i was reading in the book about bhasta save’s work, vision of natural farming about a dry land rotation near him. i realized that what i had done wrong in my acre last year was to water. i should have spent the time watering mulching everything that was growing. then the weeds would not have taken over, making my one acre impossible for me to take care of. we forget that the plants have many ways to get deep watering in a no till situation. as in the forest you see many baby trees growing without water. even though i had tilled initially, if there was time with rain after that tilling, i could have relied on the ground water if i had mulched. the other thing i learned was that when i do pull weeds i usually drop them right where i weed them. now i would collect enough weeds t make at least 3 inches high. bringing in mulch for the rest of the plants.
i met some folks at solitude who were visiting from near mombai. they work with an ngo which is working with a low caste group, who in the past could not own land and are fisherman and try to get other jobs. insert italian guy on ngos
they told the story of the place where they are serving about 5 hours outside of mumbai where most of the trees have been cut down for wood or charcoal. then desertification happens. in certain places dams are built to grow large scale crops and for resorts, in this case mainly for folks from mombai. there is an indian ngo that has been in place for 25 years working with these folks. they are mainly trying to get them food allotments from the indian government. he wants to find something that they can do independently. a woman in a nearby village has figured out a way to make stoves that use little wood from cow dung and earth. he would like to have them learn skills to make and market these stoves which would be a many win situation. so lovely to be in a place where folks are making deep changes for what seems to be the betterment of all of us.