A trip to an Eco Farm
Usually,
I hesitate to write (publicly) about my travels or anything. I usually hesitate
until something really inspiring comes along the way. Most of what I write ends
up in its rightful place in the recycling bin and then in the shredder or
simply in the junk box on my computer (press shift and delete together).
Little did I know
what was in store when I started for the Wada farm with my friends and teachers
from Royal College, Mira road. After the usual traffic jams in Mumbai, we were
out of the city and cruising towards the farm when I started noticing the
western ghats mountain on one side. As we moved further away from Mumbai and
into the countryside, the environment became serene and beautiful. After a 87
km journey on the expressway, in about 2 hours 15mins our bus finally took a halt
and broke us from inertia. We were at the ECO FARM.
Away from all the
hustle and bustle of the city, into the wilderness, lay this Eco farm managed
by Mr. Hussain and his brother.
As you enter the
farms you see a path beautifully decorated using various crop plantations on
both the sides.
You see crops of
different types planted around you, it all starts with capsicum-Pepper plant,
as you move further along the path you see Snake gourd, Drum stick tree, Green
Beans, Manila Tamarind, Fenugreek, Lemon Grass, Coconut, Guava, and Cauliflower
planted and then in the middle of the farm, out of surprise, lies a huge Solar
Cooker, Advanced Eco Solar cooker if you may.
Unlike the other
conventional bulky ugly box type solar cookers this one looks interesting, is
easy to assemble and does not require a lot of maintenance.
All you have to do
is, Place the cooker on the holder, tilt the curvature of the instrument to
focus the sunlight at the cooker and wait for the sun to do all the work.
The only downside
you have on this cooker is that you have to change the focus of the rays after
every 15mins due to the rotation of the Earth.
He then showed us
VERMI COMPOSTING, the benefits of vermin culture and how the earthworm is
associated as the farmer’s bestfried.
After this, Mr.
Hussain took us further into the farm to show us more crop plantations.
He introduced us to different types of
plants like Basil, Aloe Vera, Fenugreek, Coriander, Green Beans, Areca Nut,
Indian Plum (Ber), Gourd, Pink Pepper, Mother – In – Law’s Tongue, Hibiscus,
Malabar Nut Tree (Adusa), Money Plant, Lemon Grass, Guava, Mango, Banana,
Cauliflower, Coconut, Cabbage, White Brinjal, Hybrid Brinjal, Drum Stick Tree,
Lemon, Manila Tamarind, Snake Guard, Capsicum, Onion, Chili, Garlic, Hybrid
Tomato, Desi Tomato etc.
After the tour we
had an hour long break in which we were served “Khichadi” prepared in the Solar
Cooker.
And post lunch there was a small seminar
followed by Q and A in which we were asked about different measures we could and would take at individual levels to try and help the environment.
Written by Anish Nagpal.
