Mr. Azlan Mohammed Shakib
Aquaponics and Permaculture Designer
Humm of the Earth
With an eye for design and a heart for agriculture, Mr.Azlan Mohammed Shakib has
been hands-on with Aquaponics and Permaculture for the last 6-7 years now.
“I design commercial aquaponic systems as well as balcony and roof top units as a
product designer. With permaculture, I design farmlands for people to manage a more
sustainable plot with influence from natural farming.”
How did you get interested in agriculture?
I chose agriculture as my path during college days itself. Aquaponics was the first thing
that I came across as an Engineer and the modern technique fascinated me. That is
when I started designing some of our early systems.
I designed a lot of table-top and balcony systems during those days itself. A few months
down the line, I also discovered permaculture which, to me, seems to be the most
sensible forms of farming. It is highly influenced by natural farming.
Permaculture is permanent agriculture and its techniques are highly sustainable than
the ones we use in other farming procedures. Coming from a non-farming background,
it was a very new subject for me to explore. I really wanted to take it up as my
profession because nothing is more fulfilling than growing food.
Who are your target customers?
1. People looking to re-design their farmlands into a sustainable farmstead where
all the elements are in harmony and require very minimum input.
2. People interested in the most moden farming techniquie (Aquaponics) for a
commercial setup as a source of Fresh, Organic produce.
We moved to a farm to apply and experience the principles of Permaculture as we didn't
want it to be just a practice where we apply a random technique and get some produce
at the end of three months for the clients.
The whole process of Permaculture Design leads to a highly sustainable homestead
where you live on the farm and everything that you utilize comes from the farm. We
show people the techniques that we apply and we also develop new techniques.
Does your farm generate revenue?
To be honest, our farm is about 2 years old and generating revenue is still a destination
because more than a year was spent to reclaim the farm. The farm was in a binding
with the landlord and it was in a very bad shape. We spent most of our time, cutting
down weeds, setting up rain water harvesting structures so that we can have
sustainable sources of water, recharging bore wells, etc. 2020 should have been the
year where we would have started our commercial farming but it has been delayed by a
couple months. But that is the plan. We have a 10 year plan and as per plan after the
first two years we get the farm to be commercial.
We have more than 200 coconut trees which helps sustain the farm as of now. There is
still a lot of potential.
Just yesterday, I was at Oasis International School, which is one of the first schools to
introduce aquaponics as part of the curriculum where we are helping them design a
workbook and a series of experiments for the children to follow. Yesterday, we installed
the school's first educational aquaponics unit. It has got a media bed, deep water
culture (DWC) unit, nutrient film technique (NFT) unit along with a fish tank. The entire
unit has been funded by the students themselves and they take care of that unit for the
entire academic year before handing it over to the next batch of students. So, for the
entire year they perform experiments and learn about aquaponics and hopefully by the
end of the year they would have gained enough knowledge to design their own systems
back home.
What is aquaponics?
Aquaponics is a soil-less technique of growing vegetables using fish waste. It is similar
to hydroponics in that prespective but with aquaponics, we fuse hydroponics and
aquaculture - you grow fish and vegetables. It is a symbiotic relationship between the
Fish and the Vegatebles where the Fish provides nutrients for the plants and the plants
in turn clean the water for the fishes. It is a closed-loop system.
What plants can be grown using this technique?
Almost every edible vegetable that we use regularly has proven itself in an Aquaponics
system, depending on the structure you have and the technique used, you can even
grow small fruit trees like banana and papaya as well. A very basic structure allows you
to grow micro greens and wheat grass effortlessly. So, all the way from wheat grass to
bananas and papayas can be grown. That includes vegetables like tomatoes, capsicum,
leafy greens, etc. The quantity of the vegetable you grow is always balanced with the
quanitiy of Fish in the system.
What species of fish do you grow in the system?
Almost all fresh water fish can be grown in an Aquaponics unit. By monitoring
parameters like temperature, pH and dissolved Oxygen, we can prepare our tanks for
the chosen variety of Fish. If it is salt-water fish you will need salt water to run through
the system, which means the crops that you grow will change. You will be growing salt
water based greens, which is a completely different ball game - a different design and
system and the produce is also completely different. Salt-water Aquaponics is a
relatively challenging and unproven field of study and is not recommended for a
commercial operation. So, it has to be fresh water fish for the kinds of herbs and
vegetables that we consume.
Is the fish nutrient the only input for the plants or does it need external fertilizers?
Fish nutrient fulfills more than 90% of the needs of the vegetables and in most cases it
is the only input for the entire system. Some vegetables however demand external
micro and macro nutrient that can be added in the water as a supplement to ensure
wholesome growth.
A New and/or inexperienced farmer need not worry about external inputs apart from the
fish nutrients as any deficiency in the plant will eventually show itself and can be solved
by an external supplement.
How many days does it take for the nutrient from the fish tank to reach the
vegetables?
When you first introduce fish into the system, you do something called “cycling the
aquaponic system”. Fish waste adds ammonia which eventually comelets the entire
Nitrogen cycle while establishing a healthy colony of bacteria that are prepared to
always convert the harmful ammonia into useful “Nitrates”.
The nitrites and nitrates are less harmful for the fish and this can be taken up by the
plants. There is no ammonia in the system once the cycling is finished. Once the
system is cycled, throughout the life of the system, the nutrient deposit is almost
immediate.
When the fish waste collects in the tank, it will be there and when the pump takes it from
the tank, it goes through the entire aquaponic system to reach your plants and back. In
a simple setup, every one to two hours, the entire volume of your fish tank will be cycled
through the vegetables. The supply of nutrients is constant and continuous. Once the
cycling is over, there is no time delay in the waste to reach the vegetables. Every time
water gets pumped to the vegetables, it is packed with nutrients and the pump is on 24
hours.
In regular farming, if your crop takes three months to harvest, in aquaponics, you get
your crop within 45 days of introducing it into the system. This is because water supply
is optimum and continuous, nutrient supply is continuous and any time the plant takes
rest from growing is only when there is no sunlight available. Some aquaponists go to
the extend of providing artificial sunlight during the evenings to extend the growth period
of plants, in places where it is viable to sell produce at higher prices. This is not
recommendable in India.
Are there any calculations regarding how many fishes for the pond etc?
Yes, of course. The complete area available to grow the vegetables is directly
proportional to the quantity of fish you can raise. Other factors such as the amount of
Fish Feed used versus the totally number of vegetables available in the system is also a
crucial factor in a commercial operation. Usually the client has a specific requirement
that dictates the design of the system like available land size, minimum harvest required
per day, desirable quantity of vegetables, fish etc.
Are there specification of any particular kind of fresh water fish?
Any normal fresh water fish will do. If you are not interested in eating or selling fish, you
can grow ornamental fish such as Koi or gold fish, etc which are also available in
petstores.
The process of rearing fish in aquaponics is also very simple because the filtration is
taken care of by the plants, the water is always running to ensure adequate
oxygenation, the temperature fluctuatuin is very minimum in place without extreme
temperature fluctuations. The only input is feeding your fish one to two times everyday.
Some people even introduce automatic fish feeders so even if you go on a vacation,
there is no damage to the system.
Do you provide any training for permaculture/aquaponics?
Yes, we will begin trainings by the end of the year. Once we complete our latest
commercial project, one of the commercial farms will be blocked for workshops at our
training center.
Are there any other methods to supply oxygen other than the air pump?
With aquaponics, there is a continuous stream of water falling into the fish tank and also
when the water flows from the system to the media beds, Fish tanks and deep water
culture tanks. There is also water coming from the taps that gets oxygenated on impact
with the water.
Every time you have a well-designed system when you check the dissolved oxygen in
the fish tank, the system running by itself produces enough dissolved oxygen and
sometimes it is in excess as well.
But, you still need air pumps and air stones when you do deep water culture because
you need to aerate the roots to avoid root-rot since they are always submerged.
How do we manage the pH level of the water?
In the market you get pH up and pH down bottles. If you take the pH down bottle and
add it to your fish tank, it brings the pH level down and similarly with the pH up bottle. It
is a synthetic chemical but it isn't harmful for the fish or the vegetables.
Having said that, the systems we design is a bit larger and it has a central sump in it.
The sump is a body water which is separate from the fish and the vegetables. That is
where we try and alter the pH by adding salts to increase the pH or something acidic to
decrease the pH. This way it is more natural.
The most important thing in aquaponics is how you compare the vegetables and the fish
and how you calculate the volumes. If you do it right, once the system cycles and the
aquaponics system establishes, the fish tank becomes a buffer solution which will
always keep the pH stable by itself. This will happen when you have a mature
aquaponic system and the volumes are right. It is difficult to achieve in a smaller
aquaponic system because you will have pH fluctuations and temperature fluctuations
at that scale. The minute the outside temperature goes cold, a small body of water gets
cold immediately. It takes time for outside temperature to affect larger bodies of water. It
is the same for all other parameters. Gauging parameters is more difficult in smaller
systems than larger ones.
Initially, you will have to deal with pH issues because one may have made your fish tank
with a lot of cement, which starts shooting up the pH value. So, you should try and use
inert materials wherever possible. Use fiber glass and plastic preferably because you
don't have to worry about pH fluctuations.
In your opinion, is aquaponics in India a hobby-activity targeting urban terrace
gardens?
Not really. I do see that there is a very big hobby following when it comes to aquaponics
on roof tops and terraces. But, most of my clients are people who have farms and are
people who want aquaponic system in their farm for either of the three reasons:
1. They want the vegetables that they consume coming via the aquaponic system
from their farm, which is at least 1000-2000 sq feet in size.
2. An aquaponic system built to supplement a restaurant or cafe that the person
already owns because aquaponics gives you very fresh produce that can be
harvested the same day that you wish to use it.
3. There are also people who want to do aquaponics commercially because
income derived from it is very systematic owing to predictable harvest schedules
because of monitored parameters, reduced labor, stable use of water and it
works in a controlled space, almost all parameters are automated.
But yes, most people see it as a hobby and that is why it’s true potential is not met.
Please explain permaculture in India and share a few examples of farms that are
doing well using this technique.
Going back at least 40-50 years, our agricultural techniques today are very different. We
had a small hint of natural farming and permaculture. The farmer used to grow all his
produce for himself and use a larger portion of his land to earn money. Today things
have changed. Permaculture has been reintroduced in India as a foreign technique.
Farmers who have 10 acres of land are using the entire space to grow one crop. They
sell that crop and using that money they buy grocery for their household.
I am sure that there are very efficient farmers as well but most of the farmers don't do it
in a balanced format. With permaculture, if you have a 10 acre land, even a half acre of
permaculture will make sure that the farmer can grow everything needs for his
household using that unit. That way, everything he gets out of his commercial produce
can be kept as savings. The change is very dramatic because you have subsidies
available for all the chemicals and everyone focuses on monoculture because it is
easier to yield revenue. There is a huge shift from what we used to do versus what we
are doing now.
Permaculture may appear new in India but in reality it isn't. It used to be very integral
part of what we used to do before. There are many permaculture farms in India that are
doing well. There is a community of farmers in Kodaikanal. Unfortunately, most of these
farmers are not Indians; they have come from France etc. and have taken up farmlands
for lease. They are living on farms that they don't own and are doing permaculture
there. They have formed a beautiful community where they grow food for each other.
There are lot of permaculture farms in Andhra Pradesh because the government is
directly supporting them. Aranya Agriculture Alternatives does national and international
permaculture conferences every year. There is a lot of permaculture going on. Last year
at least a 1000 people doing permaculture from different parts of the country were in
Hyderabad to attend the international convergence. It is definitely picking up and
hopefully whoever is practicing it is doing right. In the next 5-10years it should be part of
all farms.
What are the main difficulties for farmers to fully convert to permaculture farming
technique?
Most farmers have lost their technical know-how for natural, sustainable farming
practices. There are very few difficulties in permaculture. Most farmers think harvesting
rain water is a very difficult technique. A successful farmer evolves because he indulges
himself into the process of learning. As long as you can invest in learning, there is
almost nothing stopping them from moving to permaculture. Today, a farmer can spend
Rs 500-1000 on chemicals at a shop and spray it all over his weeds. By evening or the
next day, even though the chemical is cancer causing and poison, all weeds on that
land gets cleaned out. This is cheap for farmers. But, to do these things the natural way,
either you have to employ 2-3 laborers for 2 or 3 days or an expensive machine. The
kind of techniques that are favorable are difficult to do, so they opt for the easy
techniques. At the end of the day when we pay Rs. 20/- for a kilo of tomatoes, we don't
think about how much the farmer has gone through to grow that produce. We just look
at the price and buy the cheapest available ones. So, I personally feel we can't blame
the farmers because as consumers we decide what the farmers need to grow. If we
don't have bananas that have dark spots on them because they will become ripe too
fast, then the farmer is compelled to artificially ripen the bananas. If the farmer brings
organic bananas to the shop, some will have dark spots on it, some will ripen before the
others - that is natural. But because we don't touch it and allow those to rot in the shop,
it is a lesson for the farmers to use chemicals. When I interact with farmers, I can see
that they want to do things organically but he is compelled to resort to chemicals
because his income gets affect otherwise.
So, if consumers' mindset changes, the farmer's practices will also change because
their lives depends on what we buy.
Contact
Azlan Mohammad Shakib
azlan.shakib@gmail.com
Phone 919741042430
Aquaponics and Permaculture Designer
Humm of the Earth
With an eye for design and a heart for agriculture, Mr.Azlan Mohammed Shakib has
been hands-on with Aquaponics and Permaculture for the last 6-7 years now.
“I design commercial aquaponic systems as well as balcony and roof top units as a
product designer. With permaculture, I design farmlands for people to manage a more
sustainable plot with influence from natural farming.”
How did you get interested in agriculture?
I chose agriculture as my path during college days itself. Aquaponics was the first thing
that I came across as an Engineer and the modern technique fascinated me. That is
when I started designing some of our early systems.
I designed a lot of table-top and balcony systems during those days itself. A few months
down the line, I also discovered permaculture which, to me, seems to be the most
sensible forms of farming. It is highly influenced by natural farming.
Permaculture is permanent agriculture and its techniques are highly sustainable than
the ones we use in other farming procedures. Coming from a non-farming background,
it was a very new subject for me to explore. I really wanted to take it up as my
profession because nothing is more fulfilling than growing food.
Who are your target customers?
1. People looking to re-design their farmlands into a sustainable farmstead where
all the elements are in harmony and require very minimum input.
2. People interested in the most moden farming techniquie (Aquaponics) for a
commercial setup as a source of Fresh, Organic produce.
We moved to a farm to apply and experience the principles of Permaculture as we didn't
want it to be just a practice where we apply a random technique and get some produce
at the end of three months for the clients.
The whole process of Permaculture Design leads to a highly sustainable homestead
where you live on the farm and everything that you utilize comes from the farm. We
show people the techniques that we apply and we also develop new techniques.
Does your farm generate revenue?
To be honest, our farm is about 2 years old and generating revenue is still a destination
because more than a year was spent to reclaim the farm. The farm was in a binding
with the landlord and it was in a very bad shape. We spent most of our time, cutting
down weeds, setting up rain water harvesting structures so that we can have
sustainable sources of water, recharging bore wells, etc. 2020 should have been the
year where we would have started our commercial farming but it has been delayed by a
couple months. But that is the plan. We have a 10 year plan and as per plan after the
first two years we get the farm to be commercial.
We have more than 200 coconut trees which helps sustain the farm as of now. There is
still a lot of potential.
Just yesterday, I was at Oasis International School, which is one of the first schools to
introduce aquaponics as part of the curriculum where we are helping them design a
workbook and a series of experiments for the children to follow. Yesterday, we installed
the school's first educational aquaponics unit. It has got a media bed, deep water
culture (DWC) unit, nutrient film technique (NFT) unit along with a fish tank. The entire
unit has been funded by the students themselves and they take care of that unit for the
entire academic year before handing it over to the next batch of students. So, for the
entire year they perform experiments and learn about aquaponics and hopefully by the
end of the year they would have gained enough knowledge to design their own systems
back home.
What is aquaponics?
Aquaponics is a soil-less technique of growing vegetables using fish waste. It is similar
to hydroponics in that prespective but with aquaponics, we fuse hydroponics and
aquaculture - you grow fish and vegetables. It is a symbiotic relationship between the
Fish and the Vegatebles where the Fish provides nutrients for the plants and the plants
in turn clean the water for the fishes. It is a closed-loop system.
What plants can be grown using this technique?
Almost every edible vegetable that we use regularly has proven itself in an Aquaponics
system, depending on the structure you have and the technique used, you can even
grow small fruit trees like banana and papaya as well. A very basic structure allows you
to grow micro greens and wheat grass effortlessly. So, all the way from wheat grass to
bananas and papayas can be grown. That includes vegetables like tomatoes, capsicum,
leafy greens, etc. The quantity of the vegetable you grow is always balanced with the
quanitiy of Fish in the system.
What species of fish do you grow in the system?
Almost all fresh water fish can be grown in an Aquaponics unit. By monitoring
parameters like temperature, pH and dissolved Oxygen, we can prepare our tanks for
the chosen variety of Fish. If it is salt-water fish you will need salt water to run through
the system, which means the crops that you grow will change. You will be growing salt
water based greens, which is a completely different ball game - a different design and
system and the produce is also completely different. Salt-water Aquaponics is a
relatively challenging and unproven field of study and is not recommended for a
commercial operation. So, it has to be fresh water fish for the kinds of herbs and
vegetables that we consume.
Is the fish nutrient the only input for the plants or does it need external fertilizers?
Fish nutrient fulfills more than 90% of the needs of the vegetables and in most cases it
is the only input for the entire system. Some vegetables however demand external
micro and macro nutrient that can be added in the water as a supplement to ensure
wholesome growth.
A New and/or inexperienced farmer need not worry about external inputs apart from the
fish nutrients as any deficiency in the plant will eventually show itself and can be solved
by an external supplement.
How many days does it take for the nutrient from the fish tank to reach the
vegetables?
When you first introduce fish into the system, you do something called “cycling the
aquaponic system”. Fish waste adds ammonia which eventually comelets the entire
Nitrogen cycle while establishing a healthy colony of bacteria that are prepared to
always convert the harmful ammonia into useful “Nitrates”.
The nitrites and nitrates are less harmful for the fish and this can be taken up by the
plants. There is no ammonia in the system once the cycling is finished. Once the
system is cycled, throughout the life of the system, the nutrient deposit is almost
immediate.
When the fish waste collects in the tank, it will be there and when the pump takes it from
the tank, it goes through the entire aquaponic system to reach your plants and back. In
a simple setup, every one to two hours, the entire volume of your fish tank will be cycled
through the vegetables. The supply of nutrients is constant and continuous. Once the
cycling is over, there is no time delay in the waste to reach the vegetables. Every time
water gets pumped to the vegetables, it is packed with nutrients and the pump is on 24
hours.
In regular farming, if your crop takes three months to harvest, in aquaponics, you get
your crop within 45 days of introducing it into the system. This is because water supply
is optimum and continuous, nutrient supply is continuous and any time the plant takes
rest from growing is only when there is no sunlight available. Some aquaponists go to
the extend of providing artificial sunlight during the evenings to extend the growth period
of plants, in places where it is viable to sell produce at higher prices. This is not
recommendable in India.
Are there any calculations regarding how many fishes for the pond etc?
Yes, of course. The complete area available to grow the vegetables is directly
proportional to the quantity of fish you can raise. Other factors such as the amount of
Fish Feed used versus the totally number of vegetables available in the system is also a
crucial factor in a commercial operation. Usually the client has a specific requirement
that dictates the design of the system like available land size, minimum harvest required
per day, desirable quantity of vegetables, fish etc.
Are there specification of any particular kind of fresh water fish?
Any normal fresh water fish will do. If you are not interested in eating or selling fish, you
can grow ornamental fish such as Koi or gold fish, etc which are also available in
petstores.
The process of rearing fish in aquaponics is also very simple because the filtration is
taken care of by the plants, the water is always running to ensure adequate
oxygenation, the temperature fluctuatuin is very minimum in place without extreme
temperature fluctuations. The only input is feeding your fish one to two times everyday.
Some people even introduce automatic fish feeders so even if you go on a vacation,
there is no damage to the system.
Do you provide any training for permaculture/aquaponics?
Yes, we will begin trainings by the end of the year. Once we complete our latest
commercial project, one of the commercial farms will be blocked for workshops at our
training center.
Are there any other methods to supply oxygen other than the air pump?
With aquaponics, there is a continuous stream of water falling into the fish tank and also
when the water flows from the system to the media beds, Fish tanks and deep water
culture tanks. There is also water coming from the taps that gets oxygenated on impact
with the water.
Every time you have a well-designed system when you check the dissolved oxygen in
the fish tank, the system running by itself produces enough dissolved oxygen and
sometimes it is in excess as well.
But, you still need air pumps and air stones when you do deep water culture because
you need to aerate the roots to avoid root-rot since they are always submerged.
How do we manage the pH level of the water?
In the market you get pH up and pH down bottles. If you take the pH down bottle and
add it to your fish tank, it brings the pH level down and similarly with the pH up bottle. It
is a synthetic chemical but it isn't harmful for the fish or the vegetables.
Having said that, the systems we design is a bit larger and it has a central sump in it.
The sump is a body water which is separate from the fish and the vegetables. That is
where we try and alter the pH by adding salts to increase the pH or something acidic to
decrease the pH. This way it is more natural.
The most important thing in aquaponics is how you compare the vegetables and the fish
and how you calculate the volumes. If you do it right, once the system cycles and the
aquaponics system establishes, the fish tank becomes a buffer solution which will
always keep the pH stable by itself. This will happen when you have a mature
aquaponic system and the volumes are right. It is difficult to achieve in a smaller
aquaponic system because you will have pH fluctuations and temperature fluctuations
at that scale. The minute the outside temperature goes cold, a small body of water gets
cold immediately. It takes time for outside temperature to affect larger bodies of water. It
is the same for all other parameters. Gauging parameters is more difficult in smaller
systems than larger ones.
Initially, you will have to deal with pH issues because one may have made your fish tank
with a lot of cement, which starts shooting up the pH value. So, you should try and use
inert materials wherever possible. Use fiber glass and plastic preferably because you
don't have to worry about pH fluctuations.
In your opinion, is aquaponics in India a hobby-activity targeting urban terrace
gardens?
Not really. I do see that there is a very big hobby following when it comes to aquaponics
on roof tops and terraces. But, most of my clients are people who have farms and are
people who want aquaponic system in their farm for either of the three reasons:
1. They want the vegetables that they consume coming via the aquaponic system
from their farm, which is at least 1000-2000 sq feet in size.
2. An aquaponic system built to supplement a restaurant or cafe that the person
already owns because aquaponics gives you very fresh produce that can be
harvested the same day that you wish to use it.
3. There are also people who want to do aquaponics commercially because
income derived from it is very systematic owing to predictable harvest schedules
because of monitored parameters, reduced labor, stable use of water and it
works in a controlled space, almost all parameters are automated.
But yes, most people see it as a hobby and that is why it’s true potential is not met.
Please explain permaculture in India and share a few examples of farms that are
doing well using this technique.
Going back at least 40-50 years, our agricultural techniques today are very different. We
had a small hint of natural farming and permaculture. The farmer used to grow all his
produce for himself and use a larger portion of his land to earn money. Today things
have changed. Permaculture has been reintroduced in India as a foreign technique.
Farmers who have 10 acres of land are using the entire space to grow one crop. They
sell that crop and using that money they buy grocery for their household.
I am sure that there are very efficient farmers as well but most of the farmers don't do it
in a balanced format. With permaculture, if you have a 10 acre land, even a half acre of
permaculture will make sure that the farmer can grow everything needs for his
household using that unit. That way, everything he gets out of his commercial produce
can be kept as savings. The change is very dramatic because you have subsidies
available for all the chemicals and everyone focuses on monoculture because it is
easier to yield revenue. There is a huge shift from what we used to do versus what we
are doing now.
Permaculture may appear new in India but in reality it isn't. It used to be very integral
part of what we used to do before. There are many permaculture farms in India that are
doing well. There is a community of farmers in Kodaikanal. Unfortunately, most of these
farmers are not Indians; they have come from France etc. and have taken up farmlands
for lease. They are living on farms that they don't own and are doing permaculture
there. They have formed a beautiful community where they grow food for each other.
There are lot of permaculture farms in Andhra Pradesh because the government is
directly supporting them. Aranya Agriculture Alternatives does national and international
permaculture conferences every year. There is a lot of permaculture going on. Last year
at least a 1000 people doing permaculture from different parts of the country were in
Hyderabad to attend the international convergence. It is definitely picking up and
hopefully whoever is practicing it is doing right. In the next 5-10years it should be part of
all farms.
What are the main difficulties for farmers to fully convert to permaculture farming
technique?
Most farmers have lost their technical know-how for natural, sustainable farming
practices. There are very few difficulties in permaculture. Most farmers think harvesting
rain water is a very difficult technique. A successful farmer evolves because he indulges
himself into the process of learning. As long as you can invest in learning, there is
almost nothing stopping them from moving to permaculture. Today, a farmer can spend
Rs 500-1000 on chemicals at a shop and spray it all over his weeds. By evening or the
next day, even though the chemical is cancer causing and poison, all weeds on that
land gets cleaned out. This is cheap for farmers. But, to do these things the natural way,
either you have to employ 2-3 laborers for 2 or 3 days or an expensive machine. The
kind of techniques that are favorable are difficult to do, so they opt for the easy
techniques. At the end of the day when we pay Rs. 20/- for a kilo of tomatoes, we don't
think about how much the farmer has gone through to grow that produce. We just look
at the price and buy the cheapest available ones. So, I personally feel we can't blame
the farmers because as consumers we decide what the farmers need to grow. If we
don't have bananas that have dark spots on them because they will become ripe too
fast, then the farmer is compelled to artificially ripen the bananas. If the farmer brings
organic bananas to the shop, some will have dark spots on it, some will ripen before the
others - that is natural. But because we don't touch it and allow those to rot in the shop,
it is a lesson for the farmers to use chemicals. When I interact with farmers, I can see
that they want to do things organically but he is compelled to resort to chemicals
because his income gets affect otherwise.
So, if consumers' mindset changes, the farmer's practices will also change because
their lives depends on what we buy.
Contact
Azlan Mohammad Shakib
azlan.shakib@gmail.com
Phone 919741042430