Intrusion Of Hindutva In Organic Farming
The Modern Rationalist|April 2017

[An article, “Tamil Identity - Organic farming pioneer turns icon of Tamil revivalism” by Saranya Chakrapani was published in South Pole column of The Times of India (Chennai) dated 1st March 2017. The following is the full text of the rejoinder, the edited version of which was published in ‘The Times of India’ on 10th March 2017.]

V. Kumaresan
Intrusion Of Hindutva In Organic Farming

The original article speaks about the application of panchakavya (mixture of cow dung, cow urine, milk, curd and ghee) for the organic farming as the advocacy of Nammalvar, the renowned natural agriculturist. Application of the live stock dung to the cultivable land has been a good old practice in indigenous agriculture. It was the custom of the agriculturists to heap the dung at the cattle yard for its transformation into farm yard manure (FYM) for its application in the field just prior to the preparatory cultivation.

During the Green Revolution period, it was advocated under ‘Lab to Land’ program by the agricultural scientists and extension experts to apply both organic manure (farm yard manure) and inorganic fertilizers. The organic manure application is in terms of cart load and inorganic fertilizers in terms of kgs / bags. Organic manure is meant to upkeep the structure and texture of the cultivable soil and the inorganic fertilizers for the supply of major nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (N,P,K) and in case of need, micro nutrients like calcium, zinc, iron, sulphur etc. for the robust growth and yield of fertilizer responsive agricultural crops. The organic manure like FYM is meant more for up keep of the soil rather than for its nutrient contents.

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