The Benefits of Miyawaki Forests

Namaskaram!

I was introduced to the Miyawaki Method four or five years back. My first Miyawaki forest was planted in January 2018. Shortly before that, I studied about this method. At that point of time, I did not desire anything beyond putting up a forest and raising trees that were under threat of extinction. But today, if you observe, I harvest as much as an average farmer does. And I get it not by doing any kind of plantation farming but by ordinary means. If a person utilizes his/her ten-cent plot a little imaginatively to raise a Miyawaki forest, he/she will get all that is required to meet the demands of the family, through organic farming. 

Let me explain in detail. I got introduced to a farmer named Abraham Varkey at Udumbanchola near Munnar. He has a B. Sc. degree in agriculture, and follows the Subhash Palekar method of zero- budget farming. That is, he uses the dung and urine of indigenous cows to raise his crops. Simultaneously, he has studied Dr Christine Jones’s instructions about permitting liquid carbon to enter the soil. He cultivates cardamom without using chemical fertilizers of pesticides. There are two advantages to this method. One, it requires very little labour because the plot and the forest are left undisturbed. The only human intervention comes in the form of clearing the ground closest to the cardamom vines. The rest of the forest is left intact. It grows when it rains and dissolves into the soil when it is summer. In this manner, the soil becomes fertile. 

Let me show you the fruits and vegetables I have harvested from here. This is an organically cultivated papaya. No fertilizers were used. The plant grows on the border of the forest. It puts out a lot of fruits. This is turmeric that grew after we buried the rhizome in the middle of the forest. Custard apples. There are about 20 items in my list of crops I harvested from this plot. The most important one is banana plant. The plantain plants multiply and produce fruits. Our effort is needed only for the banana plant for which we have to dig deep pits to plant the saplings. But no other labour is required. No fertilizers either.

Ginger. Curry leaves. Elephant yam. Colocasia. They don’t need much sunlight. Bush pepper. African bird’s eye chilly. Pineapple. Passion fruits that grow on vines that are trained over all the trees. Bats eat half of them and we get the rest. Indian borage. Outside Kerala, it is cooked along with rice as in vegetable biriyani. It is also used to make pakkavada and chammanthi. Holy basil. It is used in making curries in Thailand. East Indian lemongrass. Star fruit. Bilimbi. It is used to make pickles. It grows profusely in the forest here. Jack. A small one growing on the side of the forest.

There are forests on all three sides. So it gets sunlight only from one side. Lime tree that puts out a lot of fruits. Betel leaf. You just have to train the vine on a tree. You will be able to harvest as many leaves as you want. Long pepper. It is medicine. Fresh mint. It grows really well in garden plots. Guava. Watery rose apple. Ground nut plant. This curry leaf plant sprouted from seeds dropped by birds. After the seeds pass through the bird’s stomach, they gain great immunity and will sprout quickly when they fall into the ground.

None of these required any effort on our part. We merely planted them. Nothing further was done. They grew well because of the fertility of the soil. How does soil become fertile? One, because of the element of carbon. Two, because of microbes, earthworms, small insects and so on. Even the droppings of grasshoppers may contain beneficial microbes. That is the reason why we underscore the importance of indigenous plants. They will attract indigenous insects. We will show you the colour of the soil here. This place was just gravel all over. Even now, there are patches of gravelly soil. But when leaves and earthworms came to this plot, they brought about this growth. This is possible in any plot. If you plant any kind of sapling and leave it undisturbed, it will grow.

Abraham Varkey talks about Dr Christine Jones’s stand. If plants or trees do not get enough sunlight, Dr Jones recommends that we prune the branches and leave them in the soil. As long as plants grow, they absorb carbon from the environment. When their growth stops, the levels of carbon they absorb and expel will be nearly equal. But when we cut the branches, new sprouts will appear. More carbon will get absorbed. Simultaneously, the carbon trapped in the cut branches will slowly seep into the soil. We should not burn the pruned branches but let them decompose on their own. This will increase the fertility of the soil. And all these plants will grow.

Friends, there is nothing more to think about. If you have a ten-cent plot, you can raise all the vegetables that your family wants. If you have a five-cent plot, make a small house and use the rest of the ground to grow plants. It is not at all difficult to produce the fruits and vegetables you need. They will be of good quality too. You need not worry about destroying pests. If the soil is fertile, just plant saplings. The pests will get controlled in the natural way. You will get whatever you want from your plot. If you are not convinced still, please come here. I shall show you my Miyawaki forest. And that will convince you. But you must accept this as a viable farming method. It will be good for our future.