00:00These serene looking farms are taking over Tamil Nadu.
00:05It's called Molo culture and is an efficient way to produce large amounts of a single crop.
00:13But it can be terrible in many other ways.
00:16It needs fertilizer that's expensive and also depletes soil quality severely.
00:22Single crops don't support a wide variety of insects and need even more fertilizers.
00:28And these are risky as the climate changes.
00:31If the crop fails, everything is lost.
00:35But don't lose hope.
00:42There are small and medium scale farmers trying to flip this on its head.
00:46A different approach is showing great results on many of those fronts.
00:51Meet Shanmugasundaram from Erode.
00:55I've been doing this farming for over 30 years now.
00:59I often try new things to look to discover some new ideas in agriculture.
01:03My latest experiment is this plantain forest.
01:08Shanmugasundaram stumbled upon a method called integrated farming.
01:13It means that he now has goats, chicken, cows, fish and a wide variety of crops that now
01:21work as pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.
01:24It all started when Shanmugasundaram's plantain leaves got sick.
01:29He had heard that some fish have a superpower the plants needed.
01:40Fish faeces is known as sludge and can be used for plantain farming.
01:44I tried it and it gave me a good result, so I thought of using fish faeces as fertilizer.
01:50This is how I started smart integrated farming, which didn't only help my plantain farming,
01:55but also all the other crops that I started to grow.
02:01All the pieces of the farm are held together by fish waste at the center of the puzzle.
02:05There are six tanks on the farm, some for the fish and some for the ammonia heavy waste.
02:11This water is treated and sent into the soil.
02:14Above the fish are ducks and chickens whose waste feeds the fish.
02:18Shanmugasundaram found that far from depleting soil, like monoculture farms do, this kind
02:23of farming improved soil quality.
02:25And this was confirmed by studies on integrated farming.
02:30Earlier the carbon content would be only around 0.4%, but now it has improved to 2.5%.
02:37Earlier our yield was around 10 to 12 kilograms, but it is around 15 to 20 kilograms.
02:43So we can literally witness the progress in soil fertility and the results are spectacular.
02:53Employees on this farm work to use all parts of the plantain tree in an effort to reduce
02:57farm waste and increase profit.
02:59They make and sell laddus, cookies, chips and brownies from various parts of the plant.
03:06Studies across India show that integrated farming is one of the best ways to stay resilient
03:11as the climate changes.
03:13Farmers are less reliant on external inputs like chemical fertilizers.
03:16Since so much is recycled on the farm, multiple and diverse crops reduce the risk of failure.
03:22They also support insects and biodiversity.
03:25And they have higher yields.
03:27Best of all, when carbon content in the soil goes up, carbon in the atmosphere goes down.
03:33Many like Rahul from Pudakuttai, who also gets inputs from Shanmugasundaram, are joining
03:38the trend.
03:39He started integrated farming in 2023 and he has noticed another benefit.
03:47We have guava, fig, amla, coconut and 7 acres of groundnut.
03:52So by doing integrated farming, I am earning from crops and also there is an additional
03:57income from fish culture too.
03:59Unlike crop rotation, in which I was earning only once in a year, this helps me to earn
04:04monthly and on a regular basis.
04:08Integrated farming in India can and has raised the profitability of small farms by almost
04:12three times.
04:13And such numbers make Rahul optimistic about the future and he says he is already seeing
04:18effects.
04:19It's been 8 months since we started integrated farming.
04:24Before that we were using a bow well motor to pump underground water.
04:28That gave us some results.
04:29In integrated farming, we use water that itself is an enriched bio-manure.
04:35So we can see the drastic difference in the result from 8 months ago until now.
04:44But there are real challenges to integrated farming.
04:47Building the shed, tanks and system can be expensive upfront, especially for small or
04:52medium scale farmers.
04:54And seeking veterinary services for the farmed animals can add to it.
04:59Since it's a new approach, there is also a lack of knowledge and skill sharing between
05:03farmers as well as a fear of change from old systems that are better known and supported
05:08by governments.
05:09But those who have started this method do see potential and hope that others get on
05:15board too.
05:23If this method reaches every single farmer, then agriculture would be completely organic.
05:28All the fruits, vegetables and meat that we produce are healthy for all of us.
05:33In my opinion, integrated farming can help in building a healthy life for our future
05:38generation.
05:3986% of farmers in India are small or mid-scale.
05:48With the right support, access to finance and skills, there is a scope for such farming
05:52to benefit farmers and the environment.
05:58For more UN videos visit www.un.org
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