It all started with a lot of excitement. It was my first attempt in getting an open well dug in the farm. My dad joined in to help and was very happy too. But, we all knew the prospects of finding water were minimal. This land was abandoned since ages and there were no good waterways nearby. A beautiful lake in the vicinity was a good 0.5 km away from the farm.
We began our adventure with a quick “pooja” and the digging began. It was burning hot and the lone man who started digging the well already felt the hard rocky surface. He wasn’t confident either. This was a big moment for me as I took a break from work, in fact the entire week off, just to make sure I could set the well up and get a permanent source of water for the farm. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be so.
After a few days of digging and twenty foot deep, nothing turned up. It was a big financial loss but what bothered me most was that not even a drop of water turned up in a village where farming was and has been the mainstay for centuries. It also made me realize the reality of the inherent challenges in farming especially for the one doing it to earn his bread. Not the one to lose hope, I have now advanced to getting the land tilled and using the well (with no water) as a reservoir during the monsoon season.
Here is the well in its elegant beauty. The final touch up of having cement rings in the periphery is also done now. I also had the satisfaction of visiting the nearby temple which I never got to see up close so far. The deity Muneswara Swamy overlooks my farm land too. I took a snap of the beautiful stone idols in the secluded temple. My mission is to turn this land into a beautiful fruit tree orchard and a thriving miniature forest land. It is probably a few years down the line. Here is to my first failure!
There is a beautiful lake on the way to my farm which during times of good rains actually cuts off the road link providing some good offroading experience.
Even though things are soon getting dry, the lake has some wonderful water lily flowers and attracts some cool birds.
On the other hand, my farm land is like a desert right now. Everything is dry with absolutely no good vegetation. To top it up, I am taking a gamble with setting up an open well literally praying for water to somehow show up in the good land below! I do hope things show up on the brighter side.
Here is my favorite view of the land with a small temple in the background in the neighbor’s farm.
After waiting for the right time to get back to my farm and do something beyond de-weeding the land (successfully done in December), I am now working on a project to dig an open well and put some fencing around my land.
An open well is a hit and miss given the arid conditions in the village of Marupally and in the greater Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu. Not many farmers are keen on farming as much as they are interested in earning a few quick bucks doing some odd jobs, looking after farmhouses of rich folks from Bangalore or altogether ignoring the land to pursue other professions.
If the open well doesn’t work (by end of April, 2018), I have no other choice but to go with an expensive borewell set up. That I am not keen on doing for various reasons including the strain on the natural resources and pain of dealing with electricity authorities for pulling a power line to the farm.
In general, organic food consumers, manufacturers, and farmers strongly believe that organic food has the following benefits compared to non-organic food. While there are plenty of arguments against the multitude of organic food being overpriced on the market, there is no denying that there are some benefits that can be enjoyed.
Antioxidant Capacity
A number of studies have been completed regarding the effects of antioxidants derived from organic foods on your overall health, and the predominant results have shown that antioxidants tend to have more of an impact when they come from organic foods. This may be due to the fact that foreign chemicals are not negatively interacting with the different vitamins, minerals, and organic compounds that are so essential for the positive impact of fruits and vegetables in the prevention of things like cancer, heart disease, premature aging, vision problems, and cognitive malfunction. Recent research suggests that choosing organic food can lead to increased intake of nutritionally desirable antioxidants and reduced exposure to toxic heavy metals.
Pesticide Reduction
One of the major complaints that organic food consumers cite when choosing organic over non-organic is the presence of pesticides. In order to keep crops from being attacked by the natural world, including bugs, pesticides are required. Although they do a good job keeping certain pests away from the crops, they also are composed of powerful chemicals like organophosphorus. This is an unnatural mineral compound that is not required by humans, but more than 80% of this material in our bodies comes from eating pesticide-coated foods. Organophosphorus has been connected to a number of developmental problems, including autism and ADHD, so those organic food lovers do have a pretty strong argument in this case. To be fair, many people do choose to go organic to make sure that their children grow up healthy and unaffected by the toxins of the world during their developmental years.
Heart Health
Increased amount of time grazing on grass also increases the amounts of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) that can be found in the animal products. CLA is a heart-healthy fatty acid that can boost cardiovascular protection, and it is found in higher quantities in breast milk and in meat for animals that have been raised free range or cage-free.
Immune System
In recent decades, one of the biggest projects for farmers and food growers has been genetic modification. Making tomatoes six times larger might sound like a possible option for solving some world hunger issues, but there is another side to it. Genetic modification is still in its early stages, so the long-term effects of it on human health aren’t understood as well as we would like. In animal testing genetically modified food showed a major reduction in immune system strength, an increase in birth mortality, as well as in certain sexual dysfunctions, cancers, and sensitivity to allergens. Although there are some good things about genetically modified food, organic food advocates point to the lack of concrete details about the long-term effects.
Antibiotic Resistance
People are very sensitive to issues of their health, and they often take precautions to make sure they remain healthy, like getting various vaccines and taking antibiotics as soon as a new strain of bacteria makes them ill. However, non-organic food sources, particularly livestock and feed houses, also use antibiotics to feed their animals. This extra dose of antibiotics may actually be weakening our immune system by basically overdosing on antibiotics, thereby reshaping our immune system so many times that it will eventually be unable to defend itself. Organic food growers and dairy farmers do not use antibiotics in their processes.
Overall Health
Since organic food is not prepared using chemical fertilizers, it does not contain any traces of these strong chemicals and might not affect the human body in negative ways. Natural fertilizers, like manure, work perfectly fine, and organic farmers are happy to use this smellier, yet safer, form of fertilizer.
Better Taste
Some people strongly believe that organic food tastes better than non-organic food. The prominent reason for this belief is that it is produced using organic means of production. Furthermore, organic food is often sold locally, resulting in availability of fresh produce in the market, which usually does taste better than produce that has been frozen, shipped, and transported across long distances.
Environmental Safety
As harmful chemicals are not used in organic farming, there is minimal soil, air and water pollution; thus ensuring a safer and healthier world for future generations to live in.
Animal Welfare
Animal welfare is an important aspect of producing organic milk, organic meat, organic poultry, and organic fish. People feel happy that the animals are not confined to a miserable caged life when they eat organic animal products.
After a few days of digging and twenty foot deep, nothing turned up. It was a big financial loss but what bothered me most was that not even a drop of water turned up in a village where farming was and has been the mainstay for centuries. It also made me realize the reality of the inherent challenges in farming especially for the one doing it to earn his bread. Not the one to lose hope, I have now advanced to getting the land tilled and using the well (with no water) as a reservoir during the monsoon season.
Here is the well in its elegant beauty. The final touch up of having cement rings in the periphery is also done now. I also had the satisfaction of visiting the nearby temple which I never got to see up close so far. The deity Muneswara Swamy overlooks my farm land too. I took a snap of the beautiful stone idols in the secluded temple. My mission is to turn this land into a beautiful fruit tree orchard and a thriving miniature forest land. It is probably a few years down the line. Here is to my first failure!
