Mrs Nagalakshmi’s Sapota Trees

Mrs Nagalakshmi set aside one acre of her five acre plot in 2007 to grow fruit trees and, with the help of SCAD’s tree planting staff, she planted trees for the next three years. Initially she planted 50 Sapota trees and has subsequently added a further 55 trees comprising of Jamun, Tamarind and Guava. The Sapota trees have just started to fruit and she has sold the crop for £200 (RS 15,000).

To supplement her income before the fruit trees started to bear fruit, SCAD staff convinced her to plant Sorghum as an inter crop and provided her with some subsidised seed. Sorghum is easy to grow and can survive the dry and hot conditions of the Vilatakulam area that she lives in with minimum attention. This has proved a great success as she uses the Sorghum for fodder for her cattle and has started to sell Sorghum seeds to other farmers in her locality This seed selling combined with the money she has saved by not having to buy as much fodder for her animals is providing her with a good return from her land.

Mrs Nagalakshmi is very happy with the outcome especially as, in addition to the extra income, she now finds she does not have to spend as much time ploughing, tilling, weeding and watering. As a result of her experiences she now plans to convert more of her land to tree planting and Sorghum production instead of the cotton and green chillies that she has traditionally grown.

The species of trees are carefully selected bearing in mind the soil conditions and SCAD insists on at least five varieties of trees to spread the risk of failure. Mostly grafted one or two year old fruit trees are recommended. These saplings are twice as expensive as non grafted varieties but they fruit much more quickly and can start to yield after three years. This is a crucial factor in persuading farmers to set aside land for trees.

If you would like to help us support farmers in Tamil Nadu you can donate here.

A Life Free from Hunger

Last week Save the Children released a report entitled ‘A Life Free From Hunger’ and in it they declare that 48% of children in India are stunted in their growth due to malnutrition. Although this is an aggregated number and doesn’t account for regional differences in such a large and diverse country – with over 28 different states – it also reveals the dire condition many people in India are still living in. India is now the World’s 10th largest economy and has an obligation to look after the most vulnerable and destitute people.

Malnutrition is not only a problem for growth it also severely prevents individuals and families from being able to work. The report says

“The economic losses due to undernutrition are also pervasive – experimental evidence suggests that tackling malnutrition in early life can lead to as much as a 46% increase in earnings as an adult. Productivity loss due to foregone waged employment was estimated to be US$2.3 billion a year in India”

Save the Children – A life Free from Hunger Feb 2012

At SCAD we work tirelessly to make sure that the communities in the Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Kanyakumari districts of Tamil Nadu do not suffer from severe malnutrition and therefore stress on their earning capacity. Global food prices are increasing, UNFAO says that a basket of food is nearly 37% higher now than it was in June 2010 and this is an added pressure to poor, remote rural communities.

What are SCAD doing?

SCAD are

- helping over 2,500 women to plant kitchen gardens and grow nutritious food for themselves saving up to RS 2,000 per month

- planting between 80,000 – 100,000 indigenous trees per year – many with nutritional qualities

- teaching children about growing food in their schools and training in nutritional supplements

- ensuring mothers and babies get the nutrients that they need to support healthy growth

To see more about the amazing work our women’s self help groups are doing with kitchen gardens please watch this video

Success of the microbes

At SCAD we have been trailing effective micro-organisms for the last year on the soils and crops. Effective microbes are a new regenerative technology that harnesses nature to replace essential vitamins and minerals in soils to help plants grow. Microbes, beneficial and harmful, occur naturally and are fundamental to life on earth. The combination of three particular microbial strains in a balanced population effectively restores the microbial health of almost any physical environment in such a way that beneficial or regenerative microorganisms become dominant and pathogenic or harmful microorganisms are reduced.

EM formulations create and maintain a healthy microbial balance in almost any natural system and significantly improve the health and vitality of soil, water, plants, animals and humans. The combination of certain microbial species, including lactic acid bacteria, photosynthetic bacteria and yeasts, and their application to the environment in a specific way produces beneficial effects. I like to think of them like  a Yakult for soil!

Mr.Vaithiyanathan has been using the effective micro-organisms for the past three months and he has seen a marked improvement in his crops. In the treated crops the

• leaves are noticably greener and thicker.
• number of seeds has increased with the control producing 163 per tiller and the EMA treated crop is producing 190 per tiller.
• seeds look healthier, riper and uniformly bigger.
• pests and diseases are dramatically reduced.

We are really excited about the progress of using the micro-organisms in India, especially as they can be produced locally and offer a real alternative to herbicides and pesticides which have damaged the land.

At SCAD and Salt of the Earth we are passionate about agriculture and we recognise the vital importance of producing food sustainably. SCAD support over 1,500 kitchen gardens in Tamil Nadu (you can read more about kitchen gardens on a post on Emma Cooper’s blog written by me here). Imagine how these microbes could help women grow their kitchen gardens and protect their families health, make additional income and bring back life to the land.

If you have had any experience with effective micro-organisms then we would like to hear about it…drop us a line.

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