Suneet Salvi managed a furniture company, in which he had a major stake, before deciding to find a greater purpose in his life.

He is one of the few Mumbaikars who are turning to an organic way of life by growing their own produce without the use of chemical fertilisers.

We met up with him to ask about his farm and his new way of life.

1. What made you give up your business and start organic farming?

Actually it has become much more than organic farming. What started out as a personal hobby has now become a full scale humanitarian and ecological life mission for me. I was in search of a higher purpose in life and once I found it, it became easy to say good bye to corporate life and sell my stake in my business and move on. With the blessings of my Guru and support of my family I decided to embark on this journey.

Suneet Salvi

My journey into this field has been miraculous. The first miracle came in the form of a young and dynamic architect, Pratik Dhanmer, his family and co- founders of his firm Design Jatra. Pratik and his colleagues run an award winning design firm which design spaces best suited for the local environment using traditional architecture and material.

2. How often do you visit the farm and how do you track the progress?

I spend 4 days a week on the farm and among the lucky few who comes to the city for weekends only. The Dhanmer family has virtually adopted me and I stay with them in Murbad (80 km North of Dahisar in Mumbai) which is another blessing.

Another miracle occurred when I met an adivasi self help youth group through Pratik. This is what gave me my life mission. We are empowering these youngsters to be leaders and they in turn will motivate others from their community on practising natural farming and getting back the ecological balance. Two of them have learnt to use the computer and manage our accounts. Most of them are educated and but lack the opportunity. All our farming experiments and progress is documented including the mistakes and the lessons learnt. This will help us pass on the knowledge to others. I consider progress on the farm as a stepping stone, when we can repeat this model on other farms and start seeing more and more farmers take up natural farming; that will be real progress.

Suneet Salvi

3. Your father sent you to work on a cotton plantation as a teenager. What are some of the lessons you learnt and still apply to your life?

We have an 18 acre plot of land in Aurangabad. Every vacation our father packed us off to stay and work on the farm.

It was late 70’s and the Green revolution was in top gear. Initially it was good for the farmers but the long term effects on the environment has been disastrous. Due to the excessive use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides the fertility of the soil was lost and the soil microorganisms, earthworms and insects that helped in pollination were destroyed. This kind of farming released organic carbon from the soil into the atmosphere, a major factor in climate change and rising temperatures. It also made our soil hard and unresponsive and does not allow the rain water to percolate inside the ground thus causing floods and droughts. The irony is that instead of learning from these mistakes the world has given the right of modifying our food to the world’s largest pesticide company.

I learnt that I will never do anything that will destroy the ecology. We will practice our ancient Vedic agriculture where you farm in harmony with nature rather than by destroying it. We are using ‘Desi’ cow dung and urine mixture called ‘Jeev amrut’ to reactivate and increase the good soil micro organism and simple mulching and composting to improve soil quality.

Suneet Salvi

4. Can you explain how the system works?

The system is very simple and logical. We all work together to be in harmony with nature. We aim to take care of nature, the soil, the earthworms, the bees, micro-organisms etc and the in turn will take care of us.

I own no land in Murbad, we all work together on a plot of land which we use as a R & D centre. Presently, I am financing the setting up of the infrastructure and also pay daily wages to the adivasi boys who contribute to the farm.

Dr. Ajit Gokhale a Ph.D. in Botany is a water solutions specialist who decided to help us as way to repay his debt to society. He guides us in our farming and environmental activities.

Suneet Salvi

We want to empower these youths to practice natural farming on their own lands and lead the community into this kind of nature friendly farming. We have experimented with multi-cropping vegetables. Our next step is to grow flowering plants like Mogra and Marigold, and short duration fruit plants like papaya and banana along with soil enriching Moringa (drum sticks). All our models can be replicated by the farmers on their own with very little expenses. Our aim is also to educate them on the environmental impact of trees. We hope that these people will dedicate a part of their land for growing big trees which will benefit them and their future generations too.

5. What outcome (both personal and professional) do you hope to expect from organic farming?

As I have already mentioned, it is now a life mission and not just organic farming. Personally it has given my life a higher meaning. Our farming is generating good amount of interest among farmers and youth not only in our village but also from neighbouring villages. I am sure a lot more farmers will take up this kind of zero budget spiritual or natural farming and we will be able to not only green the area but also make farming profitable again. Our farming will have a tremendous positive ecological impact. It will improve soil quality, air quality, water quality and will improve the water table level. Our emphasis is on understanding and spreading the importance of improving soil quality, all the biomass produced in this farming will be used as mulching and compost. This will help bring back the carbon that escaped into the atmosphere thus reducing effect of climate change. I also want to start a fruit tree planting and bamboo planting project in the farms of these adivasi people. By doing this the trees will be cared for, the fruits of the trees can be enjoyed for generations and also provide additional livelihood, it will prevent soil erosion, help act as a catchment area and many other benefits.

Suneet Salvi

Since I want to make farming sustainable and profitable for the farmers my next step is to use my expertise in marketing to provide markets for our produce. By doing this we will be able to create enough opportunities in the rural area to stop migration to urban areas.

At a later date I also want to create an infrastructure for any one to come and stay on the farm and learn natural farming. I am particularly keen on bringing school students to increase their awareness and give then a taste of rural life.

6. You just had your first harvest. What crops did you grow?

Under Dr. Gokhale’s guidance we created special high organic beds. They have been ‘jeev amrut’ soaked biomass that will last us 7-8 years. These beds have been done on an experimental basis in a traditional paddy field. This monsoon we will grow rice in the water channels and vegetables on top.

Suneet Salvi

In our first trial we got a harvest of tomatoes, chillies, cabbage, 3-4 varieties of gourd, cucumbers, 2 -3 kinds of beans, leafy vegetables such as spinach, fenugreek and coriander. Even though we made some mistakes and started our planting very late we are happy with the results. No chemical fertilizers or pesticides have been used and the vegetables have been healthy.

7. Some of the crops are complimentary to each other and to nourish the soil and allow better crop rotation can you give an example?

Different crops take different nutrients from the soil. However only 2% of crop nutrient come from the soil. Traditionally whenever a monocot (like rice and vegetables) is grown then the either a complimentary or the next crop should be a dicot (beans, lentils, pulses) which are nitrogen fixing crops.

Suneet Salvi

On our high organic beds we could successfully grow different vegetables. On each bed we grew different crops to make maximum use of the surface area of the bed and sunlight. We had radish that grew under the soil, surface hugging crop like cabbage and leafy vegetables and some creeper plants, some mid-height plants like tomatoes, chillies and beans (our dicot nitrogen fixers), and some climbers like gourd and cucumber. The competition amongst plants is for sunlight, our beds ensure enough sunlight for all. We have also planted some corn and marigold on or around the beds. Corn acts a barrier for pest, becomes a station for crop friendly insects, controls micro climate, gives us corn and animal fodder too. Marigolds yellow flowers attract the pest which would have otherwise settled on main crops, they also act as advertising hoardings to attract pollinating insects which help other crops to increase yields. their roots produce alkaloids which defend other crops against nematodes in their roots. Thus all crops grow in harmony and complimentary to each other. Now we will reuse all the bio mass produced after harvest for mulching. All the roots and plants will return back the nutrients it has taken to the soil and will help in improving soil quality and nutrition of future crops.

8. Do you think Organic farming on a much smaller scale could make its way into common house holds all over Mumbai.

Yes, people should grow organic food in their balconies and terraces. It is fantastic stress buster plus you get to eat fresh and nutritious food, I have grown cucumber, chillies, tomatoes, lady finger and turmeric on my terrace. Now I have oregano, baby spinach, Basil, lemon grass, curry leaves and mint, the fresh leaves can be used whenever required.

Suneet Salvi

It is now also a necessary for us to grow our own food in whatever quantity possible. It would be nice if people can partner with farmers and tell them to grow organic produce for the family. This way it will help the farmers and prevent drastic steps taken by farmers and also assure poison free food for the family, a win-win situation for all. It would be like having a family farmer.

We also got an opportunity to meet the adivasi boys who assist Mr. Salvi and his team. These were some questions we had for them.

1. What made you take up Organic farming?

We only grew only one crop per year and that too for our family needs, we do this as there is no better alternative. Costly seeds, fertilizers and pesticides have made farming unaffordable. Big companies have taken control of our seeds and slowly we have forgotten our traditional methods as we tried to follow the modern methods, but when input costs went out of our reach and market prices for our produce remained always very low we had no alternative but to stop farming and let our land remain fallow and go in search of work to the cities.

Suneet Salvi

When Suneet sir came to our village he told us to farm with very little external inputs and costs. He showed us many Youtube videos of successful organic farmers, made us visit other farms, and we have also attended a training of Subhash Palekarji on zero budget natural farming which has motivated us further. Along with Ajit sir, Pratik sir and Suneet sir we decided to participate in this kind of farming, it is going back to our roots. We are happy that there are no or less expenses and it is something we can do on our farm as well. We are also happy that our family is getting to eat vegetables that are without pesticides.

2. How does it benefit the community?

Besides getting to eat poison free food, the expenses are minimal for whatever we produce. We also sell and get additional income for our families. Since everything we use is natural it will help us improve the soil quality and water quality of our village. We are also planning to grow a lot of trees as it will help our community in the long run.

Suneet Salvi

3. Do you plan on passing on the skills you have learnt to future generations?

We have formed a self help group and want to help anyone who wants to learn this method of farming and not just to our future generations. This zero budget natural farming is generating a lot interest among our villagers and also from neighbouring villages and we are sure this farming will spread , we are always willing to share this knowledge and assist anyone who wants our help. We want maximum people to benefit from this natural farming.

Suneet Salvi