Organic Farming and Its Implementation

Organic farming is a method of farming that primarily aims to cultivate land and raise crops in a way that keeps the soil alive and in good health. It relies on organic wastes -- crop residues, animal waste, farm waste, and aquatic waste -- together with other biological materials and beneficial microbes (biofertilizers) to release nutrients to crops, aiming for increased, sustainable production within an eco-friendly, pollution-free environment, rather than relying on synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides. G. Nammalvar is the chapter's real-world case study of organic farming's implementation in Tamil Nadu: an agricultural scientist and environmental activist, he was celebrated for spreading ecological and organic farming and was firmly against the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. He trained hundreds of farmers in natural farming methods, authored several Tamil and English books on natural farming and on pesticides and fertilizers, and was featured in magazines and television programmes. He founded the Nammalvar Ecological Foundation for Farm Research and Global Food Security Trust (commonly called 'Vaanagam') at Karur, Tamil Nadu, and personally developed a social forest at Ammankurai and the Kolunji Ecological Farm in Pudukottai. Together with his associates, he converted a 10-acre barren tract of dry Pudukottai district into fertile, cultivable land, and planted …