Page 34 - Allotment Gardener Issue 2 2024

READERS ARTICLES
Natural Growing in India
We are allotment growers/gardeners in London and Suffolk, growing food without chemicals for some time. We have been inspired by the grassroots women’s self-help farming movement in Andhra Pradesh, India.
Since 2016, Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming has been spearheaded by women groups that transform their communities and its agriculture. They are regenerating the soil, depleted by decades
of chemical farming, through nine principles
of natural farming including: no/low tilling,
crop diversity, ground cover all year round, water conservation, local seeds, use of natural fertilisers, rejecting chemical fertilisers, weedkillers, and pesticide. (See diagram for the 9 principles).
Many, including landless women, have flourishing kitchen gardens, growing chemical- free food throughout the year, despite the dry climate. The results are spectacular; increased yields, plentiful nutritious food, improved health for children, women and men, higher
independent incomes for women, lifting the whole society. Their methods help reverse climate change by cooling the earth. (Scientists explain that increasing plant cover by 25% can reverse global warming.)
We heard reports, first-hand, from an international team who visited to learn from the women farmers in 2022. Since then, we have adapted these methods, applying the principles on our allotments, combining it with organic farming methods we already use and finding out what works in different regions.
Many know how climate change is affecting growing seasons. Lack of rain, prolonged heat waves and unusual rainfall patterns make mulching and ground cover more urgent. Thickly mulching potatoes resulted in almost doubling our crops with less disease and much less weeding! We are looking to keep the ground covered with vegetation year-round, including with green manure and winter crops. Our fruit trees and berries especially benefited from mulching.
We are experimenting with mixed, diverse crops, interspersing different vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruit bushes, to build the soil and encourage pollinators. We have begun to try- out making natural ingredients to give seeds a good start, discourage disease and encourage essential bacteria in the soil for healthy plants.
By the date of this publication, we will have met farmers from Andhra Pradesh who are speaking at Oxford Real Farming Conference in January at a workshop organised by the Global Women’s Strike (GWS). Small farmers, the majority women and girls, feed most of the world and protect the natural environment, but are often invisible and impoverished. The women in Andhra Pradesh are leading the way and have joined the GWS in calling for a Care Income for those caring for people and planet.
More information is available from https:// globalwomenstrike.net/climate-change- learning-from-women-farmers-in-andhra- pradesh-india-a-global-womens-strike-event- for-south-india-heritage-month/.
By Caroline, Cristel, Lesley, Sara. Solveig Francis - one of the group that visited Andhra Pradesh has advised this article. For more information on the Land Working Group Global Women’s Strike, email gws@globalwomenstrike.net, tel: 0207 482 2496
34 | Issue 2 2024 | Allotment Gardener