It is the end of January, approaching harvest time, and I am standing in the middle of Hanumantha Rao Narne’s Guntur chilli farm in the plains of Andhra Pradesh. The air is warm, the sky is pale blue, and there is nary a cloud in sight. All around me are plants, waist high, adorned with tiny white flowers, and sleek red chillies, like baubles on a Christmas tree.
I walk through rows of tightly cropped chilli, intercropped with millet and cowpea, and vegetables like bottle gourd, cucumber, and brinjal. The soil feels dry to touch, but the plants are happy and beaming despite the strong afternoon sun - a sign that they are getting the water they need despite the heat.
As I walk, Vinod Narne, Hanumantha Rao’s son, shows me barrels of Dashaparni Kashayam, a botanical extract made from fermenting cow urine along with the ten types of leaves, including neem. The resulting mix is a bitter, potent, astringent liquid that is said to control pests like aphids and white flies, that favour chilli plants. The Narnes also fumigate their farm every fifteen days, using balls of cow dung and green neem leaves that are dried in the sun, and then set on fire to release a thick smoke. It reminds me of dhoop: an incense blend that is burnt at dusk in Indian homes, to keep mosquitoes at bay. In the Narne’s case, the smoke is meant to asphyxiate any insects that cannot fly away, thereby controlling pest populations.
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As often happens on farm visits, I am reminded of the quantum of work that goes into growing food, especially using regenerative methods. The field has to be planted, constantly weeded, and tended to daily. So do the cows that need to be fed, walked, cleaned, and milked. The mixes need to be made, monitored, and applied periodically. The chillies need to be sowed, harvested, then dried. Back breaking work, that is severely and sadly undervalued on most parts of the planet.
As I ponder the state of our food system, I see Hanumantha Rao gathering ripe red chillies in the distance. A short distance away, Vinod is talking with his sister Vijaylakshmi, while her son Tejaswin holds up a bottle gourd the size of his torso like a prize trophy (he’s 4). Three generations in communion with the soil that feeds them all - how many of us have, or will ever, experience this? I say a silent prayer that the little one continues to have this relationship of nourishment, wonder, and joy with the land that feeds him.
On second thought, this is my wish for us all.
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Read Neha's complete Notes From The Field here
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