The Hindu Business Line : Where the soil breathes

FROM Sailana, Amba village is a 45-minute run by car, where organic farmer 46-year-old Rajendra Singh Rathore lives. We drove up to the village early morning, parked the car outside Rathore's home and walked through a massive wooden door with iron nails sticking out of it, reminding one of some old raja's palace. Inside, Rathore's single storey white home sits cosily in the village space. With folded hands Rathore offered namaskar as we stepped into his front room with a small working table at one end and a shield with two sheathed swords in red cloth adorning the wall at the other.

On the wall was imprinted the lineage of the Rathore clan, confirmed by Rathore, when he told us that his family was a dominating presence in Amba. Dressed in a white pant and off-white bush shirt, tall Rathore has an honest smile. In these areas, only the very old males wear bright red, green, pink and yellow pagdis and dhotis with the young shifting to pants and shirts; married women in cheerfully-coloured saris cover their faces with their palloos though the younger crop has migrated to salwar-kameez. We settled down in low cushioned stools with cups of tea as nothing begins here without sipping tea. This year, the rains have failed to hold on to its good start, and Rathore is worried over the standing rice crop in his fields. "Ye baras, barish kamjor hai, bus 20 inches rainfall (This year the rains are weak at just 20 inches)," he told us.

Since 1992, Rathore has maintained a rather crude rainfall chart matching official records. Rice, various dhals and wheat in the rabi season — Rathore has been growing them without using hybrid seeds or fertilisers or pesticides over some 24.5 hectares of land. Rathore started on organic farming, in 1993, with cow dung and green manure being the lone elements used to keep the soil alive. The production costs do fall by Rs 600 to Rs 800 per hectare, but the average productivity is less, as there is not enough manure to cover the land. Rathore owns cows and buffalos, but yet has to source cow dung from outside.

Lower production costs are overtaken by high processing charges and labour costs, lifting the final prices of farm produce. "Log kadar nahin karte hain (The public and the traders do not bother about organic farming or quality)," Rathore states quietly.

Last year, one of the biggest traders in Ratlam admitted to the fine quality of wheat sold by Rathore and thought it should fetch at least Rs 20 per kg, though he offered a price of only Rs 13.50 per kg. Most of the time, Rathore is forced to sell his produce at mandis with the traders shaving off profits, but he is not giving up as "khetibadi mein shanti milta hai aur kuchh nahin (farming offers peace of mind, nothing else)."

Rajendra Singh Rathore wanted to enter the police force and came through his interviews in psychology and intelligence well, but his name was absent from the list of successful candidates. His father, who was a deputy collector in M.P., advised him to switch to farming and Rathore has stuck on. He is now searching for original plant seeds, which are losing out to hybrids. At one time, Amba was famous for the Dawat Khani wheat, which Dinesh has consumed as a child.

Rathore's grandmother insisted on Dawat Khani variety as the rotis had a sweet taste. The man has opened talks with tribals to get a viable quantity of Dawat Khani seeds to plant them on his farms. His grandmother got the family to grow a dhal variety on their lands only for family and not public consumption. His father, at 82, is blind though in his youth was a shikari shooting Lesser Floricans at Sailana and Amba.

As the population of the rare bird started falling, his father turned a conservator. His son is keen on duck shooting and the last time he went for a shoot was four years ago. "Are bhai, ye bandh karo (Just stop it)," Dinesh told him, and probably Rathore will not take to the gun as he is co-operating with the Forest Department to keep a tab on Lesser Floricans visiting his farms. He is also cataloguing the birds that visit the area with the help of The Book of Indian Birds by Dr Salim Ali given to him by Dinesh.

From where we were sitting, one could see a well-grown ramphal tree near a banyan planted by his grandmother, apart from a chikku and a peru tree. Atop the chikku, Dinesh spotted a shikra and ran out with his camera to take a shot. Even today, father and son eat from the same plate, a fact which makes Rathore immensely proud. His young son is studying in Ratlam, as there are no good schools in Amba, and that hurts his wife who badly misses her child. Rathore goes to his farm by 9.30 a.m. and is back only by 7 in the evening.

Before exiting, one bought five kg of Sujata wheat, while Dinesh picked up some dhal and wheat. If Jaivik Krishi Farm (Phone no: 07414-266425) can make it to the markets of Ratlam and Indore, organic farming and Rathore would have made it.

P. Devarajan

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