Natural Growing in India – our article in Allotment Gardener newsletter

Dear Friends,

Please see article below by food growers in the Global Women’s Strike network, inspired by the movement of women farmers in Andhra Pradesh spreading natural farming through their Self-Help Groups.

More information on this growing movement here.

Natural Growing in India

We are allotmentgrowers/gardeners in London and Suffolk,growing food withoutchemicals for some time.We have been inspired bythe grassroots women’sself-help farmingmovement in AndhraPradesh, India.Since 2016, Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming has been spearheaded by women groups that transform their communities and its agriculture. They areregenerating the soil, depleted by decades of chemical farming, through nine principles ofnatural farming including: no/low tilling, crop diversity, ground cover all year round, waterconservation, 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- freefood throughout the year, despite the dry climate. The results are spectacular; increasedyields, plentiful nutritious food, improved health for children, women and men, higher independent incomes for women, lifting the whole society. Their methods help reverseclimate change by cooling the earth. (Scientists explain that increasing plant cover by 25% canreverse global warming.)We heard reports, first-hand, from an international team who visited to learn from the womenfarmers in 2022. Since then, we have adapted these methods, applying the principles on ourallotments, combining it with organic farming methods we already use and finding out whatworks in different regions.Many know how climate change is affecting growing seasons. Lack of rain, prolonged heatwaves and unusual rainfall patterns make mulching and ground cover more urgent. Thicklymulching potatoes resulted in almost doubling our crops with less disease and much lessweeding! We are looking to keep the ground covered with vegetation year-round, includingwith green manure and winter crops. Our fruit trees and berries especially benefited frommulching. We are experimenting with mixed,diverse crops, interspersing different vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruitbushes, to build the soil andencourage pollinators. We havebegun to try- out making naturalingredients to give seeds a goodstart, discourage disease andencourage essential bacteria in thesoil for healthy plants.By the date of this publication, we willhave met farmers from AndhraPradesh who are speaking atOxford Real Farming Conference inJanuary at a workshop organised bythe Global Women’s Strike (GWS). Small farmers, the majority women and girls, feed mostof 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 aCare Income for those caring for people and planet.By Caroline, Cristel, Lesley, Sara. Solveig Francis – one of the group that visited AndhraPradesh has advised this article.  For more information on the Land Working Group GlobalWomen’s Strike, email gws@globalwomenstrike.net, tel: 0207 482 6 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/.