Bhumi Devi

I walk out into the millet field as the light breaks into day. Looking at the stalks that emerge out of the earth, holding the heads of grain as though they were a humble offering to the continuum of all life, and it is self-evident – that as life begets life, the soil I tread upon with my bare feet is life itself. It is alive no doubt, and in countless forms, parts and appendages, including you and I!

I slowly sink my fingers into a handful of earth and carefully lift it up in my hand. There are worms peering out of it, ants crawling over and around it as they look for places to burrow new tunnels, root fibres holding it all together, and other bacteria, micro-organisms, fungi, small insects and mycilium, whose presence I can smell yet barely see. It is a moment of delight! Delight in the realisation that the very life in the soil is the fertility of the soil and that life is a divinity.

The thought of contaminating this divine life-pool with deadly, toxic chemicals, in the playing out of intemperate greed that demands more, and more in blatant ignorance of Mother Nature’s ever-present, ever-giving abundance, is heart-breaking. And I wish that we would find our unity in a sense of protecting that which sustains all life as we know it.

This rich soil ecology has come about simply by returning organic matter.This is what happens in nature – leaves, weeds, grasses, branches fall to the ground decomposing into rich organic matter, this is the cycle of life.

why don’t you try collecting leaves and mulching around the plants that you have growing and observe after a month the quality of the soil under the decaying leaves, you will see it for yourself.

However many chemicals or organic preps we add to the soil, returning organic matter is the first and last technique of any farming.