36 SCIENCE NEWS | May 7, 2022 & May 21, 2022IWMI-TATA PROGRAM, SHASHWAT CLEANTECH AND DHUNDI SAUR URJA UTPADAK SAHKARI MANDALII
n 2007, 22-year-old P. Ramesh’s groundnut farm was losing
money. As was the norm in most of India (and still is), Ramesh
was using a cocktail of pesticides and fertilizers across his
2.4 hectares in the Anantapur district of southern India. In
this desert-like area, which gets less than 600 millimeters of
rainfall most years, farming is a challenge.
“I lost a lot of money growing groundnuts through chemical
farming methods,” says Ramesh, who goes by the first letter of
his father’s name followed by his first name, as is common in
many parts of southern India. The chemicals were expensive
and his yields low.
Then in 2017, he dropped the chemicals. “Ever since I took up
regenerative agricultural practices like agroforestry and naturalfarming, both my yield and income have increased,” he says.
Agroforestry involves planting woody perennials (trees,
shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) alongside agricultural crops
(SN: 7/3/21 & 7/17/21, p. 30). One natural farming method calls
for replacing all chemical fertilizers and pesticides with organic
matter such as cow dung, cow urine and jaggery, a type of solid
dark sugar made from sugarcane, to boost soil nutrient levels.
Ramesh also expanded his crops, originally groundnuts and
some tomatoes, by adding papaya, millets, okra, eggplant (called
brinjal locally) and other crops.
With help from the nonprofit Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre
in Anantapur, which works with farmers who want to try sus-
tainable farming, Ramesh increased his profits enough to buyClimate-Friendly
Farming in India
Planting trees and installing solar panels is making a dent
in the country’s carbon footprint By Sibi ArasuTHE FUTURE OF FOODThis aerial image shows
solar panels installed
among crops to power
groundwater pumps
and offer a new income
source for farmers in
western India’s
Dhundi village.