Lessons from the tenth century: Kerala takes ayurveda route to spice up natural farming

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The agriculture division is now returning to Vedic roots to propagate Vrikshayurveda, the traditional science of flora, amongst natural farmers within the state. The physique of information has been systematically compiled within the type of a whole lot of Sanskrit slokas by Surapala, roughly 1,000 years in the past.

Though the textual content compiled by Surapala, royal doctor of King Bhimapala through the tenth century A D, had fallen into oblivion for a number of centuries, Y L Nene, chairman, Asian Agri History Foundation, had obtained a replica of the manuscript from the Bodleian library at Oxford and acquired it translated into English by Nalini Sadhale which was later launched in 1996.

The Vrikshayurveda was first documented in Chanakya’s Arthashastra. Varahamihira and Sargadhara additionally defined concerning the historical plant science.

Now, the Kerala chapter of the Asian Agri-History Foundation in affiliation with the agriculture division is advocating completely different ayurveda preparations, talked about within the holistic remedy textual content for efficient plant administration, for natural farmers within the state below the ‘Subhiksham Surakshitham – Bharatiya Prakartik Krishi Padhathi (Kerala Agro Ecology-based Biodiversity Conservation) mission.

If Surapala’s Vrikshayurveda paperwork and praises natural manure cum pesticide constructed from fish and animal waste known as Kunapa Jal, the agriculture division suggests natural Kunapa Jal (natural decoction) made utilizing a dozen weeds, cowdung, jaggery, sprouted black gram and so on. It may be made by placing all these substances in a bucket and permitting them to ferment in a spot with out publicity to daylight for a specific interval.

C V Jidhesh, assistant director, agriculure division, and founder-secretary of Asian Agri-History Foundation Kerala, mentioned, “It will take some time for the organic manure to fully disintegrate in the soil. For instance, if we apply the cowdung powder directly into the soil, it absorbs around 17 per cent of the nutrients in the cowdung in a year, while it will be 51 per cent if the compost made of cowdung were to be applied in the soil. So, if we make herbal ayurveda preparation mentioned in the Vrikshayurveda, the results can be more rewarding.”

“Further, these preparations will allow organic farmers to follow a holistic crop management system like pre-sowing treatment of seeds, growing intercrops, pest management, balanced nutrition and optimum use of water while making optimum use of plant population in the farms. This will also ensure that the farmer will get a harvest equal to the produce of inorganic chemical fertiliser appliedfarming. The department has now set its sights on bringing 500 ha of farmland in each block in the state under the new model in one year, for which it has formed farmer interest groups in cluster level to impart training to farmers and create resource persons at the field level,” he mentioned.

Okay Vasuki, agriculture director, mentioned, “This will not only reduce the dependence on chemical fertilisers and pesticides in the state, but also bring down weedicide application in farmlands by making use of weeds in crop management. The farm trials held in the state promise smooth transition from chemical agriculture to organic way of cultivation in a short span of time. This will also play a crucial role in building an eco-friendly environment in the state,” she added.