A trip to an Eco Farm

                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.