Organic Farming

       🌿Organic Farming( जैविक खेती )🌿 

Organic farming is an agricultural system that uses fertilizers of organic origin such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting.

First of all We should know about Organic origin.

1.Compost manure 

2.Green manure

3.Bone meal

1.Compost manure.

What is compost?

Answer : - Compost is well decomposed organic wastes like plant residues, animal dung, and urine earth from cattle sheds, waste fodder etc.

👉How good compost are prepared?

→ First method. 

Compost making is the process of decomposing organic wastes in a pit. Site for compost making is selected should be at a high level and water should not pond during monsoon season. Pit should be of 3’ depth and 6’ to 8’ width. Length may be of any convenient size. 

The process is as follows:

• Prepare 6” layer of organic wastes – plant residues, sweepings from the cattle shed, waste fodder, dried plants stalks and leaves etc. and sprinkle water to just moisten it. (Over watering should be avoided).

• Cover with the layer with urine earth and cattle dung slurry.

• Add 5 to 10 kg of super phosphate for every 10 tons of organic wastes.

• Repeat the process of putting such layers till the pit is full.

• Close the pit with urine earth, waste fodder and then heap the soil till it gets convex shape (about 1 to 1.5’ above the ground) so that the rainwater rolls away.

• After six months compost is ready to apply to the fields.

→Second method.

                           Vermicompost ( केंचुआ खाद )

Definition :

Vermicompost is also called wormiculture or earthworm rearing. From the feces obtained by earthworms by eating dung, dry and green leaves, grass straw, paddy straw, bitterness of maize / millet, farm residues, dairy / poultry weathering, city garbage etc. The finished compost is called vermi culture. It is a mixture of earthworm eggs and mycoflora. The earthworms released from them remain active in the land.

Earthworm residues / feces, their cocoons, all kinds of beneficial micro-organisms, main and micronutrients and undigested organic matter, the earthworm mixture is called vermi compost. On getting suitable temperature, moisture, air and organic matter, earthworms keep on increasing their numbers as well as converting rotting dung and vegetable residues etc. into organic manure.

Some of the important earthworm species for making earthworm manure in the Indian subcontinent are as follows.

1. Eisenia foetida (आइसीनिया फोटिडा )

2. Eisenia andrie ( आइसीनिया एन्ड्रेई )

3. Parionyx excavatus (पेरियोनिक्स एक्सकैवेटस)

      Raw material and machinery required for making earthworm manure

Only biodegradable and degradable organic waste is used as raw material for making earthworm manure. The following substances are generally used as raw materials in making earthworm manure.

A.Cattle Dung

1. Cow Dung

2. Buffalo dung

3. Sheep's Manning

4. Goat Manning

5. Horsetail

B.Agricultural Waste

1. Crop stems, leaves and straw residues

2. Leaves and stems of weeds

3. Rotten vegetables and other waste material

4. Shredded Garden Leaves

5. Sugarcane leaves and bagasse

C.Plant Residues

1 wood bark, peel and pulp

2. Different types of leaf waste

3. Parse

4. Leaves of plants near roads and residential areas

D.Urban Waste

1. Cotton waste

2. Waste of paper etc. 

3. Waste of rotten fruits and vegetables in the markets like banana leaves etc.

4. Waste of packing of fruits, vegetables etc. 

5. Kitchen waste like peels of fruits and vegetables etc.

E.Biogas slurry

Biogas slurry is used to dry the slurry from the biogas plant.

F.Industrial Waste

 1. Residues of Food Processing Units

2. Distillation Unit Residue

3. Natural Food Residues

4. Sugarcane Baggage and Refining Residue

                                    Machinery

1. Mechanical machine / cutter to cut the organic waste into small pieces

2. Mixing machine for mixing organic waste. 

3. Khurpi, shovel, fork etc.

4. Mechanical sieve. 5. Weighing machine.

6. Packing Sealing Machine.

7. Hazara for sprinkling water

Requirements for making earthworm compost :

The following are required to set up a vermicomposting unit on an industrial scale.

A) Site for unit On an average, about 5000 square feet of space is required for the establishment of an earthworm composting unit of 150 ton per year capacity.

B) Organic Waste:

An economically viable earthworm composting unit requires organic waste at the rate of about 4 tonnes/day or 30 tonnes per week.

C) Infrastructure

1. Thatch of size 12 ft. x 10 ft. x 40 ft. (4800 sq. ft.) is sufficient to make about 150-175 tonnes of earthworm manure per year. 2. Provision of sprinkler for sprinkling water in the bed of earthworm compost

3. There should be provision for proper flow of air inside the thatch.

4. For drying earthworm manure, 12 feet x 6 feet x 1 feet size cement paved floor.

6. Arrangement for storage of processed earthworm manure.

6. Water system.

                                                      Methods of making vermicompost.

1.General method:  For making vermicompost, the size of the area is kept as per the requirement but 100 square meter area is sufficient for middle class farmers. Vermi-beds are made from cement and into to make good quality earthworm manure.The length of each bed is 3 meters, the width is meters and the height is 30 to 50 cm. About 90 such beds can be made in an area of ​​100 sq.m. It is very necessary to cover the beds with green nets with thatch and thongs to protect the beds from strong sunlight and rain and to keep them dark for rapid breeding of earthworms.

To fill the beds, decomposable organic materials like leaves, grass, vegetable and fruit peels, dung, etc. are selected. These materials are required to be kept late for 15 to 20 days to rot before filling them in the beds. The pile is left by sprinkling water into a mixture of organic matter kept for rotting. After 15 to 20 days the waste comes in partially decomposed form.Such waste is considered very good food for earthworms. Underground waste is filled up to 50 cm height in the beds. Earthworms are left in each bed 3-4 days after the garbage is filled and each bed is covered with wet sacks by sprinkling water. One ton of waste yields 0.8 to 0.7 tonnes of earthworm manure. 

2. Four-pit method: In this method a pit of 12 × 12 × 2.5° (length × width × height) is made at the chosen location. This pit is divided into 4 equal parts by brick walls. In this way a total of 4 beds are made. The size of each bed is approximately 5.5 x 5.5 x 2.5'. The middle dividing wall is made of two bricks (9 inches) for strength. Holes are left in the separator walls for the passage of air and earthworms at equal distances. The number of such beds can be kept as per the requirement.

In this method, each bed is filled one after the other, that is, the first pit is filled for a month, after the entire pit is filled, sprinkle water and cover it with black polythene so that the process of decomposition of waste starts. After that start filling the garbage in the second pit. In the second month, when the second pit is full, then cover it and the garbage starts filling in the third pit. By this time the waste of the first pit comes in a sludge form.After a day or two, when the heat in the first pit subsides, then about 5 kg (5000) earthworms are left in it. After this, the pit is covered with dry grass or sacks. To maintain the wetness in the garbage, water is sprinkled as needed. Thus after 3 months When the third pit is filled with garbage, then soak it with water and cover it and start filling the fourth pit with garbage. Gradually, when the heat of the second pit decreases, then the earthworms from the first pit automatically enter through the holes made in the separator wall and in that also the earthworm compost starts to form. In this way all the four pits are filled one after the other in four months. By this time, in the first pit which has been filled for three months, earthworm compost (vermicompost) is ready. All the earthworms of this pit gradually enter the second and third pit through the holes made in the middle walls. Now the process of extracting manure from the first pit can be started. After removing the manure, start filling the garbage again. In this method, about 10 quintals of waste is filled at a time in each pit in a year, due to which 7 quintals of compost (70 percent) is prepared at a time. In this way a total of 84 quintals of manure (4x3x7) is obtained in three cycles from four pits in a year. Apart from this, a total of 25 kg earthworms are obtained from one pit and 100 kg from 4 pits in a year.