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It's the soil that matters
- Pranah Farms
- Jan 30
- 4 min read
Why did we take up a soil restoration project?
The simple answer is this- we didn’t take it up; it took us up!
After we completed the takeover of the farmland, we noticed something concerning. Almost all the existing trees & plants had slightly yellow color leaves. For almost a year, all that we did was to irrigate the land. When we dug up the soil to add new plants, they would just sit there and stare at us for some time and would dry up eventually irrespective of regular irrigation. The helpers at the farm told me that I must add urea, NPK and a bunch of other chemicals and would laugh at me when I asked who adds the same in the forests, where plants thrive!
We kept going to our farm on a regular basis. Several planting initiates failed miserably due to low yield and pests. Lost money and time. We were even advised by our well-wishers and family to sell the land and focus on other things. By then, a whole bunch of new issues came up, related to the land and few locals, and sleepless nights were ensured. Will write about that in another chapter and can just write a whole book on that.
As an Engineer by education & profession, my first drive to look at any problem is always by breaking it down and analyzing the same. We did exactly that. Tested the soil, multiple times. Given the size of the land in question, even that was difficult as different locations provided different results. We decided to focus on one area at a time. The results didn’t provide anything conclusive. It indicated a good amount of potassium; others were close to the range with deficiencies in iron & nitrogen. The advice from the local agriculture department was again the same- Add chemical NPK and a slew of pesticides. And a word of advice- Organic farming doesn’t work.
We went back to the dilemma again. After much thinking, my wife said- look, we took up this to grow food for us, primarily. If we wanted to eat all those chemicals and pesticides, why do all these- instead just buy whatever we need to eat from the supermarket! The decision was made and the ownership was again on me to solve the problem and meanwhile we were happy with whatever we got from the land, leftover of the pests after they had their stomach full. They always left something untouched for us. Those produces tasted great, way better than what the supermarkets could provide.
By then more than a year passed and then came the global disaster of covid and lockdowns. While almost the entire world was under lockdown and fear, we still could commute and access the land (the power of being a farmer!). By then we had surplus food and vegetables grown at the farm, and we started to offer them to essential service providers, neighbors and others in need. There were a lot of leftovers that we couldn’t transport due to lock down related logistic issues. We still harvested them and left it on the soil, to rot. I researched online and found ways to ferment them scientifically and started to feed it back to the soil on a regular basis. We still do this, with much more intensity, and scientific backing and is one of the key methods used to feed the soil microorganisms at Pranahfarm.
The covid lockdown period gave us time to spend on the farm. We noticed something new. During the summer, several birds arrived at the farm, including some rare species. We dug small pits and made water holes so that they could drink water. While the birds were happy with that, mosquitos started laying eggs in the water and we were heading for a new problem. Mosquito intensification! The solution- add fishes to the ponds. Got an army of locally grown guppies to these ponds and they were happy to feed on mosquito larvae. Slowly, frogs started to lay their eggs too and now we have tadpoles in the ponds too. When they become frogs, they started feeding on the pests. Slowly, a natural ecosystem formed. When the number of frogs grew, their natural predator, the rattlesnakes, showed up. They also managed to ensure we don’t have a rat problem on the farm. We also noticed several beehives being built in the farm, and that ensured better and natural pollination in the farm.
What happened to the soil? Its appearance started to change, they became soft, easy to dig and the plants started to perform better. And that’s when we started researching the soil. Today, we have a vibrant green color of leaves, across the trees in the farm.
As of now several people ask for our input on how they can do organic farming successfully. My first response always is, you cannot, unless you create an overall, conducive ecosystem for organic farming. And that takes effort, studying your environment and preserving, enriching and monitoring soil health. The benefit- you can cut down significantly on chemical fertilizers & pesticides(cost & health saved) and you will have better yield(Srilanka didn’t fail due to organic farming, they failed because of lack of understanding on how to do it appropriately). More than the yield, you will also have better nutrition in the produces with enhanced taste.
At Pranahfarm, we have an open-door policy, so that our consumers get to understand and experience how their food is grown. However, due to logistic and management reasons, we only do organized events at the farm as of now. Following Pranahfarm's social media accounts are the best way as of now to keep a track of the progress and events. On Instagram or FB.
More on the next chapter.
-Arun & Divya(Founders of Pranahfarm)
+91 9148016397
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