Home | About Us | Success Stories | Farmers Association | Farmers' Innovation | Publications| Contact

Indigenous Farming :: Cultivation Practices

 

Seasons: 
Six seasons mentioned in Rig-Veda are viz., 
Grishma (May – June) 
Varsha (July – August), 
Hemant (September – October), 
Shared (November – December ) 
Shishir (January – February ) and 
Vasanta (March – April).

Seasons in Temperature climate

Winter

Spring

Summer

Autumn

January April July October
February May August November
March June September December

Soil

Kahsyappa points out that a good soil should be devoid of bones and stones, should be a plastic clay with reddish and black hue, full of essence (potency), and glossy with water, should not be too deep or shallow, should be conducive to speedy seedlings emergence, should be easily absorb moisture and should be inhabited with beneficial living creatures (earthworms) and should have as substantial mass.

Planting time:The planting should be commenced with the beginning of the rainy season in several countries. Kashyapa has mentioned taking a crop even in summer if water was available.

Land preparation

In Rig-Veda, farmers are stated to have resorted to repeated ploughings of land before sowing seeds. Clearly the purpose of such ploughings must have been to remove weeds, loose the soil and pulverize it to the extent required.

These were probable used for deep or shallow ploughing as required. Sage Parasara had stated that Anila i.e. Swati, Uttarashadha, Uttarabhardrapada, Uttarpahalguni, Rohini, Mrigashirsha (Mriga), Mula, Punarvasu, Pushya, Shravana and Hasta are good stars for ploughing. Plowing on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday results in good growth of crops. The second, third, fifth, seventh, tenth, eleventh, and thirteenth, day of the month are good for ploughing. Ploughing should be commenced on auspicious lagans, such as Taurus (April 21), Pisces (February 20), Virgo (August 22), Gemini (May 21), Sagittarius (November 23) and Scorpio (October 23).

Single furrows lead to success, in threes to wealth and those in five yield plenty of harvest.The dates for ploughing operation are suggested on 20, February, 21, April 21, May 22, August 23, October and 23, November. A calendar for ploughing for taking the crops was only mentioned in Krishi – parashara.

Starting of ploughing Crops
20, February Sugarcane, black gram
21, April Rice ( to be transplanted later)
21, May Rice (to be directly seeded) and other warm season crops such as cotton and sesame.
23, October Late sown wheat and barley plus mustard
23, November Field vacated by rice for planting sugarcane and fodder crops.

Ploughing was to begin with the visibility of rain – bearing clouds and plots were to be filled with water for puddling s to prepare for planting paddy.

Farm implements

A bamboo stick of a specific size was used to measure land. Vedic literature and Krishi Parashara also mention disc plough seed drill, blade harrow (Bakhar), wooden spike, root harrow, planters, axe, how, sickle, supa for winnowing, and a vessel to measure grain (udara). Pairs of bullocks used for ploughing in ancient days varied from one to eight. Plough was considered as the most sacred and essential implement in agricultural operations and was known by different names. The more commonly known desi plough was a multipurpose implement.

Seed collection and preservation (Sage Parasara):

All sorts of seeds should be procured in Maha (February) or Phalguna (March) and should then be dried well in the sun without putting those directly on the ground. To procure healthy seeds of panicles are located, in the field, cut from the standing crop, and collected in a pouch. A mixture of different kinds of seeds causes great loss. Uniform seeds produce excellent results.

Kashyppa describes the procedure of preserving the seeds and advises farmers to dry the seeds in the sun, store them indifferent kinds of vessels and protect them from stormy rains and moisture as well as from rats, cats and rabbits.

Crop Diversity:

India has a large and wide diversity in cereals, millets, pulses, oil seeds, fibres vegetables and fruits.

Choice of crops:

Kashyapa listed rice and other cereals as the first, pulses and other grains as the second vegetables (including fruits) the third, and creepers and flowers etc., the fourth.

Basmati Rice

The world ‘basmati’ has its origin in the Sanskrit word ‘vaas’ means fragrance and ‘matup’ means possessing. Thus vaasmati should mean something possessing fragrance in northern India. ‘Va’ is often pronounced as ‘ba’ and this word ‘basmati’ should have been used for a kind or rice having fragrance of scent.

Golden rice:Kashyapa had claimed that Peetvarna crihi (yellow rice) improved digestion or a sambaka variety called Hema (golden rice).

Sequence of cropping:

Season Crops
First season (purvavapah) Paddy, Kodruva, seasmum, panic, daraka and varaka
Second season (madhyavapah) Mudga, masa and saivya
Last season Kusumbha, lentil, kuluttha, barley, wheat, kalaya, linseed and mustard

Seed and sowing:

Ancient scholars showed awareness of the importance of good seed: i.e selection of the apparently healthy seed from a ripening crop, preserving if safely in storage, with or without treatments and sowing the good seed again with or without some treatment.

Two days should be avoided for sowing, transplanting; Tuesday, which portends threat from rats and Saturday, which foretells threat from locusts and insects.

Sowing should not be done on ‘empty’; days (such as the fourth, ninth, and the fourteenth day of the lunar fourteenth day of the lunar fortnight of a month) especially   if the moon is weal. Seed of grains should be planted at a distance of hand (approximately 1 ½ ft = 45 cm) when the sun is in Cancer. In Leo the distance should be half of it. In Virgo it should be four fingers, (34 inches = 7.6 – 10.2 cm) Butter milk makes the seeds sprout earlier than the normal time. The procedure of sowing involves ploughing, leveling, furrowing, or digging pits.

Varahamihira recommended pelleting of seed with flours of rice, black gram and sesame and fumigating them with turmeric powder to ensure good germination. Surapala listed several botanicals such as seed treatment materials for shrubs and trees.

Bamboo drills were used for sowing seed. Adjusting the inter – plant and inter – row spacing was done on the basis of sowing time; late sowing meant more seeds per unit urea. A wooden plank was run over sown fields to ensure uniform seed germination. The art of sowing rice in small areas; i.e. in nurseries and transplanting of the seedlings is not a recent practice. It was first perfected in the details of Godavari and Krishna rivers in 100 AD.

Hard seeds like Tamarind sprouted when sprinkled with a mixture of the flour of rice, black gram and sesamum and wheat particles together with stale meat, and fumigated with turmeric powder, repeatedly.

Cotton seed was treated with red lac juice in a special manner to get red tinged cotton.  It was also treated with cow dung paste to facilitate sowing and control of seed borne diseases.

Varahamihira has recorded two methods of grafting. They are (i) inserting the cutting of a plant into the stem of another. The junction of the two in both the cases was covered with a coating of mud and cow dung. Grafting was advocated for jackfruit, ashoka, plantain, rose apple, lemon, pomegranate, grape, jasmine, etc. Further, he recommended February – March for grafting those plants which have not developed branching; December – January for those which have developed branching and August – September for those which have developed large branched. The grafted trees were to be watered both in the morning and evening every day in summer, on alternate days in the cold season and whenever the soil becomes dry in the rainy season.

Weeds and weeding:

The role of weeds in reducing crop yields was well understood by our ancestors Parashara pointed out the  need to weed  rice fields, as many as four weeding were suggested. Weeding as an essential practice in raising crops is stated in the Sangam Literature. Parashara recommends collection of crop seeds free of weed seeds.

Nutrient management:

Kashyapa emphasized that the Brahimins proficient in Vedas should sprinkle the five fold cow – products (milk, curd, ghee (clarified butter), urine, and dung) or may be simply sprinkle with clean water over the land (for the purpose of purifying the atmosphere) either in the morning or in the evening. This is known as ‘Panchakowia’.

Water management:

Construction of wells and device for lifting water had been described. 
Kashyapa has mentioned four sources of canal

  1. river,
  2.  tank which could have been filled by a river,
  3. Large lake and
  4. Canals collecting water from mountain cascades.

                
And well also constructed to supply water. Best time for digging wells was the post rainy season. He suggested study of indicators for the presence of sub soil water such as existence of trees and course, water divining. Kashyapa has mentioned the use of ghatiyantra (Persian wheel) with the help of bullocks, elephants, and humans. Harvesting of rain was stressed.

Growth promoters 

Varahamihira says the tree catches disease from cold weather, strong winds and hot sun. In such cases a paste made of vidanga, ghee and silt must be applied to the affected parts. 

When there is a premature fruit drop, the tree should be watered with milk that has been cooled after being boiled with horse gram, black gram, green gram, sesamum and barley,. After this treatment, the trees will produce abundant flowers and fruits. A mixture of powdered dung of goats and sheep, sesamum powder, wheat articles, beef and water kept for seven nights should be sprinkled for increasing flowers and fruits of trees, creepers and shrubs. In the Sangam age, they were used to increase the yield of crops.

Sesamum, cow dung, barley powder, fish and water when mixed in fixed proportions formed effective manure. According to Varahamihira, sesamum is sown and ploughed back when it blooms in order to mix it with the soil. Cow dung, dung of buffaloes, goats and sheep, clarified butter, sesamum, honey, horse gram, black gram, green gram, barley, roots of certain plants, ashes, stale meat, beef and marrow of hog were used as manure.

Agriculture without supervision was considered fruitless. The owner of the field was to look after the field himself. If he failed to supervise the agricultural operations, the belief was that the Goddess of prosperity would desert him and in her place adversity would enter his field.

Pest and disease management

Varahanihira (Bhat, 1981) suggested use of milk ghee and cow dung for dressing seeds and smoking them by burning animals flesh or turmeric before sowing. He also suggested sprinkling seeds with a mixture of flowers of cereals legumes and sesame as well as stable minced meat.

Use of botanical pesticides Neems leaves were commonly used to contain the storage insects and seed infection during storage. There is also a maintain of the use of seed treatment with coal ash before storage to prevent insect damage during storage. Pigeon pea seeds were before storage sun draying of seeds to reduce moisture content before storage was a common practice during Ancient for the management of insects pests.

Use of dung garlic and pine oil should protect the cuttings from damage by some insects and pathogens. Burning of garlic was recommended for “expelling caterpillars” by the Roman author Palladius (orlob, 1973).

Resin application to roots has been recommended for preventing cracking of pomegranate is found in ancient literature.

Application of excreta of sheep, pig and donkey and human can at best keep the apple tree well nourished which in turn perhaps keeps insect and diseases damage animals.

Insects infesting trees could be removed by smoking  a mixture of white mustard, black pepper, asafetida, vidanga (Embelia ribes), vaca (Zingiber zerumber), and water mixed with bleed horn of buffalo flesh of pigeonpea and the powder of bhillata (Semecarpus anacardium). Sprinkling water mixed oil cake could control insects infesting creepers. Dusting cow dung ash and brick-dust could destroy leaf – eating insects.

Trees were watered with cold water for days to remove insects from the roots and branches. A would caused by insects was healed if sprinkled with milk after being anointer with mixture of vidanga sesame cow’s urine ghee (clarified butter) and mustard.

Honey, mustard and licorice too possess antimicrobial properties. Cow dung which is unusually mixed with urine has antiseptic properties. In addition cow dung can promote biological control. Milk could act as good sticker and may also promote biotical control of pathogens.            Indian farmers continue to use cow dung in various ways but the agriculture scientists have ignored use for purpose other than use as manure.

Mustard paste or suspension is known to posses antifungal, acaricidal, nematicidal and insecticidal properties. The sprouting mustard seeds around the packed betel leaves would release a volatile antifungal gas.

Increased use of animal wastes for manure

  1. Application of cattle manure to pigeon pea to reduce frost damage;
  2. Application of Calotropis gigantean for two years (seasons) to reclaim soils with salts efflorescing;
  3. Sanitation, removal of all dead organic matter from the betel leaf sheds to prevent spread of diseases; and
  4. Reduction in betel vine disease (gandi - collar rot) by soil application of onion juice mixed with cow dung.

Harvesting, Threshing and Storage

Aarda, Kritika, Chitra, Pushya, hasta,  Swati, Uttarashadha, Uttarabhadrapada, Utaraphalguni, Mula and Shravana are the nakshatras recommended for the  taken harvest.  

Harvesting was done both by cutting down the crop at ground level and by cutting off the ear heads. Threshing was done on the threshing floor and winnowing with a supa. Cleaned grain was stored in storage bins and a trash burned.

Sickles and swords were used for harvesting millets heads. For threshing buffaloes were made to tread or men used to thresh the ears with their feed. Black gram was threshed with sticks. Women considerable contributed to threshing and cleaning.

Harvest should not be done on ‘empty’ days. Rikta or empty days - fourth, ninth, and the fourteenth days of the lunar fortnight

Grains should be measured from left to right and not the other way. Measuring the grains from the right leads to expenditure whereas from the left leads to happiness and enhancement of yield.

Parashara mentions adhaka, a wooden vessel with a capacity of about 3, 5 kg (paddy rice). The grain was stored at a place safe from termites, rats, and other pests.


The auspicious Meena (Pisces) Lagna (February) is the best for storing grains, Hasta, Sharavana, Dhanishtha, Shatabhishita, Pushya, Bharani, Uttarashadha, Uttarabharapada, uttaraphaguni, Mula and Magha are the auspicious Nakshatras for storing grains. 
Note: Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday should of course be avoided.

Post harvest storage pest management

A majority of farmers were found to do threshing of maize and paddy manually. To prevent food grains from insect infestation, use of neem leaves, ash, salt, camphor, etc. either singly or in combination was common. For storage of seed, use of kerosene + ash, and onion was popular.

Use of indigenous practices for controlling the rats like live – traps keeping dogs and cats, filling the burrows with ash, pieces of glass, bunch of hair and then plastering them was common in the tribal as well as non – tribal areas.

Farming Systems:

The importance attached of food quantity in Anna Sukta shows that arable farming was given equal importance as stock farming.

Shifting agriculture practiced in India has mixed cropping as a standard feature. It was once conceded primitive by scientists, however now it is being suggested as a means to increase world food production. During the cropping phase the farmers raise 8-35 crops species on a small plot of 2 to 2.5 ha with simultaneous sowing and sequential harvesting the crop mixture provides crop cover against loss of nutrients, optimisms resources facilitates recycling of biomass and nutrients and improve soil characteristics.

Zabo farming system is practiced in Nagaland. ‘Zabo’ means impounding of water. The system is a combination of agriculture, forestry, livestock, fishery and soil and water conservation.

Animal manure is the major source of crop nutrition. The silt deposited in the tanks is dug out during off-season and added to the fields. This silt is very rich in nutrients as it contains lot of forest litter. Farmers also add leaves and succulent branches to the fields and leave for decomposition. This helps in building up soil fertility and maintenance of soil health. This indigenous farming system is good example of integrated use of land, water and nutrient. Shifting cultivation, which otherwise causes soil and nutrients loss, the Zabo method of cultivation is eco friendly, taken care of natural resources and soil erosion is negligible.

An agriculturalist who looks after the welfare of his cattle, visits his farms, daily has the knowledge of the seasons, is careful about the seeds, and is industrious is rewarded with the harvest of all kinds and never perishes, farms should be never left to the care of anyone other than oneself

Along with agriculture crops, they do vegetable gardening, floriculture, medicinal plants and spices, fruit trees, and forest trees. They also practiced animal rearing.

Sustainable Agriculture

The present day concept of integrated pest management (IPM) is mainly towards the eco – friendly approaches considering the human and animals health and other profits. The use of botanicals and other safer chemicals. In fact this is not now and there was ample evidence that our ancestors had knowledge and experience and lived under healthier environments that the present situation. Though Indian agriculture in the modern age is making large strides of progress it is necessary to consider the treasure of ancient knowledge particularly the development and use of safer pesticides for the development of mankind.             

 

Home | About Us | Success Stories | Farmers Association | Publications| Site Map | Disclaimer | Contact Us