External inputs and supplements - How important they are?

The biggest issue that any neo convert in any field faces is the over zealousness. We are so much excited and convinced about the new found way/path that we actually become temporarily blind.

அளவுக்கு மிஞ்சினால் அமிர்தமும் நஞ்சு

Organic farming has become the buzz word now and some are already refining it to mean natural farming. More advanced folks are talking about wasteland regeneration and so on. The bottom line is this. No matter what we are talking about, we are referring to specific items within a larger ecological system/environment that we can potentially influence. For example, even if we talk about GM or external fertilizers to boost growth and yield etc, we have not discovered something that is fundamentally new. The fact that a sowed seed grows in soil is an act of science, god or just fact depending upon your personal philosophy. So how do we reconcile this with all our other efforts. Think of a terminally sick patient (I have seen close ones like that) and the amount of drugs they take. What is different? The fact that the recipient's system is already destroyed means that the external inputs are meaningless.

We live in a situation today where we can no longer identify a product to its original ecosystem. In the name of efficiency and yield we have introduced chemicals in almost all the processes. Due to this, we try to move the clock back to try to make everything natural by dumping even organics in plenty.  What is actually the right way?

One of my acquaintances tried spraying panchakavyam that we had prepared for our paddy crops in his chilly seed bed. In the aftermath, he asked me whether we can use panchakavyam for Chilli. I referred to my sources/books and told him that he can, however, during early stages (i.e < 20-30 days) it is not needed and after that only once if the growth is not great. Since he sprayed it very early (just a few days), apparently the whole bed died!! Now, we are not sure if the panchakavyam caused it or if it was something else. Luckily it was not a big loss. Moral of the story: Even good things are acceptable only at appropriate times and places!! In a lighter vein, my son got a particularly bad hair cut (very short) and was cribbing about it. We laughed it away by saying that he just needs a panchakavyam spray!!

Now I am beginning to think that even Panchakavyam is a little complex in the large scheme of things. So we are trying to play simple with Amirthakaraisal. So whats the ultimate goal? Make the land fertile (self sustaining) that we can hopefully minimize all external inputs. We are focussing on proper mulch(active and passive), crop rotations and minimal FYM.  If the land is fertile and the seed varieties are native (so strength is known), we can actually have a fairly predictable yield and also satisfy the larger ecological cost of farming.

I also tried playing the yield game to prove that we can try to match yields without chemical fertilizers. While that may still happen, I feel that is just incidental to the whole process. I want to reach that stage if it is possible through a gradual process even if takes a few years. But in parallel, I want to keep working on making the whole process more close to "Natural".

As I read in one of the Fukuoka articles, if you try his methods on a piece of land damaged by years of modern farming directly, you are bound to fail. He himself recommends external organic inputs for some time till the land recovers.

More on this later....