Raju Titus interview Part 1

To my knowledge no one in India -- perhaps even in the world -- has pursued Masanobu Fukuoka's vision of Natural Farming (NF) with such single minded devotion and for so long as Raju Titus. Raju-ji and his wife Shalini-ji started on their NF journey about 27 years ago on their 13 acre farm in Hoshangabad, MP. Over the years they have allowed Nature to tell them what to do with their land -- and indeed to influence all aspects of their lives. But that is getting ahead of the story that we want Raju-ji to tell us instead.

Recently we spent two days at their farm. We talked NF, made seed-balls, prepared a small patch of land for seeding and not least, ate delicious rotis made from their naturally grown wheat. We also got a taste of Raju-ji's enthusiasm for connecting with local farmers for no other gain than to spread a good idea. Raju-ji took us on two excursions to nearby villages where he shared his NF experience with local farmers (see pictures).

After we got back, we met people curious about Raju-ji and NF, and also had a growing list of our own questions. This gave birth to the idea of doing an offline interview with him for wider circulation and Raju-ji readily complied to our request for one. Part 1 of the interview is posted below in the translated version. Here Raju-ji talks a bit about the history of his farm, a little about what to do in NF, and more importantly, in keeping with the spirit of Fukuoka's Do-Nothing philosophy, what not to do. 

The original Hindi version is a separate post. 

Raju-ji, Shalini-ji with granddaughter

 


Q: Before you came to Natural Farming 27 years ago, what kind of farming were you engaged in? What were you growing?

RT: Before starting on NF, I was doing the "Green Revolution" style of farming with deep tilling, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, hybrid seeds, heavy irrigation and leveling of fields. I was growing soya and wheat. I did this for 15 years. Before that I was engaged in local, indigenous style of farming but then got caught in the cycle of wanting more.

Q: In our conversations you had said you were on the brink of giving up farming altogether. What were the reasons for that? What specific difficulties were you facing?

RT : During the "Green Revolution" years, I got my fields leveled, hired people to get rid of "Kans" grass [a difficult weed], got a well dug for irrigation purposes -- electric pump and all -- and made use of rented tractors. Essentially, whatever the Agricultural Scientists advised, I did. For the first year of doing all this I got good results but never after that. I kept at it for 15 years, and during this time my fields were turning into deserts and I was heading towards bankruptcy. My land was filling up with Kans grass, indicating desertification of the soil.  With this grass in the soil, the expenses increase but yields go down.

Mounting financial difficulties forced me to resolve to giving up farming altogether. I had a job at that time to lean on, otherwise I would have ended up like many farmers of today. My parents had 4 plots of lands in the city -- even these were sacrificed towards the farm.

Q: How did you learn about NF? After discovering NF what kind of changes did you make in your farm?

RT : My decision to quit farming had particularly saddened my parents.  Right around that time they came in contact with the Gandhian Quakers, Marjorie Sykes and Partap Aggarwal. They had just brought out the first Indian edition of One Straw Revolution and handed a copy to my mother. I read the book at my mother's behest, and I was converted.

I adopted NF right away. Now, this had the effect of causing great alarm to my parents, Marjorie-behan and Partap-ji because they were concerned that any failures would bring bad name to NF. What followed was without any pre-meditated design. My factory job came in useful: while I had wanted to quit it, it was instrumental in keeping my mind off matters of making an income.

In the beginning, all I knew was that in NF tilling, fertilizer and chemicals were unnecessary. But I did not know how to go about it. One time, during the rainy season, I spread some soya-bean seeds on the ground and covered them with straw. A few days later I saw little soya-bean plants peeking out of the straw
and not one weed. I was overjoyed and started to farm in this manner. Instead of the straw, I would cover the seeds with Kans grass cuttings. This not only  gave me a yield, it also started defeating this most difficult weed. Incidentally this experiment also impressed Fukuoka-ji during his January 1988 visit to my farm -- he declared it to be the best NF experiment in the world.

Q: From our talks, I know that Shalini-ji has been your great collaborator. For one, I greatly enjoyed listening to her description of how she would go manually broadcasting seeds over several acres, and they would fall evenly. Tell us about her role.

RJ : Without my wife's support nothing would have been possible. She has been my real partner in farming. In NF there comes a time when your wife is your only support. In NF, there are many tasks -- getting the fields readied, broadcasting seeds, irrigation, harvesting and threshing -- and she is a key contributor in each of these. We consult together whenever there is a new experiment to be carried out. Because of NF, our family has been able to be happy despite facing many difficulties. This kind farming does not just provide us with food and water, but also brings the family closer.

Raju-ji explains NF to farmers near Hoshangabad

Later, Raju-ji surveys a chemically farmed field for changing over to NF

Q: Today, a lot of farm lands in India have become wasted -- not a blade of grass seems to grow on these. Starting NF in this kind of fields is difficult and people that try it soon give up and turn to tilling. What has been your experience?


RT: My land had become lifeless due to my own mistakes. When Fukuoka-ji saw me farming with Kans grass, he was delighted. He had just returned from his America trip and had said that this kind of grass had become rampant in the US and where it had spread, farming had been stopped. He said that they (the American farmers) don't know how to deal with this and here you are doing NF in the presence of this very grass.

In this region, on Rishi Panchami [a local festival] day, people still perform pooja of Kans grass and consume natural food grains. If this grass appears in the fields, farmers are advised to stop plowing the land. In the indigenous method of farming, people would follow this practice and then the grass would naturally disappear and the fields would return to fertility.

No-till NF is a method to restore fertility to the fields. In Nature there is no land where absolutely nothing grows. Something or the other grows even in water, in sand, and on stones; all we have to do is to help Nature along.

Q: So how does one "help Nature along" on a barren piece of land?

RT : When I had started on NF, I had no idea what to do. Basically I understood what not to do, like tilling, preparing compost, using chemicals and grazing etc. So first I got rid of the animals, then paid attention to the fencing. I completely stopped any kind of harm caused by outsiders or insiders. By merely these actions, my fields were filled with green cover at the end of a single rainy season. I felt as if Mother Nature, who had lost all vigor through sickness, had come back to life. Lush-green grass, countless trees and shrubs, animals, insects, butterflies and bees started to come back. Then people started to come to see this transformation. All this gave me deep satisfaction. Because my inputs were now minimal, financial losses also stopped. Over time, native Babool (Acacia nilotica), Subabool (Leucaena leucocephala) and other trees started flourishing there. And then I started throwing seeds following Nature's example.

Really, Nature does not need our help; what it needs is protection. Humans and farm animals cause maximum damage and all you have to do to help Nature is to stop this damage. Even complete wastelands can be restored by this technique. Just get rid of the forces of destruction and multitudes of life forms start working on their own. There is no need for applying great human intelligence.