BhaktivedantaSwami Prabhupada, Founder Acharya of theInternational Society for Krishna Consciousness

Page 4 Benefits of Turmeric


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GEV Newsletter Vol 2, Issue

2www.ecovillage.org.in

Crop RotationLast month the importance and scope of Organic Farming was highlighted. This months article

discusses one of the most important practices in Organic farming Crop Rotation.

Continued in Page 4

Crop rotation is a time testedagricultural strategy that hasbeen in use for centuries. Oncecan find its reference in manyancient scriptures in VedicIndian, Roman and Africancivilizations. During the GreenRevolution, this traditionalpractice of crop rotation was

replaced by the practice ofmonoculture or single cropcultivation where in chemicalinputs are provided to the soilfor supplementing the nutrientloss. However the drawbacksof monoculture farming havebecome apparent today,notably from the perspective ofsustainable agriculture and therisk of catastrophic crop failure.

Crop rotation is asystematically plannedcultivation cycle that involvesgrowing plants of differenttaxonomic families on thesame plot of land oversequential seasons. Usually

extending over a period of 3-4years, the choice andsequence of rotation cropsusually depends on the natureof the soil, the climate, andrainfall of that particularregion.

Benefits of Crop Rotation:

Crop rotation has many foldbenefits. Firstly, it preventsdepletion in soil nutrition thatoccurs due to repeatedcultivation of same crop.Plants like legumes whencultivated in rotation restorethe nitrogen content in thesoil, thus preventing the usageof chemical based soilreplenishing agents. This

simple technique not onlymaintains soil fertility but alsoimproves the yields incomparison to land that do notuse rotation.

The second advantage of croprotation is the natural disease

and pest control it offers. Cropof same family tend to havesimilar pests and pathogens. Byrepeatedly growing the samecrop, the pathogens and pestsbuildup increasing the risk ofsoil borne pests and diseases.

By rotating the crops andchanging the planting locationthe pest cycles can be broken

or limited, thus the usage ofdangerous chemicalpesticides can be completelyavoided.


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GEV RicePlantation 2010

Rice, the staple diet of most of the populace in Indiais slowly losing its diversity. Owing to commercia

interests, only a few select varieties of rice are beincultivated today leading to extinction of hundred

of rare varieties. In an attempt to save these ricvarieties, the agriculture team in GEV has carefull

collected various native rice seeds from all oveMaharashtra and cultivated with an intention of creating

seed bank and saving them from extinction

Taking up this exercise duringthe recent Monsoon, GEV didrice plantation in a larger scaleas compared to the previousyears. The yield also has beenquite remarkable, in spite of theirregular rains. A total numberof 67 varieties of rice have beenplanted. These included 52 rarevarieties of rice planted in small

scale, specifically for researchpurpose and another 15 of bothGarvi and Halwar varieites inlarge scale. The Garvi breedsare high water consumingvarieties while the Halwar areless water consuming.

The plantation of the 52 rarevarieties of rice was done incollaboration with BAIF. These

were selected for researchpurpose, from a large numberof varieties of paddy seeds.Using selection methods, thebest quality of seeds would beextracted among these 52varieties. The criteria for bestseed selection, popularly

known as Elite seed selectionis briefed as follows.

Elite seed selection

The Elite seed selection indone in several stages. Firstthe external features of thepaddy are observed. Anyoffshoots, weeds andpinnacles of other varieties ofplants are removed. Then thepest and disease infectedpinnacles are removed. FinallyImmature pinnacles areeliminated. Then the bestclump is selected based on thefollowing criterion:

Number of effectivetillers

Clump strength

Pest and diseaseresistance

Length of pinnacles Filled Vs. unfilled

grain ratio

Maturity of grain Height of plant.

The 15 varieties planted on larger scale were cultivatedover an area of 10 acres.These include 13 of Garvivariety rice namely Zini,Govinda Bhoga, Kolapi,Sidhagiri, Pusa Sugandha 1121, Pusa Sugandha 1401, Black buma,Telosingh, Kalagira, Maihsu

Maileg, Kasabai, Old Kolamand Patani; and 2 of Halwarrice varieties namely Padmaand Dangi.


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Crop Rotation, Continued from page 2

Turmeric, one of the most

commonly used herb inIndian cuisine, is awonder drug from MotherNature. It containsCurcumin, which canprevent cancer anddetoxifies the liver.Known for its powerfulhealing capacity, thisnatural antiseptic and

antibacterial agent hasbeen in use for ages intraditional Ayurvedicand Chinese medicine.Turmeric can beconsumed as pills or incooking by all exceptpeople having gallstonesor bile obstruction.

Benefits of

TurmericWeed control is alsoenhanced as many perennial

weeds are destroyed in theprocess of crop rotation. Croprotation also has otherbenefits like improving thesoil tilth & structure, Soilmoisture improvement, soilerosion reduction etc.

Steps in Crop Rotation:The first step in crop rotationis identifying the various

families of crops that are to becultivated. A simple list ofplant families is shown below:

Family Common names

Allium: Chive, garlic, leek,onion, shallot

Cucurbit (Gourd family):Bitter gourd, bottle gourd,chayote, cucumber, ivy

gourd, luffa gourd, melons,pumpkins, snake gourd,squash, wax gourd

Crucifer (Brassica): Bok choy(petchay), broccoli, Brusselssprouts, cabbage, Chinesecabbage, cauliflower, collard,kale, kohlrabi, mustard,radish, turnip, watercress

Legume: Common beans,

black bean, broad bean(Fava), clover, cowpea,garbanzo, hyacinth bean,kidney bean, Lima bean,lintel, mungbean, peanut,pigeon pea, pinto bean,runner bean, snap pea, snowpea, soybean, string bean,

white bean

Aster: Lettuce, artichoke

Solanaceous (Nightshadefamily): Potato, tomato,pepper, eggplant

Grains and cereals: Corn,rice, sorghum, wheat, oat,barley, millet

Carrot family: Carrot, celerydill, parsnip, parsley

Root crops: Cassava, sweetpotato, taro, yam, waterchestnut

Mallow family: Cotton, okr

The first season of plantingcould be devoted to leafy

plants, the next season tofruits, followed by the rootplants and then legumes.Legumes are to be grownbefore grains or cereals.Practice green manuring. A

first Crop rotation may seemtedious to plan, but bycarefully maintaining croprecords, it can help boostyields with out usingchemicals there by creatinga sustainable organicfarming practice.


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Farm Fresh: Visit by Tridha

Last month Govardhan Eco Village hosted thestudents of class III from Tridha Rudolf SteinerSchool for a two-day educational visit. Based onthe famous Waldorf Education model, the TridhaRudolf Steiner School teaches its kids not to learnby rote, but by real understanding by thinking,feeling and experiencing. So set out to experience areal village lifestyle the kids accompanied by theirtwo instructors visited GEV. During their visit HGSanat Kumar Prabhu from GEV addressed the kidsabout the significance of village lifestyle andbriefed them about a few aspects of organic

farming. Later on the kids prepared a soil bed andplanted a few vegetables, getting a first handexperience in farming. Touring the farm, theyvisited all the farming zones in GEV and studied thevarious organic farming practices followed here.The kids also visited the GEV Goshala and Biogasplant and learned about the various benefits ofcows and significance of cow protection. Alsohaving lots of field exercises the kids from Tridhahad a delightful learning experience at GEV.

Govardhan_Eco_Village_Newsletter_January_2011

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