Increasing Agricultural Production

Calcutta, 1988.

To take care of the security and welfare of the people of any developing country, the production level should be increased.

Bangladesh imports much of what it needs because in many areas only one or two crops are grown per year. Most crops should be harvested 3-4 times per year in poor countries.

Poor countries are usually densely populated, thus every inch of land must be used judiciously.

Mixed farming is required. Staple crops especially must be produced 4 times per year. The priorities are:

1. Cereals
2. Oil-producing seeds and pulses
3. Vegetables

Where there is little rain, seeds should first be planted for 6 weeks in a small field for ease of watering. Then the seedlings should be transplanted for another 80 or 85 days in large fields. If any crop yield takes as long as four months then there must be a subsidiary crop such as oil seeds. In the same field both cereals and oil-seeds may be grown.

This is an example of mixed farming. Between the deep-rooted plants, put the short-rooted oil-seed plants—or other short-rooted plants like cloves, turmeric or ginger. In that case manure will not be needed because oilseeds add needed natural elements to the land, so that it becomes fertile.

Chemical fertilizers decrease the inter-molecular space in the soil. If you use chemicals sometimes, you must always use them. But vegetable and animal fertilizers cause no bad reaction.

Pumping water from below the earth’s surface is not good for irrigation because the water table will go down. A three inches drop in the water table per too years is normal. When pumping is done, it will increase to about six inches per too years. The Calcutta area is one of the worst—it is now sinking eight inches every too years due to intense water pumping. The perennial rivers offer the best source for irrigation.

Where the saline water-level is too high, it is better to pipe in sweetwater, even if it must be done from too miles away. When farming is done with sweet-water for 5-10 years, the saline level will decrease and become normal.

Normally potatoes take 90 days to mature. But in 60 days it is also possible to harvest the potatoes and make dehydrated potato powder. Otherwise it cannot easily be preserved. Only 90-day potatoes can be kept a long time in cold storage.

Rivers coming from dead mountains do not carry soil. They carry sand. In sandy areas it is best to take away three feet of the sandy soil, put a layer of polythene plastic, and put the sandy soil back.

Then water and manure will not sink away so easily. This is an example of an idea with which Baba personally experimented. In the desert there is only sand without even soil, so lime must be added.

When land is very dry, then non-mulberry silk-worms can be produced. When the cocoons are put into water, they yield fiber for silk threads. In two or three months, too silk-worms increase to 20,000.

Also wool-sheep can be maintained wherever there are high hills.

Nature has given all different types of soil, and in each place something important grows. We can also create new plants for the desert and other areas of low fertility.

Grassroots planning

The best planning is not done only by the high level bosses but also by the volunteers on the lowest local level. Then only can that planning be realistic. For that reason, Baba gave the slogan for all Margi district in-charges: “Know the area, prepare the plan, serve the people.”

District in-charges coming from any part of the world were tested by Baba on the following items relating to their own districts:

1. topography or natural environment, plus temperature, flora and fauna

2. agricultural potentialities

3. industrial potentialities

4. nature of soil

5. availability of natural resources

6. rivers and valleys

7. block-level planning covering all aspects of social life

8. how to develop the language

9. participation of indigenous peoples in agricultural and industry

10. rainfall

11. soil erosion

12. landscape

13. farming in arid lands, coastal belt (saline problems)

14. sources of energy

15. type of irrigation prominent and possible

16. name and meaning of their own people’s movement

17. international and state river links

18. classical language from which local language originated

19. scope for auxiliary agriculture (fisheries, beekeeping, poultry, dairy farms, horticulture, orchards)

20. scope for setting up machine tool stations

21. technique of farming according to nature of land, e.g. plain land, highland, lowland, arid land, saline zone, mountain zone

22. ecological balance

23. scope for encouraging reforestation and discouraging deforestation.