Chunguna’s Gulabrani farms the organic way

“Mirchi, lehsun, adrak…leaves of bottle gourd, karela…jaggery.”

This is not a recipe for food with chillies, garlic, ginger, bittergourd…but instead organic farmer Gulabrani’s potent fertiliser and pesticide that she brews up here at Chunguna village, on the edge of the Panna Tiger Reserve.

The 53-year-old recalls laughing loudly when she first heard the list. “I thought, where will I get all this? But then I did have gourds growing in the jungle…” she adds. Other ingredients like jaggery she had to buy in the market.

Doubting neighbours didn’t help, curious about what she was brewing. But what other people think has never bothered Gulabrani – it’s not surprising that she was the first in her village of roughly 500 people to make the move towards organic.

“The food we buy in the market has medicines and is injected with all sorts of chemicals, so we thought why eat that,” she says recalling the conversations at home four years ago.

“My family thought going organic was a good idea. We all thought that if we eat jaivik [organically grown] food, our health would also benefit. With jaivik fertilisers, the swasth [health] of the pests suffers, ours thrives!” she adds, enjoying her joke.

Now in the third yearly cycle of organic farming on their 2.5 acre land, she and her husband Ujiyan Singh grow kharif crops of paddy, maize, pigeon pea, sesame and in rabi wheat, chickpea, mustard; vegetables are grown through the year – tomato, brinjal, chilly, carrot, radish, beetroot, lady finger, leafy vegetables, gourds, karonda, beans and more. “We don’t have to buy anything much in the market,” she says happily.

Chunguna village lies on the edge of the Panna Tiger Reserve in eastern Madhya Pradesh. It has a majority of families belonging to the Rajgond Adivasi community who practise farming on their small plots of land, relying on annual rainfall and a nearby canal. Many migrate for seasonal work to nearby cities like Katni and also places in nearby Uttar Pradesh which lies to the north.

“In the beginning we were just one or two farmers who started doing it. Then 8-9 joined in,” says Gulabrani who estimates that almost 200 acres of farm land cultivated by her community members, is now organic.

Social worker Sharad Yadav says, “migration [in Chunguna] has come down, and dependence on forest produce is only for firewood for fuel.” Sharad is a cluster coordinator with People's Science Institute (PSI) and a farmer himself.

Gulabrani’s forthright manner, says the PSI staff, and her questioning attitude made her stand out as an influencer. She was the first to try out a crop of corn using the methods they suggested, and she did well. Her success spurred others to try.

“We were spending up to 5,000 rupees a month on fertilisers and pesticides – on urea and DAP,” says Ujiyan Singh. Their land had become completely dependent on chemicals, or what is locally called ‘chidka kheti’ (spray and farm), says Sharad.

“Now we make our own matka khaad [clay pot manure],” says Gulabrani pointing to a big clay pot lying in the backyard. “I have to find the time in between household work,” she adds. Besides the land, the family have 10 head of cattle; they don’t sell any of the milk, but use it for their small family – two daughters and a married son.

Karela, bottle gourd and neem leaves are needed along with chillies, ginger, and cow urine. “We have to boil it for an hour. Then we keep it for 2.5 to 3 days before we use it. But it can stay in the pot till we need it. “Some keep it for upto 15 days so that it ache se gal jaata hai [well fermented],” says the organic farmer.

She makes five to 10 litres at a time. “For one acre one litre is enough. It must be diluted in 10 litres of water. If you put too much it can kill the flowers and ruin the crop,” she adds. Initially neighbours would ask for a bottle to try out. 

“We get enough to feed ourselves through the year. We manage to sell produce of around 15,000 rupees annually,” says Ujiyan Singh. Like others in central India, these farmers too face the constant pain of wild animals ruining the crop. “We can’t catch or kill them anymore because the government has introduced the new law. Nilgai eats wheat and corn, completely destroys the crop,” she tells PARI. The Wildlife Protection Act 1972 prohibits the killing of wild pigs.

A solar pump for irrigation is used to draw water from the nearby stream. Many farmers, says Ujiyan Singh, are able to sow upto three crops a year,” he says pointing to the solar panels at the end of his field.

The People's Science Institute (PSI) has also set up a technology seva kendra (TRC) that serves 40 villages around Bilpura panchayat. “At the TRC they stock 15 varieties of rice and 11 varieties of wheat, mostly traditional seeds which can thrive in less rain, severe cold, and they also have least amount of pests and weeds,” says Rajinder Singh who manages the TRC.

“We give upto two kilos of seeds to our farmer members and they have to return double that when they harvest,” he adds. A short distance away he shows us an acre of paddy – four different varieties planted alongside each other and he reels off the likely harvest dates.

Farmers in the area are next planning to start a collective for marketing of vegetables. With the push for organic, they are hoping to get better prices as well.

As we are leaving, Gulabrani joins other women in the village who are going down to the canal to bathe and do the hullchhat puja before they break their fast. This puja is done on the fifth month of the Hindu calendar – bhadon – for their children. “We will cook mahua – boil it with buttermilk – and eat it to break our fast,” says Gulabrani. They will roast their homegrown organic channa and eat it too.